First Fort Collins craft brewery reopens after 13 years

The year was 1989. Colorado law had changed just 10 months earlier to allow for the production and sale of beer in one facility.

Wynkoop Brewing Co. opened in Denver shortly thereafter, followed by Carver Brewing in Durango.

In Fort Collins, Anheuser-Busch was the only brewery, though CooperSmith's Pub and Brewery and Odell Brewing Co. were both racing to open for business. In August of that year, Old Colorado Brewing Co. beat them to it, becoming the first microbrewery in Fort Collins and one of the first in Colorado.

Now the grandson of Fort Collins' first craft brewer is bringing his family business back, some 26 years later.

Brandon Neckel was 4 years old when Old Colorado Brewing opened in the Northern Hotel at 172 N. College Ave.

When Old Colorado Brewing first opened, Neckel's grandfather Joe told the Coloradoan, "We've had people in here who have tasted our beer and said that it doesn't taste like beer. Actually it's what real beer tastes like."

The small German-style operation used water, barley, yeast and hops to brew beer, following Reinheitsgebot, or beer purity law. The business closed in 1991, which its owners attributed to increasing rents. In 1993, the brewery reopened with Mexican restaurant Casa de Colorado and stayed there for nearly a decade.

"The business kind of just died from there," said Brandon's wife, Tara, of Old Colorado Brewing's 2002 dissolution. Struggling to run a restaurant and brewery, Brandon's grandfather Joe and father, Joe Jr., decided to part ways, moving to Wyoming and Michigan.

Tara says she and Brandon have been working over the last several years to bring back the brewery.

Their luck started when they realized the name Old Colorado Brewing Co. hadn't been claimed since 2002. Brandon also held onto his grandfather's original recipes for beers such as "Old Town Brown" and "Aspen Ale," which he practices making as a homebrewer.

Tara went back to school to get her MBA to open the business.

"The market in Fort Collins is a little saturated in my opinion," she said.

So they're going for another first, opening Old Colorado Brewing Co. in Wellington.

"The population here is just booming," Tara said. "It's crazy."

Wellington doesn't have its own brewery. The town is home to a gluten-free malt house, Grouse, with which Old Colorado Brewing will share a building.

The brewery will open by May in the old grain elevator at 8121 W. First St.

Tara said she and her husband hope to keep Wellington residents closer to home with their new tap room, inviting food trucks to serve on the property.

For the opening, they're working on bringing Joes Jr. and Sr. back to town "and have three generations brewing on the system."

Old Colorado Brewing Co.

What? Fort Collins' first craft brewery, set to reopen 13 years after its dissolution

Where? The old grain elevator on Wellington's First Street (located in the same building as Grouse Malting and Roasting Co.)

When? Expect a May opening, with grand opening events planned for Memorial Day or July 4.