Consolidation in craft continues, this time with a flurry of activity in Colorado. The three different deals include one acquisition and two breweries that are shutting down their brewery and moving production to contract brewing.
Westbound & Down Brewing, located in Idaho Springs west of Denver, has announced that it has acquired Aspen Brewing and Capitol Creek Brewing from High Country Brewing LLC.
The deal includes Aspen Brewing’s 7,000-barrel-capacity production facility, the Aspen Tap brewpub in downtown Aspen, and the Capitol Creek brewpub in Basalt.
Last month it was announced that Dry Dock Brewing, which built a 30,000-square-foot production brewery in Denver 10 years ago was shutting down the brewery and moving production to Great Divide Brewing, also in Denver. The move was described as a “partnership” and not a merger or an acquisition, with both breweries remaining separate companies.
Also announced last month was that Primitive Beer, known for its spontaneous fermentation beers is moving all brewing operations out of their Longmont brewery and contract brew at New Image Brewing Wheat Ridge. Primitive will close their brewery and tasting room and make the move to New Image at the end of the year.