EP-180 WeldWerks Brewing — Colin Jones, Neil Fisher, Kristin Popcheff, Jake Goodman

Today’s podcast is with the folks from Colorado’s WeldWerks Brewing
Company—and it’s a fun one. In fact I might go as far as to say that this
is one of my favorite conversations I’ve had, since I started contributing
to this podcast a couple years ago. You’ll hear a number of WeldWerks
voices over the next hour or so, including owners Colin Jones and Neil
Fisher, Ops Director Kristin Popcheff and Sales Director Jake Goodman. It’s
been quite the journey for WeldWerks since they set up in the town of
Greeley, some 30 miles east of Fort Collins and Loveland, along the Front
Range in Northern Colorado just three years ago . They exploded onto the
scene thanks to beers like their New England IPA, Juicy Bits—a beer that
impressed me so much I was compelled to visit, and eventually write about
this fascinating brewery for GBH.In its short existence, WeldWerks has
already experienced critical acclaim for beers like Juicy Bits and its
pastry stouts such as Medianoche. In fact the barrel aged version of the
latter picked up a coveted gold medal in the barrel-aged stout category at
last years Great American Beer Festival. But this is just the tip of the
iceberg when it comes to their repertoire. WeldWerks released 100 different
beers over the past year. And amongst zeitgeisty NEIPAs and Pastry Stouts,
there were also tart Gose, crispy Pilsners and much more. This brewery is
far from being a one, or two, trick pony. The brewery’s rapid growth and
increase in popularity hasn’t been without its challenges, however. They’ve
had to deal with long lines on beer release days, and in some cases,
disappointed customers—some of whom, made their feelings towards the
brewery pretty explicit in these instances. Learning to balance these
reactions from consumers has been as important as it has building their
relationships with industry partners, as they manage strong own-premise
sales with increasing demand from retailers. What’s perhaps most impressive
is that—along with fellow Greeley brewery Wiley Roots and local bars like
Patrick’s Irish Pub—WeldWerks has helped to put its hometown on the
American beer map. It would have perhaps been easier (but far more
expensive) to set up their brewery in say, Downtown Fort Collins or
Denver’s exploding River North district. But no, Greeley is where this
Colorado brewery’s heart is—and their efforts are helping to develop the
image of a town that locally is typically associated with industrial scale
agriculture.