Denver brewery returns from the dead with new owners

Despite being hobby homebrewers and longtime craft beer enthusiasts, Aaron Uhl and Dan Colbourne had never visited Renegade Brewing Co. in Denver before this spring.

For months prior, the two Coloradans had been prospecting locations to open a new brewery. When they heard about Renegade’s plans to close, they decided it was time to pop in for a pint.

The vibe and sense of community in the taproom won them over almost immediately and by July, they had inked a deal with the previous owner to purchase the spot at 925 W 9th Ave., along with the brewery’s recipes, equipment, website and other intellectual property.

“What Aaron and I were looking for was something that had a taproom-centric setup, but did not have distribution. We do not want distribution,” Colbourne said. “As we talked about opening organically, we felt it made much more sense with an established presence, an established clientele, and something that had a brand with history that we could take and build on.”

Renegade Brewing Co., originally founded in 2011, tentatively plans to reopen on Aug. 17 under the same name and new ownership. Uhl has brewed professionally in Colorado since 2018, most recently as the proprietor of Uhl’s Brewing Co., which operated in Boulder from 2020 to 2023. Colbourne currently works as a CFO with a background in business acquisitions.

At first, Renegade’s taps will serve guest beers from popular breweries along the Front Range, including some of Uhl’s previous collaborators like River North Brewery, WestFax Brewing Co. and Goldspot Brewing Co. The owners plan to replace the Renegade brewhouse with a new, 10-barrel brewing system and ditch many of the onsite fermentation vessels so they can expand the taproom’s footprint. While that is in the works, Uhl hopes to create original beers with some of the aforementioned partners to serve at Renegade.

By this fall, drinkers can expect to find house-made beverages, Colbourne said, including some of Renegade’s original staples. The lineup may also include some non-alcoholic options, he added.

Uhl encourages longtime patrons to stop by and let him know which old Renegade recipes they’d like to see on the new menu. “We’re going to let the community pick their top three beers for the core lineup,” he said.

“The idea is we want to take three months to offer beers across a wide spectrum to see what consumer is looking for,” Colbourne added.

Beer drinkers will see Uhl’s signature styles on the menu as it evolves. Uhl estimates he brewed 275 unique beers during the three years that Uhl Brewing Co. was open, but his specialties are barrel-aged beers, strong ales and dank IPAs. He also spent a stint in Brussels last year where he learned to blend lambics from the pros.

“Our new tagline is ‘styles be damned, nothing is sacred,’” Uhl said.

Both Uhl and Colbourne said there are many details of the new operation that will be worked out in the coming months, and they hope local customers will help shape the brewery’s evolution.

“One thing we noticed when we went there is Renegade is really a neighborhood get-together,” Colbourne said. “That sense of community is something we want to rebuild and leverage.”

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