Dry Dock Brewing, which opened a massive 30,000-square-foot production brewery a decade ago on Tower Road in Aurora, announced Friday that it will close the facility next year and shift the majority of its beer-making and packaging operations to Denver’s Great Divide Brewing.
The brewery, known for its Apricot Blonde, will maintain its original taproom, 15120 E. Hampden Ave., however, where it runs a small-batch brewhouse next to its homebrew store.
“We just celebrated Dry Dock’s 18th anniversary and look forward to many more. After all these years, we miss the daily interactions with customers and want to return to our roots and focus on The Brew Hut and our original taproom and brewery,” said Kevin DeLange, who co-founded Dry Dock in 2005 with Michelle Reding, in a statement.
The news marks a stunning change for the two breweries, both of which expanded extremely quickly during craft beer’s boom years in the 2010s before facing — like dozens of other mid-size breweries across the country — overwhelming competition that led to significant sales declines.
Great Divide’s own plans to open a large production facility came to an end in 2019 when company founder Brian Dunn announced that the brewery would sell off the land it had purchased several years earlier along Brighton Boulevard in the River North Art District, and consolidate at its now 30-year old location at 2201 Arapahoe St., in the Ballpark area.
“The strategic partnership” makes sense because “by producing both brands at a single facility, increased production and shipping efficiencies will be realized,” the breweries said in a joint statement. Great Divide has the ability to brew 60,000 barrels of beer per year and “will easily be able to handle the production of both brands” in addition to making beer for other breweries.
Great Divide and Dry Dock are the 7th and 8th largest independently owned craft breweries in Colorado, according to 2022 numbers gathered by the Brewers Association. Great Divide produced about 21,000 barrels that year while Dry Dock made 13,300 barrels.
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