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Brewer Eric Metzger and Troy Casey inside the current bar and brewing facility located in South Glenwood. Casey Brewing is set to open a new tasting room in the old Lost Cajun space in downtown Glenwood in the coming months.
Chelsea Self / Post Independent -
Troy Casey pours a brew for a quick tasting in the brewing cellar at the Casey Brewing & Blending location in South Glenwood on Tuesday afternoon.
Chelsea Self / Post Independent -
Brewer Eric Metzger mixes grain for the IPA that will be served in the new downtown Glenwood location.
Chelsea Self / Post Independent
Casey Brewing & Blending brews its beers in south Glenwood Springs, and now the local company plans on serving them at a new downtown taproom.
When Troy Casey quit his job at Coors, the entrepreneur moved to the Roaring Fork Valley, and in 2014 opened Casey Brewing & Blending at 3421 Grand Avenue.
“We are going to be celebrating our five-year anniversary there this July,” Casey said. “That is where we do all of our production currently, and we have a tasting room there where we do limited tours and tastings.”
Utilizing locally sourced ingredients, Casey Brewing & Blending strictly produces Belgian-style sour beers fermented and aged in specialty oak barrels.
However, when the company opens its second location in the space formerly occupied by The Lost Cajun, it plans on rolling out more traditional beers such as IPAs and stouts, too.
The Lost Cajun’s Glenwood Springs location announced on Mardi Gras Day, March 5, that it was closing.
“I was writing and formulating a business plan for a second tasting room that would allow us to be open more often to the public and showcase some different beers,” Casey explained of plans quickly turned to the 711 Grand Ave. storefront.
“We were trying to find a place that would allow us to start a second tasting room, where we could have normal hours and operate much like a traditional tasting room,” he said.
While Casey Brewing’s south Glenwood location does offer tastings, it does so in a limited capacity. Instead, its focus is more on manufacturing.
The forthcoming Seventh Street location will not have brewing on site, but instead will focus exclusively on bringing locals and tourists alike together over an assortment of suds.
“We are really excited to be able to make new beers that our customers have been asking for, and more of those traditional styles that they have been looking for from us,” Casey said of the variety of beers on tap and in bottles that the new downtown location plans on serving.
“What I am really excited about is being able to bring not only those beers to the public and our great city, but also to bring a lot of my friends’ beers up from breweries mostly along the Front Range,” he said.
Located along Glenwood’s historic Restaurant Row, Casey said that he wanted to focus on beer exclusively, but he invites customers to bring in food from any area eatery.
“We won’t have food, although you will be able to bring your own food into our facility,” Casey said. “We never wanted to serve food, and we didn’t want to compete with all of the amazing restaurants down there.”
Casey anticipates completing construction and obtaining the necessary licenses and permits by mid-summer, and will announce an official opening date shortly thereafter.
“We’ll have beers on draft and bottles to go. …We hope to have a great indoor environment and we’ll have a patio as well,” Casey said. “We’re really going to have something that is unique to the downtown core area.”
Additionally, the city’s business community quickly praised the news of the local brewing company’s expansion.
“We’re thrilled that Casey Brewing is opening a new tasting room, which will add even more vibrancy to our thriving downtown,” Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association President & CEO Angie Anderson said.
“Not only will it be a great new place for visitors and locals, but the new location provides Casey Brewing the opportunity to really showcase their award-winning craft. We wish them great success.”
