Anyone who drives along Colorado Highway 72 knows that the road just south of the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant can be a little windy at times, and somewhat desolate. But it’s also a linchpin between Golden, Boulder and other surrounding towns, and the empty land is filling in fast at Candelas, a 1,450-acre master-planned community that will one day include more than 2,000 homes and condos.

And like everyone else in Colorado, the homeowners will need a place to drink beer. Resolute Brewing, which opened in Centennial in 2016, revealed this week that it's building a second location in Candelas, at the intersection of Highway 72 and Candelas Parkway, in the far reaches of Arvada.

“The area in particular that we are moving into is one of the single largest master-planned sites along the Front Range,” says Resolute's Andrew Duvall. “We’re getting in a little early. Candelas doesn’t have a whole lot of people yet — mostly commuters. But there will be, and we are moving in with other cool businesses.”

The pattern is one familiar to Resolute's owners. When the brewery first opened at 7286 South Yosemite Street, there were no other beer makers within a few miles, and that dynamic worked. So when it came time to expand, they decided to bypass “the chaos of downtown Denver,” Duvall says. “When you think of the Denver beer scene, they get a lot of attention and hits on Google and visitors from out of town. But it’s areas like Centennial and Greenwood Village and the DTC where people are living and working or coming home to every day. That gives us a lot of clout with our customers. We do get out-of-towners and people who travel, but we are part of the neighborhood.”

EXPAND A rendering of the new space. Resolute Brewing

The new location, called Resolute Tap and Cellar, won’t include a brewhouse, but it will have brite tanks for storing beer and a barrel-aging cellar where Resolute will focus on sours and other barrel-aged beers. “We are already filling barrels, sacrificing some of our taproom space so that we will be ready to open next year.” Duvall says. “Some of the barrel-aged stuff will be available at both locations, but the specialty stuff will be allocated there.” Many of Resolute’s flagships brews will also be available at the new spot.

The taproom will feature a rounded bar — just like the existing brewery — and open views into a climate-controlled barrel-aging facility, a pet- and family-friendly atmosphere, and a garage door opening onto a large beer-garden patio. There will also be space for food trucks and views of the mountains to the west.

Resolute isn’t the only brewery to target the suburbs for expansion. Grist Brewing now has locations in Highlands Ranch and Lone Tree and plans a third spot in the Sterling Ranch development south of Chatfield Reservoir. Centennial’s Blue Spruce Brewing opened a second location in Littleton last year, and Lariat Lodge Brewing in Evergreen just signed a lease for a second place in Littleton, as well.