For anyone who's gone brewery hopping in Denver, CO, you know how lively and enjoyable that experience can be in one of the country's pre-eminent beer towns. With generations of brewers all working alongside each other, Denver has a brewing history and status unlike any other.
But if you're like me, you've also noticed some common—maybe too common—themes in Denver breweries. Lots of IPAs, outdoorsiness, and that sort of early 2000s don't-try-too-hard aesthetic in the form of picnic tables and raw wood and concrete that passes for authenticity unquestioned among craft enthusiasts. And let's face it: some of it's real, some of it's not.
So when TRVE Brewing Co. brewing popped up on the scene, it was a violation of the Mile High City's Pleasantville-like beer scene in more ways than one.
Founder Nick Nunns was making yeast-driven beers with a heavy metal theme in a neighborhood far from the sparkle of Denver's eye. Much has changed since then, but mostly in ways that continue to put TRVE at the edge of a still-somewhat-monoculture beer scene, as good as it is, with a few great exceptions.
And in this next phase? Nunns is going to make things even weirder.