For well over 100 years Colorado has been a center for beer brewing. Over the decades tastes have changed and now Colorado is as well known for the many craft breweries that call the state home as the large historic brewers like the Coors family. A plethora of small-scale operations have cropped up throughout the state, offering unique local tastes at boutique restaurants and roadside bars.

Residents and visitors of the Granby area now have a new choice for to quality locally brewed beer, the Never Summer Brewing Company. Kirk Main, owner and operator of the home brewing/wine making store Everybody’s Brewing It in Granby operate the Never Summer Brewing Company out of the same store front. Main recently received his liquor license from the State of Colorado and installed a small bar with seating for patrons and is offering delicious small batch beer on tap.

Grand County has more than a few local breweries, though most are centered near the Town of Winter Park. Following the departure of the Grand Lake Brewery from Grand County several years ago the northern portions of the County have been lacking in locally produced suds. Main, who has been brewing for his own consumption since the early 1990s says that beer is his passion.

ON TAP

The Never Summer Brewing Company’s bar and tasting room currently offers five varieties of beer on tap with a sixth coming soon. Currently on offer at Never Summer Brewing is: Wiley Rye-Oatey Pale Ale, Up River Nut Brown Ale, Chocolate Covered Cherry Stout, Bowen Peak IPA and Bowen Peak IPA II. Main is currently brewing and plans to have available very soon a new beer he is trying out called Kolsch Ale, a German style light summer beer with a light bitter character. Main also plans to begin brewing his own root beer for patrons who prefer a non-alcoholic choice of drink.

The Wiley Rye-Oatey Pale Ale is a delicious dry hopped beer with a touch of rye and oats. The Up River Nut Brown Ale is light and summery, made for easy drinking with comparably low alcohol content. Main’s Chocolate Covered Cherry Stout is a thick heady beer with hints of chocolate and the sweet sour aroma of Montmorency cherries. The two IPAs offered at Never Summer Brewing are, like most IPAs, higher in alcohol content, clocking in a just under eight percent. Both IPAs are dry hopped with the IPA II having more of a larger like character while the Bowen Peak IPA provides a slightly malty flavor.

THE PROCESS

All beers served at the Never Summer Brewing Company are brewed in-house by Main in small batches. Each batch takes about two to three weeks from the time Main begins heating the grains that provide the beer’s flavor to when the libation is ready to be tapped and poured into a glass.

The recipes Main uses are a mix of standard practices and his own creations. “Pale ales, IPAs, stouts, they kind of have style guidelines to go by. I stay within those and get ideas from other recipes and throw something in. I have a pretty extensive cooking background and try to know my ingredients and what things will go well together.”

Prices at the Never Summer Brewing Company vary depending on the type of beer you looking for and the size of your drink. Tasters go for $2 to $2.50 while pints range from $4.50 to $5. Main also offers growlers for purchase and growler fills for $14 or $15. Main says he plans to start offering taster flights where patrons can sample multiple different beers in small taster glasses.

BEER CULTURE

“People want beer that tastes good and has flavor to it,” Main said. “Craft brewing is kind of a subculture. The people coming in enjoy talking about beer and other breweries. There is a lot more beer tourism too because there are so many breweries, people seek it out.”

Beers from the Never Summer Brewing Company will be offered to visitors of the Granby Fourth of July festivities through the wine and beer garden being put on this year by the Granby Chamber of Commerce. Main also plans to make the tour of Grand County this summer with appearances at the Winter Park Beer Festival and the Spirit of the Lake Brews and Crews event in Grand Lake. He hopes to scale his production up enough to begin selling beer to local restaurants and liquor stores as well.

The Never Summer Brewing Company is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 7 p.m. and is located at 62 East Agate Avenue in Granby, within Everybody’s Brewing It. Stop in this summer and enjoy the top quality small batch local beers offered by the Never Summer Brewing Company. You won’t be disappointed.