With new breweries opening in Denver seemingly every month, it's amazing that there is nothing yet in the Platt Park neighborhood near the University of Denver -- especially since South Pearl Street is such a hotbed for restaurants.

That will change next year when Denver Pearl Brewing opens its doors at 1875 South Pearl in a former antique cash-register store just three blocks south of Old South Pearl Street's restaurant row district.

See also: Grandma's House, a planned brewery, will knit crafting and craft beer together

"We like the neighborhood a lot and we love the farmer's market and the community feel there. It's a good fit for a brewery," says Colby Rankin, a Denver native who is starting the brewery with his father, Randy. Rankin likes the farmers' market so much, in fact, that he hopes to brew seasonal beers with ingredients he buys there.

"We're planning to have five flagships and five seasonal beers," he says. "We want to take old styles and put creative new twists on them."

Two other breweries-in-planning, Grandma's House and Former Future, will also be located in Platt Park, but on Broadway, in the neighborhood's western edge.

Rankin has been a homebrewer, but he has hired a brewery consultant to help him with the ten-barrel system that he will use. The 4,500-square-foot space will include a taproom with ten beers on tap and seats for about eighty people. Rankin says it will have an rustic industrial look and that there is plenty of room to expand. "At first we don't do any distribution," he adds. "But once we get rocking and rolling, we will look into canning and distribution."

Customers will be able to order food from nearby restaurants like Park Burger, and Rankin says he's heard nothing but good things from the neighbors about his plan.

Denver Pearl should open by the summer of 2014.

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