Boulder Beer Company – Colorado’s 1st Microbrewery
The Boulder Beer Company was Colorado’s first microbrew and the forty-third licensed brewery in the United States. It was founded on September 25, 1979 by David Hummer, Alvin Nelson, and Randolf Ware. Ware and Hummer were physics professors at the University of Colorado at Boulder and home brewers. When the laws surrounding home brewing were relaxed, the brewery originally started on a farm in a “goatshack.”
History|
The Boulder Beer Company was originally known as the Boulder Brewing Company and went public in 1980, raising over US$1.7 million. A decade later, in 1990, the company changed its name to Boulder Beer company when Gina Day took the company private. In 1993 the company again renamed itself as the “Rockies Brewing Company.” In 2002, the Rockies Brewing Company entered into a strategic agreement with Rock Bottom Breweries allowing Rock Bottom to brew and sell their Singletrack Ale. In 2005, the company again changed it name back to the Boulder Beer Company.