If You Go What: Crystal Springs Brewing Co. Where: 657 S. Taylor Ave., Unit E, Louisville When: 4-9 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 1-8 p.m. Saturday Info: 303-665-8888 or crystalspringsbrewing.com

LOUISVILLE — I first visited with Tom Horst in late 2010, several months after he founded Crystal Springs Brewing Co. in his detached garage at his home in Sunshine Canyon.

We spent a delightful few hours talking and sampling beer at a battered tasting table, the garage door open to the warm, pine-scented breeze, while Horst spoke eloquently and humbly about his longtime passion for homebrewing and how much he enjoyed experimenting with his recipes and brewing beer for a wider audience.

I saw that same spark of enthusiasm and passion in Horst’s eyes recently as we sat around another table — this one handsomely constructed from lumber that Horst salvaged while renovating Crystal Springs’ new brewery and taproom, which opened in October in Louisville’s Colorado Technology Center.

The opening of a public taproom and much larger brewery is a key component of Horst’s long-term vision for Crystal Springs, and it affords him the opportunity to pursue even more of the ideas fermenting in his brain.

“I have quite a few recipes over all the years that I’ve homebrewed, and this gives me the space to tinker with some of those,” Horst said. “I just like experimenting.”

Some of those experiments have their roots in the earliest days of Crystal Springs, such as Velvet Shank, a light and refreshingly sour beer that’s fermented in a barrel with Brettanomyces and aged. Horst made a four-gallon batch in 2010 and then “forgot about it” while the beer aged in a carboy for eight months, which, it turns out, is just the right amount of time to achieve that delicate balance of tart and sweet that makes this beer shine.

Horst will tap a Belgian-style cherry Lambic beer later this month that has been aging for two years, and he also he plans to offer four vintages of his excellent Black Saddle Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout, which won the John Hanley Memorial Award at the Colorado State Fair.

His South Ridge Amber is a top-seller in the taproom, as is 13, a complex and fruity IPA that’s built around Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand.

Horst also is working on developing the first beer in his planned Crystal Springs Originals series; based on beers brewed by the original Crystal Springs Brewing and Ice Co., one of Boulder’s first breweries, which operated in the late 1800s.

Horst and brewer Colin Woods currently brew enough beer to “keep the fermenters full” and satisfy the taproom crowd, as well as fulfill Crystal Springs’ current accounts at restaurants and liquor stores around the county, while pursuing his other brewing projects.

Horst’s spouse, Kristy, is the primary designer behind the taproom’s industrial yet homey feel, which features framed photographs of the original Crystal Springs Brewing Co. on the walls, flowers and other thoughtful touches, and a handsome bar top constructed from black walnut.

Though the taproom is usually closed on Sundays, Horst plans to open for all the Broncos’ playoff games — starting with Denver’s matchup this week against the San Diego Chargers — when he’ll bring in a food truck.

There’s also a large room upstairs, with a television and games, that’s available for private events and parties, along with a smaller room that Horst plans to turn into a classroom for presentations and beer-education events.

“We have more dreams at this point than we do time,” Horst says with a gleam in his eye.

Contact Tom Wilmes at boulderbeerguy@gmail.com