USA, CO: Old Colorado City Brewing kicks of second grand opening serving its own beer

Old Colorado City Brewing opened on in Colorado Springs in late summer, but a series of confounding plumbing issues meant it did so without OCC beers on tap, the Gazette reported on November 12.

That changes Thursday, November 18, as the brewery kicks off a second grand opening serving its own suds.

“What saved us is that we were really lucky to be part of such an amazing and generous community of brewers that was willing to partner with us until we could start brewing on our own system,” said owner Dan Ramos, whose brewery created collaboration brews with Cerberus Brewing, Metric Brewing and Fossil Craft Beer Company to fill the tap void.

Now that OCC brews are flowing, keep an eye out for Belgians made with locally sourced ingredients, and a menu that’s been tweaked to complement the new brews.

“The reason I opened a brewpub is so I could play at being a brewer and indulge in the beers that I love. Our hearts are in Belgium, and that’s what we’ll be focusing on,” Ramos said.

Given that, Taylor Donner was a perfect choice to head the brewing operation. Formerly of Cerberus, Donner took time off to study the craft in Belgium but now is back and putting what he learned to work at OCC.

“He’s just so talented, we’re thrilled to have him putting his creativity to work for us,” Ramos said.

The brewery occupies the west side of a reenvisioned, multiuse building that started life as a grocery store and later housed the nonprofit Junior Achievement USA organization. To the east is CrossFit SoCo.

Ramos, too, began his journey toward brewing wearing a different type of outfit.

He and his wife, Claire, come from a biology background and met when they were studying birds in Alabama. When Claire got her dream job as a wildlife biologist in Colorado, the couple moved west to the Springs in 2013.

Ramos found work in the lab at the then-startup Brewing Sciences Institute in Woodland Park, consulting with brewers all over the world who’d reached out for help making their beers better.

“Back then, it was a pretty small operation. I was the 10th employee they took on” said Ramos, of a company that’s ridden the craft beer boom wave and now employs more than five times that many people. “I loved the work, but I knew that I didn’t want to be in the lab forever. I’m easily bored and always looking for a new challenge.”

A longtime homebrewer who’d fantasized about a life in the beer-making business, Ramos decided to take the plunge in 2017. He set his sights on purchasing the former Backcountry Brewery in Frisco, but the deal wasn’t meant to be.

“After that, when I knew we were serious about this, we looked downtown, we looked all over, because we knew that finding the right spot was going to be critical from a business sense,” Ramos said. “The old Junior Achievement building was the perfect spot. Better than perfect.”

Ramos had hoped to open in July, but those plumbing issues had other plans.

“By the end of that month, I said we’ve got to get our doors open no matter what. We just won’t be able to open with our own beers, which hurt my soul,” he said.

His soul is doing much better these days.

“It feels like we’ve had so many things go wrong, so many hurdles we had to get over, but that’s true for anyone who starts a business like this,” Ramos said. “Now that the brewing system is up and running, the one thing I know I don’t have to worry about anymore is our beer.”

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