Denver’s Broadway brewery landscape has certainly seen its share of change over the past five years. The recent departure of formative wild and spontaneous ales producer, Black Project, a shorter stint from Alternation Brewing, and the upcoming closure of chica producer, Dos Luces, along with the recent sale of Baere Brewing, has certainly shaken things up. However, the recent additions of Public Offering, Ratio’s Overland location, Denver Beer Co’s Rosedale location, and Sunroom Brewing in Englewood have helped to inject new life.

Meanwhile, staples like TRVE Brewing, and Novel Strand Brewing, which this weekend celebrates its 5th anniversary have helped to anchor the neighborhood by continuously keeping an eye toward innovation and identifying new ways to reinvent itself.

Throughout its five-year existence, Novel Strand has managed to steadily elevate its beer program while remaining true to its core principles. When we first spoke with co-founder Tamir Danon, he emphasized an interest in brewing hop-forward beers, Lagers, and wild and spontaneous beers. Not only has he stayed the course in his original plan but he’s been able to exceed expectations across all styles in a beer landscape that was already ripe with established producers within each of those categories.

Consistently utilizing newer hop varietals like Riwaka and African Queen hops have helped to elevate Novel Strand’s hop program across a wide range of releases. Their wild barrel-aged program though still smaller in volume compared to many other producers has seen brilliant entries like Dancing with the Moon, a beautiful Belgian Farmhouse that balances funk-forward complexity while still remaining light and understated. Additionally, Danon’s experimentation with Brettanomyces has led to one of the more interesting entries in recent years in Funk Schwei, a 2% ABV fermented tea beverage. Additionally, while building on his own knowledge of brewing Lagers, Danon often cites collaborations with Bierstadt Lagerhaus’s Ashleigh Carter as a huge influence on the evolution of his own Lager program.

This weekend Novel Strand will commemorate its 5th Anniversary with a Block Party on Saturday, July 15 featuring five new beer releases, DJs throughout the day, several food trucks and many more festivities. We caught up with co-founder Tamir Danon to reflect on the past five years.

PD: Congrats on five years! That’s such an exciting and monumental milestone for any brewery to celebrate. Looking back on the past half-decade, tell us a little about the evolution of Novel Strand. What have been some of the most unexpected changes for the brewery since its early days, and anything you would have done differently looking back?

TD: Well, on the obvious front, the COVID-19 pandemic was an absolutely unexpected change. We definitely didn’t have ‘survive a global pandemic and the associated financial challenges that arise’ as what we were doing for months 18-36. On a less silly front, looking back now there are a few things we would have done differently. Our system size is probably too small for the amount of beer we sell- so even though we’re adding more fermentation tanks to be able and produce more beer, we probably should have just started out right away with a bigger capacity so each batch is bigger. We make more lager than we thought we would in the beginning (which was zero), so maybe we would have included lager tanks in our initial plan as opposed to an addition after year 5. But you know, you live and you learn, I guess.

When we first spoke five years ago, there was a bit of buzz created from your preference of not serving flights as they don’t lend for the best tasting experience when crashing your palette with different styles one after another. Instead, you suggested that folks enjoy full pours so as to get a better overall tasting experience. Have you seen any pushback from that still over the past 5 years or has it become a non-issue?

Honestly, not really. There was a small number of people in the beginning that had some vocal issues about it, but for the most part, no one cared. And, you know, during the pandemic, a lot of breweries stopped serving flights, and not all of them resumed the practice as we resumed ‘business as usual’ after. So we don’t look at it as anything serious- we don’t have flights just like we don’t have seltzers, or we don’t serve food. It’s just not something we do. A few folks here and there ask about them still, but no one seems to mind that we don’t offer them. So it’s nice.

A ton has changed for the Colorado craft beer scene as a whole over the last five years. As an active member of that community for its formative years of growth, what has been the most surprising trend or moment that you’ve witnessed?

Well, we don’t want to jynx it… But it’s been pretty cool to watch the industry slowly move away from the culinary experiment phase it went through there for a few years to breweries making more lagers, more Kolsch, more refined hoppy beer. All of that is nice- we’ve finally exhausted the pantry and went back to beer. Those other styles had such a big moment that it seemed like they’d last forever- which is a common feature of the American craft beer scene you know? We often jump around trends in this country, but go ALL IN on each trend. So we’re hoping the more lagers and more relaxed, refined, sessionable beer is not a trend but a place we can all stay at for a while.

What can fans of Novel Strand expect for the future of the brewery? Where do you expect the brewery to be in the next five years?

What can we expect in the next five years? More. More everything. More beer. More lager, more experimental hops, more Brettanomyces fermented tea, more food trucks, more beer dinners. More. Having a pandemic and the profound shift in our society it brought early in our tenure definitely took some wind out of our sails, and it feels like we’re starting to gain the traction that maybe we missed out on. So the plan is to do what we’ve done- keep tinkering, improving, learning, experimenting, and making the best beer we can. Seems like a good plan.

For those who haven’t had a chance to experience Novel Strand yet, what do you hope they take away most from visiting the brewery and what are you most excited about for this week-long celebration?

Just the focus and dedication to quality. That’s what we put our attention on more than anything. We really think each recipe and beer through… each hop variety and addition, each malt selection, each yeast selection, each step of the process… we obsess and dissect everything we do. And we feel what that attention to detail does to our beer is noticeable. You don’t have to be a craft beer nerd to enjoy here… we work hard to make the beer something that makes your palate light up right away and say “whatever this is, I get it and I like it.”

What we’re most excited about this week- for sure- is the block party we’re throwing on Saturday 7/15. It’s definitely the biggest party or event we’ve ever thrown, and we’re excited to be able to bring so many people to our little neighborhood corner for beers, food, music and fun in a way we never have been able to do before.

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