Come See What’s Brewing in Telluride

Telluride has become a Mecca for beer lovers since 1994, when the annual 3-day “Blues and Brews Festival” began. It wraps up the busy fair-weather festival season in Telluride each September with a genre bending celebration of music that has ranged from blues legend BB King to the B-52s, with a little bit of everything in between. Headliners have included luminaries in rock, funk, soul and more over the past 30 years. Along with the eclectic musical line-ups, festival goers have always enjoyed one constant—and that’s the “Brews” half of the equation where, on average, 56 microbreweries are represented and celebrated.

It was at a Blues and Brews Festival 20 years ago when Chris Fish first arrived in Telluride. At the time he was a part time brewer and full-time sous chef in Steamboat Springs. As a kid, Fish’s Dad always had imported English beers in the fridge and an appreciation for beer, inspiring Fish to become a home brewer when he was still in high school. Later, when studying for a degree in Hydrology at CU Boulder, a professor and self-professed beer geek taught a class on the hydrology of beer—and the confluence of Fish’s two loves coalesced. He got into the professional brewing game at Mountain Sun Brewery in Boulder, Colorado as soon as he was old enough to legally drink. They knew of his passion and desire to learn the ropes, just not his true age, as he’d been a patron there for some time! And so it was, at his first Blues and Brews festival, that he happened to start chatting with the owners of Smugglers, then Telluride’s only local brewpub.
They offered him a job.

Smugglers Union Restaurant and Brewery

Smugglers, which opened in 1996 on San Juan Avenue, is the oldest of Telluride’s trifecta of breweries currently in operation. Now at the helm of its production is the award winning brewmaster Thomas “TJ” Daly, who ascended to the position after Chris Fish struck out to create his own enterprise. It was following an inspirational trip that Daly took to the Low Countries of Europe, immersing himself in the Belgians’ culture of crafting beer, that he returned to retool his recipe for a light bodied ale and subsequently landed the Bronze Medal at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in 2018— for his “Blonde Betty.” It was an impressive showing in a field of 56 contenders for “Belgian-Style Blonde Ale or Pale Ale,” at what is considered America’s most prestigious beer festival.  Smugglers Union currently offers many classically styled lagers as well as seasonal and experimental originals. Try “One for the Road,”
a light refreshing IPA or go straight for “Debauchery,” a seductive, high octane, Belgian styled tripel.

Telluride Brewing Company

Telluride Brewing Company became the personal project of Chris Fish, who left Smugglers Brewery to open his own over 12 years ago, with his best friend Tommy Thacher. They say best friends should never go into business together, but it turns out that Thacher, a former bartender and middle school teacher is a natural salesman and skilled people person—the perfect complement to Fish’s brewmaster persona.

Since opening in 2011, Telluride Brewing Company’s footprint in Telluride has expanded with a brewpub location in Mountain Village. They opened in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, as the COVID molecule on the wall pays homage to. Today, they’re going strong with 20 beers on tap, and delicious causal fare to compliment the libations. The small tanks on display contain special order brews or experimental small batch creations that will sometimes make it to big time production next to their Tap Room location in Lawson Hill, where the majority of production takes place.

Typically they have 12 different canned beers on offer for grab-and-go, and if you’re having trouble choosing—grab a “fanny pack,” as their variety pack is known, and sample everything from the light Pilsner to the popular “Ski in Ski Stout”—a coffee stout with cocoa nibs. “Face Down Brown,” the can depicting the classic “yard sale” situation you might find yourself in on the slopes, is a delicious dark ale, and their most award-winning brew.

So many of the labels tell a story—like the “Cold Feet” IPA (made with a lager yeast that ferments at colder temperatures) that was brewed for Fish and his bride, MacKenzy’s wedding. It was a private batch for the special occasion that became so popular, they’ve continued production. The label features the feet of Fish’s beloved dog Barley, who sadly has passed, but is now immortalized with his own special brew—"Saint Barley,” a tasty Barleywine, so classified because it has a higher alcohol content (13%) as a function of having spent time in whiskey barrels after brewing.

Fish is the creative mastermind behind the various brews to be enjoyed like the “Alpengose” Leipzig-style gose ale made with organic Gunnison River Peaches. Or his “Beaver Pond Strong,” a Belgian Strong Ale with hints of lemongrass. With the sensibility of a chef, he envisions the desired end product, then reverse-engineers the recipe to achieve his goals.

StrongHouse Brew Pub

Upon entering the Stronghouse Brew Pub, the youngest entrant into the Telluride brewing scene, you can’t help but be impressed by the transformation of this historic stone and metal warehouse, built in 1892. Having undergone several incarnations over the years, this last surviving intact building in Telluride’s historic Four Corners corridor opened as a brewpub in 2020. The authentic 1880s Brunswick bar is 20 feet of solid mahogany, and elements like the huge manual lift remain in place as they did at the turn of the last century. 

Straight ahead you see the whisky barrels quietly fermenting the barleywine inside. Just like Saint Barley, the brew will begin with a heavy whisky influence—too sweet with the residual sugars, until the wood takes over adding hints of vanilla and oak. The long process allows those elements to mellow and come together to create a truly unique product.

You also see the storage of the malted barley and can look through the floor where the cracked barley heads down to the tanks to ferment, unleashing its color and sugars. Longer roasting of the barley means more color, less sweetness, and an opportunity for notes of bitter or caramel, or chocolate.

Brewmaster Sam Enders was a diesel mechanic by trade and an avid home brewer by avocation. He started out working at Telluride Brewing Company where his mechanical skills were an asset. Enders describes Chris Fish as “the Godfather” of Telluride brewing, and when it became known that Stronghouse was in need of a master brewer—Fish encouraged Enders to pursue it. And so off Enders went, to apply his own creativity to the offerings at Stronghouse. 

Perhaps influenced by his father, who was a chemist, Enders, explains that it’s “the alchemy
and amplitude of the endeavor” that appeals to him. Like his mentor’s Brewpub in Mountain Village, Stronghouse also opened during the throes of COVID, to a fairly soft opening. With the advantage of being able to see how others were navigating the shutdowns, they led with their 16oz 4-packs cans to go. Like the other breweries in town, they typically have 10-12 labels on offer, including a core of five of the most popular beers, with seasonal brews rounding out the selection. Their namesake beer, “Stronghouse Lager” is a German-style Pilsner, bright golden in color and subtly fruity.

Enders will tell you, beermaking is a labor of love, and there are occasional heartbreaks, as batches will sometimes sour and need to be disposed. He says of his new home, “Ultimately, the point with Stronghouse Brew Pub was to make an approachable meet up space for people to share stories about their day, enjoying reasonably priced beer—and really good food—that’s an essential element of what we’re offering here.” Apparently, USA Today agrees with the success of that mission. In their 10-Best Readers’ Choice of 2023, they named Stronghouse “The Best Brewpub in the United States”!

As Chris Fish will tell you, “Brewing is a 99% asshole free industry,” meaning there is a comradery and a collaborative spirit among brewers across the board, and that’s especially true of the brewmasters that call Telluride home. They share a passion for the profession, and ideas and ingredients, or what other industries might consider “proprietary information,” are also shared freely. There are no “trade secrets”—just a love of the process and the product.