Earlier this week, Colorado Governor Jared Polis included breweries along with restaurants in his update of businesses that could begin re-opening this week in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In following the guidelines set forth for both restaurants and breweries, Polis also noted breweries must provide food from a licensed retail food establishment.
Breweries are alternatively allowed to partner with neighboring restaurants to provide food, or partner with food trucks, however, breweries are not covered simply by providing light snacks, microwaving food on-site to serve, or allowing patrons to bring in takeout or food delivery.
Black Shirt Brewing serves pizza on-site via their kitchen | Photo provided by Black Shirt Brewing
During his press conference on May 26, Polis was asked by Steve Staeger, a reporter for 9News, why breweries would be required to have a food component on-site to re-open, and explained that the main focus was to shift brewery operations to more of a sit-down restaurant model to lessen social contact among multiple parties.
“The key concept is not the food; it’s not about food; food doesn’t make it any safer. What makes it safer, is the expectation socially that you’re with your party, and it’s not an environment to mix with other parties,” said Polis. “It’s one to break bread or beer with those who you came with, facing each other talking to each other. The only people at risk presumably, are the people in that party. It’s not talking to hundreds of friends moving freely between parties. That was the goal, and it can certainly be refined in the days ahead.”
In addition to providing food on-site for customers, breweries must also adhere to social distancing guidelines which include spacing tables 6-feet apart from each other and a max capacity of 50 patrons in the establishment. In order to abide by these new measures, several breweries have adopted new ways to accommodate greater space between their guests. Yesterday, Copper Kettle Brewing, announced that they had knocked out one of their interior walls to create more space for patron seating.
Copper Kettle Brewing Extended Taproom | Photo Courtesy of Copper Kettle Brewing Facebook
Additionally, in Denver, several districts have proposed the ability to close down select streets to allow businesses to extend outdoor seating for patrons. Woods Boss Brewing has already partnered with the city to extend their taproom to the areas between their sidewalk and street.
Meanwhile, many more breweries have also opted to remain closed for on-site consumption this weekend, instead opting to ease back into regular operations after having shifted their business models to focus only on beer-to-go sales for the past two months.
As breweries begin re-opening their taprooms this weekend, the PorchDrinking team has rounded up a complete list of breweries that have already re-opened, will re-open this weekend, or have re-opening dates announced for the horizon. Keep in mind, most of those breweries that have elected not to re-open immediately, are still open for beer-to-go sales and we encourage our readers to continue supporting their to-go efforts.
Additionally, we also urge readers to remain patient with breweries as they begin re-opening taprooms. Many have shifted their business models completely and are still adjusting to this transition period. Due to the limited capacity, we also remind our readers to expect wait times before being seated.
If your brewery has updated its opening date since the publication of this article please reach out to tristan (@) porchdrinking (dot) com to have your listing updated.
Special thanks to Karen Mills, Emma Wargolet, and Scott Davidson for contributions in research for this article.
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