The next time you’re sitting on a brewery patio enjoying a craft beer, know the ease in which we embrace this past time came in large part because of two Colorado breweries. We’re talking about the groundbreaking operations Wynkoop Brewing Company in Denver and Phantom Canyon Brewing in Colorado Springs.
Colorado Beer, the Beginning
In the 1980s Colorado reeled from the oil and gas bust. At the time lower downtown was a rough area filled with blocks of aging historic buildings abandoned by owners, and occupied by the unhoused. Coors Field didn’t exist and there were no upscale restaurants or shops. The area was not the bustling center of culture and transportation as it is today.
Beer-wise, Adolph Coors Golden Brewery, or simply Coors to most, reigned supreme. Only sold west of the Mississippi, Coors was one of the biggest beer producers in the country, having started in 1973 under the name Schueler & Coors Golden Brewery.
In the 1970s, a wave of new residents came to Colorado, drawn by its free-spirited, Western lifestyle. One of these people went by the name Charlie Papazian, an elementary school teacher and home brewing aficionado. By 1983 he and Charlie Matzen, another teacher and brewing enthusiast, organized beer-focused socials, founded the Colorado Homebrewers Association, and started the Great American Beer Festival (GABF). The first GABF was held in Boulder in 1982, with 24 breweries, 47 beers, and 200 attendees. By comparison, in 2023, the event had 2,063 breweries, 9,298 beers, and 40,000 attendees.
Craft Beer Starts Shining Through
In 1988, the rumblings of craft brewing were gaining traction and both beer drinkers and Denver residents were ready for something new. A group of friends, Jerry Williams; John Hickenlooper, Mark Shifler, and Russell Scherer, bought the J.S. Brown Mercantile Building, an edifice built in 1899 for John Sidney Brown’s wholesale grocery business. The team’s plan also involved edible goods, but instead of solids, the friends decided to turn it into a microbrewery, which wasn’t common at the time.
The five-story building offered a lot of historical aspects, including the original pressed-tin ceilings, hardwood floors, and strong brick and sandstone foundation. It also had a lot of remodeling projects. After a lot of work, the four opened Wynkoop Brewing Company. The opening day was packed with people clamoring to get a taste of Colorado’s first microbrewery.
The brewpub’s first beers included English-style cask ales, as well as its flagship, Rail Yard Ale, an amber beer named for Union Station across the street, which at the time was in major disrepair. Eventually Wynkoop added Patty’s Chili Beer, a quaffable lager fermented with ancho chiles and named for Patty Calhoun, editor-in-chief of Westword.Next came the Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout, an April Fool’s Day joke that went viral before going viral was something food and beverage could do. Both beers remain on the menu today, and prove just as popular.
A Beer Revolution
Wynkoop opened the floodgates across Colorado both to drinkers who craved a flavorful beer and entrepreneurs wanting to make it. It’s easy to see how Wynkoop became the catalyst for breweries like Odell in 1989, Flying Dog in 1990, New Belgium in 1991, Mountain Sun in 1993, Bristol in 1994, and Avery in 1998, to name a handful. In 1985, there were 100 microbreweries across the country, a decade later that number topped 1,000 itself. Today, Colorado has more than 400 craft breweries.
In 1991, just a few short years after Wynkoop opened, Hickenlooper bought the rundown 1901 Cheyenne Building in Colorado Springs. After a revamp, he opened Phantom Canyon in 1993. The three-story building offers stellar views of Pikes Peak and the Rocky Mountains. The actual Phantom Canyon, located north of Cañon City, can be accessed by an eponymous road that twists and turns over what was once a narrow gauge rail line, the Florence and Cripple Creek Railway.
Phantom Canyon Brewry’s flagship beers, still on the menu year-round, include the Alpenglow Wheat Beer, Box Car Red Ale, Streamliner IPA, and the Dos Lunas Lager, which earned its named from the Cheyenne Chief Two Moons, whose portrait is carved into the corner of the building’s facade.
Wynkoop’s New Legacy
Today, the Wynkoop is helmed by Kat Hess, a Boston native who studied property management in college. Now one of the state’s few female brewers, she became interested in beer when she and her husband moved to Colorado and lived around the corner from a bar that had over 100 beers on tap.
“It was a really eye-opening experience for me, I thought beer was just a few big breweries,” said Hess. “That’s when I realized there’s a lot to beer and it’s really cool, so I wanted to give it a try.”
Knowing nothing about professional brewing, she persuaded Pikes Peak Brewing Company in Monument to hire her to clean kegs part time. She moved to working on the canning line to cellaring over the next year and a half.
“The brewing industry is very much ‘start from the bottom and work your way up,’” said Hess.
She worked as cellarperson at Red Leg Brewing Company, returning to Pikes Peak Brewing Company in 2021 as brewing supervisor. In 2023, Hess got her diploma at the World Brewing Academy Program and joined Phantom Canyon as head brewer at the beginning of 2024. She moved to the Wynkoop as head brewer in April, on the tails of their 2023 GABF Silver medal for a coffee-infused brew called Kurt’s Mile High Malt.
“I feel both honored and blessed to be part of such amazing beer history. It’s been so cool learning how Wynkoop helped to shape the beer industry,” said Hess. “We’ve had so many influential brewers who have been a part of Wynkoop and I am privileged to be among them.”
The Future of Phantom Canyon Brewing Co.
Phantom Canyon Brewing Co. is now helmed by Brian Koch, a career Air Force vet who wrote his own curriculum to learn brewing. Koch got sucked into a friend’s home brewing projects while living in Montana decades ago and inherited his equipment when he moved, letting him continue to experiment.
“Where I really went off the deep end with brewing is when I moved to Colorado Springs. Phantom Canyon sparked my love of different styles of beer,” said Koch. “There was very little variety out there, and you couldn’t get these beers in the supermarket.”
This was in 2005. He joined a home brew club, Brew Brothers of Pikes Peak, which Hess had also been a member of at one time.
“Those guys really helped me and taught me how to clean things properly, what the beer actually should taste like, with recipe formulation, and how to be a beer judge,” said Koch. “That continued to snowball for the next 15 years, until I got out of the military.”
Koch entered a program with the Department of Defense called SkillBridge, allowing active duty military members to intern with a local business for the last six months of their service. Koch essentially wrote his training plan to work at a friend’s brewery, speeding up the process of learning advanced parts of the job like cellaring, brewing, packaging, and lab work.
“I basically got a crash course in all the facets of brewing in six months, retired from the Air Force, and they hired me the next day,” said Koch. Koch worked at Kros Strain Brewing in La Vista, Nebraska, Caboose Brewing in Vienna, Virginia and Cerberus Brewing Company before coming on as head brewer at Phantom Canyon this summer.
The Past Meets the Future of Craft Beer
Though both brewers know they have big shoes to fill and traditions to uphold, they’ve worked their way up “squeeging plenty of floors,” and have earned their titles. Hess hopes to create some fun, innovative, and collaborative brews, partner with charity organizations, and host beer dinners. Koch wants to expand the lager program, create experimental beers, and create educational opportunities for future brewers.
“Being the head brewer at Phantom Canyon is a profound responsibility and a privilege. It means I get to honor the history and heritage of craft brewing in Colorado while creating something new and exciting,” said Koch. “I take pride in the fact that we’ve been a part of the community for so long, a community that as a veteran, means a lot to me, and I’m committed to keeping that spirit alive as we grow and adapt to the changing landscape of craft beer.”
In 2010, Wynkoop merged with Breckenridge Brewery to form the holding company titled Breckenridge-Wynkoop LLC. But despite the new regime, a lot feels exactly the same as when it all started. Today Wynkoop and Phantom Canyon remain Colorado institutions known for revolutionizing brewing in Colorado and across the country. Drop in for a pint and taste a bit of Colorado’s history in a pint glass.
Visit Wynkoop Brewing Company Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to midnight, and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. 1634 18th St., Denver, wynkoop.com
Visit Phantom Canyon Brewing Company Thursday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., and Sunday through Wednesday from 11 a.m. to midnight. 2 E. Pikes Peak Ave., Colorado Springs, phantomcanyon.com
