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Spotlight on Crabtree Brewing Company
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Today the Denver Examiner offers another in a series of reports focusing on one of the nearly 100 craft breweries in the state of Colorado. These brewery spotlights will be featured a couple of times a month on the Northern Colorado Beer Examiner. This time, we head north to the growing community of Greeley Colorado to a fairly new brew house hidden away in a remote corner of town called the Crabtree Brewing Company. This small brewery was founded just two years ago in 2006 by Jeff Crabtree, a Greeley resident who’s love for homebrewing led him to take the plunge into the world of commercial craft brewing.
If you’ve never heard of Crabtree Brewing, you might have easily missed this brewery. It’s tucked away in the northeast corner of Greeley right beside the railroad tracks. The brewery is located in a warehouse complex near the end of 3rd Street just off 6th Avenue. A small courtyard trellis with several hop vines growing out from the building and a small sign tell you that you’ve found a unique brewery. Painted on the front door is a message that says, “If we’re here, We’re open”. The brewery offers free beer tastings Wednesday through Saturday from 1 to 6pm and the public is welcome to come sample their wares.
Most of us are used to seeing the larger craft breweries in the state like New Belgium, Avery, Left Hand and Odells. The second you step into the Crabtree Brewing Company, you know you’ve found a cozy start-up operation. Here, you won’t find a bunch of employees each tied to one of dozens of jobs, but rather you are greeted by the owner Jeff Crabtree and his wife Stephanie. You’ll probably also see their young son and the family dog playing in the front of the lobby. This is truly a family run operation.
Stephanie was working the front near the beer taps. Today, they were offering up to 5 different brews for their customers to sample. There was a small group of locals already inside sipping on beer. The place was decorated up for the 4th of July holiday celebration they had earlier in the week at the brewery. Stephanie was more than happy to show me around the place and tell me all about their brewing operation.
The entire brewhouse can be seen right from the front door. You see a mash tun and a brewing vessel capable of creating 410 gallon batches. The equipment was purchased from closed down or existing breweries and put to use for their start-up operations. Behind this equipment was a series of 6 fermentation and conditioning tanks, each capable of holding a 410 gallon batch. Within the same room and next to the fermentation tanks was their bottling line. Crabtree sells most of their beer in 12oz 6-packs with the addition of the occasional 22oz bottle and kegs.
Jeff Crabtree then came out to talk with me. Jeff is the owner, operator, head brewer and jack of all trades of this company. He told me that he and his wife typically brew up six 410 gallon batches a month to fill orders for dozens of Colorado stores and restaurants throughout the state. At this point, Crabtree Brewing Company beers are only sold in Colorado but Jeff has plans to eventually spread out to other states. Expansion is something that is on his mind but will happen at some point when he feels he is ready.
Jeff is a die-hard homebrewer who started making beer in his Greeley home just 8 years earlier. He is entirely self-taught in brewing beer and has worked up several recipes that he now brews in his start-up business. Some of their featured beers are:- Twisted Creek Wheat – their first brew created. A light and refreshing wheat beer that is starting to get noticed at the local beer festivals.
- Box Car Brown – one he calls their flagship beer and is the most popular drink. A satisfying brown ale with a nice malty taste.
- Jeff’s Pale Ale – another classic pale ale that goes down smooth. I tried a free sample of all of these beers today during the tour. Quite enjoyable.
There were two other beers available that I didn’t have time to try, their Oatmeal Stout and a big Belgian beer called Golden 8 that had over 9% alcohol. Their Oatmeal Stout is a contract beer that they make exclusively for a local Greeley pub called the Hobnobber Tavern on the west side of town. They keep some on tap at the brewery as well for others to try out. Jeff also makes the occasional specialty beers called the Brewer’s Reserve. These beers come out for holidays and special events.
Jeff’s operation is working hard to get noticed. It takes time to build up a solid reputation and grow customer demand for product. If you ever want to see a new brewery grow from its beginnings then you should come visit Crabtree Brewing and see it for yourself.
This is exactly how most craft breweries get their start. The love of homebrewing turned into a passion that converted itself into a business. Many Coloradoans have yet to discover this hidden gem of the Rockies but hopefully soon that will change. Their beer is mighty good!
I spent some time talking with Jeff about the business of beer and homebrewing. He is a wealth of information on the subject of beer. Jeff stated that anyone interested in the homebrewing hobby can get started with very little investment. “Most of the equipment you need is probably already in your home”. A brewpot can easily be made from a converted old brewery keg. Jeff suggested anyone who wants to get into homebrewing to study hard for at least a year before trying to dive deep into brewing. Turning that hobby into a business, however, is not for the feint of heart.Tough economic times have already affected Jeff’s business. The price of hops has risen from $2 to $3 a pound early last year to well over $27 a pound this year. The average price of a 6-pack had to be raised about $1.50 due to this and also due to malt price increases. Jeff worries that the hop shortage may push hop prices as high as $40 a pound. It may be tough to sell a six pack at nearly $11 to $12 at that point.
Hopefully, new hop fields that were planted this year in the Pacific Northwest will begin yielding more hops in the next 2 to 3 years and lower prices. But before then, things will remain tight on supply. Jeff said that smaller breweries really have to fight to get their supplies as the bigger breweries get first priority from the growers. After the tour, I opted to create my own 6-pack from the stock they had on hand in their cooler. The brewery also offers bomber bottles, growlers and kegs for visitors to purchase and take home.
Jeff and Stephanie invite everyone to come visit the Crabtree Brewing Company and sample their fine ales. It’s open 4 days a week from 1 to 6pm Wednesday through Saturday. The brewery is located at 625 3rd Street #D in Greeley, CO. Phone: 970-356-0516 or email: info@crabtreebrewing.com
For more info: Crabtree Brewing Co.
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