Visited on: Thursday 14th June 2018
Bob Thompson
This is another brewery whose guiding hand first started in home brewing. Brandon Capps was participating in an electrical engineering degree at Georgia Tech. Part of the course was at Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser) as an intern electrician. He found the beer scene in Georgia very restrictive and was always on the lookout for beers from elsewhere in the country.
He moved to Colorado in 2015 and his venture in Arvada started in 2016 when he opened the taproom and brewery. That year he produced 400 barrels (bbls).
He expected in 2017 to brew not less than 2,000 (bbls). His beers are very individualistic and in his own words "I'm going to do what I want to do". He is very influenced by New England IPAs, especially those from breweries in Vermont where his girlfriend hails from.
In fact most of his beers are bordering on the experimental as can be seen from the list below. Another feature of the brewing is his use of Kombucha. This is normally drank as a tea. It is fermented and in the pubs of it is often served as a near-alcoholic drink mixed with fruit flavourings. Here Brandon makes a true beer from Kombucha, we didn’t try it.
The taproom is situated in a back street a block from the central part of Arvada Olde Town. The frontage is all glass which certainly provides a lot of light. The room is of medium size with the L-shaped bar counter on the right side with the usual stools. Beyond that is a small area offering merchandise. Along the back wall is a service counter from the kitchen.
Turning to the left of the room we found a stillage containing four wooden barrels of maturing beer. The left wall is painted red and has a number of framed paintings on it.
The tables are wooden in the biergarten style along with accompanying bench seats. There are also some upright wooden barrels serving as tables with tall seats alongside.
There were ten ales on offer and these were as follows: Moped (5.0%); a Belgian Wit with blood orange; Olde Town Regular (5.0%), a Kölsch, also described as a German Landbier; Single by Choice - Ekuanot (5.0%), a single hop (Ekuanot) pale ale; Coriolis Effect (6.5%), a New England pale ale; Flora (7.5%), a dry hopped sour ale and Dyad (7.5%), a Kombucha sour ale.
There was also: East Coast Transplant (8.5%), a Vermont style double IPA; Better Together (6.5%), an IPA with citra and mosaic hops; Paul (5.0%), a New England pale ale and Pay it Forward (7.8%), a double dry hopped IPA. Most of these beers were cloudy suggesting they are unfiltered and possibly unfined.
Linda and I tried five of these and our thoughts are below: Better Together had a light body with citrus flavours, yet not much after-taste. Paul was a soft pale ale with a strong dry after taste. Coriolis Effect had a creamy flavour with citrus notes and a bitter finish. Pay it Forward had a darker, more malt taste and finish. Olde Town Regular, described as Kölsch or Landbier, had a sweet taste and low bitterness. We thought it was more Landbier than Kölsch. Ironically Landbier is often cloudy yet this wasn’t. The rest tried were cloudy.
Although a bit on the far side, we liked the selection of beers we ordered. Don’t be put off by some of the more extreme examples as I’m sure you’ll find enough here to keep you satisfied, recommended.
Important Information:
New Image Brewing Company, 5622 Yukon Street, Arvada 80002. Tel: 770 881 1010
Web: nibrewing.com
Hours: Monday-Wednesday 15.00-22.00; Thursday 11.00-22.00;
Friday-Saturday 11.00-24.00; Sunday 12.00-22.00
In the future you will be able to ride the G line of the RTD suburban network.
It will take less than 20 minutes. Trains will start from Union Station.
At this time (March 2019) it had not started, until then it’s by bus only.
Bus routes serve the Arvada Park-N-Ride by the station. From there go to the railroad tracks on Vance Street. Cross over these tracks and turn left past the rail station. Turn left into Grandview Avenue.
Go past the station and continue to Yukon Street on the right and turn into it. The pub is on the right.