Breweries are part of the fabric of Colorado. They have played a big part here for many years. However, I have been heading to breweries since my college days in the late 1990s. I spent a lot of Fridays at Boundry Bay Brewery in Bellingham (don’t tell my mom).
For more than 20 years, breweries have had a major role in my life and when I became the Mayor of HeidiTown in 2007, it was no different. Through the years, I have been to breweries in every corner of the state and I have covered a lot of beer festivals. I remember being able to keep tabs on every new brewery that opened in Colorado, although those days are long gone.
Ryan and I love going to a brewery in a new town because, without a doubt, we fit in there. We know the beer culture and we speak the language, so to speak. From Pagosa Springs to Hayden to Trinidad, when we enter a brewery, we are home.
However, we are never more home than at Grimm Brothers Brewhouse in Loveland, Colorado. This is our “local.” That’s a British term of endearment for one’s local pub.
In 2009, I wrote one of the first-ever articles about Grimm Brothers on HeidiTown.com, extolling the merits of their beer in a tasting they did at The Pourhouse Bar & Grill before opening their own taproom. I later wrote about the business in 2010, for the Berthoud Surveyor.
We’ve been going to the brewhouse for beer and good conversation since they opened in a small taproom around the corner from where they are now located.
Grimm Brother’s Brewhouse is turning 10 in July. That’s a big milestone for a brewery. A full decade of business is a milestone for any business, and Ryan and I should both know. Our two businesses are now older than a decade and we have no idea how we got here. If I knew a formula for business survival, I’d be rich.
But I digress.
When I was approached to write my favorite Grimm memory, I was supposed to keep it short, but you can never ask a writer to recall and write about their favorite memory and “keep it short.”
I decided to share it here because brewery culture and Grimm Brothers Brewhouse isn’t just part of the Colorado story, it is part of my story, and therefore part of the HeidiTown story.
After my ramblings, you’ll see a video I made for Visit Loveland. In celebration of #LovelandLovesTourism week, June 8-14, they asked a few people to make a short video of their favorite place in town. Mine was, you guessed it, Grimm.
So without further ado, here is what I wrote for their 10th anniversary.
Happy Birthday, Grimm!
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I have a lot of good memories of Grimm Brothers Brewhouse because it’s our local. I have hilarious memories from Loveland Oktoberfest when it was in the parking lot of Grimm; playing the game we call Stump and dancing my heart out to German techno.
I also have wonderful memories from the first-ever Barbarian Feast when Russell gave toasts from the tabletop and Don arm-wrestled everyone. Robyn looks sweet in her dirndl and Brooke spilling beer on my camera and purse. The camera still works!
I so appreciate the Grimm guys letting me shadow them at the Great American Beer Festival while on a magazine assignment. Seeing them win a medal there was incredible. I was in the nosebleed section but I screamed at the top of my lungs like a crazy fangirl. Seeing these guys and gals at beer festivals across the state was always a delight. I loved seeing Grimm’s long line in Montrose at the town’s beer festival/Oktoberfest.
We’ve enjoyed dozens of conversations with Aaron, Don and Scott. One recent memory was our puppy Fritzi playing with Odie, Laura’s puppy. It was hysterical.
So many things that add up to a lifetime of great memories at Grimm. I wish them another fun-filled 10 years! I am honored to have played a very small part of their beer story.
