COLORADO, USA — One of the most lauded breweries in northern Colorado has canceled its plans to expand to southern Colorado.
Greeley-based WeldWerks Brewing Co. announced Tuesday it has ceased construction on its second taproom that was scheduled to open in 2022 in Colorado Springs.
"After careful consideration and upon exhausting every other viable option, we have decided to permanently cease construction on the Colorado Springs property," said WeldWerks Brewing Co. in a statement on Facebook.
"We share in your disappointment as the Colorado Springs location has been something that we have been diligently working on, and very excited about, for over three years."
The new taproom, which was first announced in 2019, was to be located at 3043 West Pikes Peak Avenue, previously home to the Dive restaurant. WeldWerks predicted its new location would retain the cozy and funky character of Old Colorado City with a WeldWerks flair.
In August 2021, WeldWerks said the new location in Old Colorado City would cover 1,300 square feet and include an outdoor beer garden and a "second-story treehouse-inspired patio with incredible views."
"This project has experienced significant delays from the onset, some of which were inadvertent byproducts of our design and project decisions, but the vast majority of which were completely out of our control," said WeldWerks. "Supply chain constraints and labor shortages due to COVID-19 further delayed the timeline and drastically increased the overall budget for the project."
"In the midst of this, through the course of over three years, we reached the limit of our production capacity in our current brewhouse much faster than anticipated, increasing barrelage by more than 100%. As a result, expanding our brewing operations became a necessity and over a year ago, we started working on a plan for a 30-bbl brewhouse and production expansion to meet both current and future demands," said WeldWerks.
"After exhausting every possible option to keep both projects going, we determined it was in the best interest of the brewery, our staff, and patrons to direct all of our efforts and resources towards increasing production capacity at the Greeley location and transition away from the taproom project in Colorado Springs. Fortunately, we will not have to make any personnel changes as a result of this decision."
"It was always our intention to put our roots down in a second community that inspires us, but we hope you’ll understand that in order to continue to provide the best quality and experience that we always strive to do at WeldWerks — we had to make this difficult decision," said the Greeley-based brewery.
WeldWerks has made a national name for itself thanks to Juicy Bits, which is considered one of the best hazy IPAs in the country.
Medianoche, the brewery’s barrel-aged imperial stout, won its competitive category at Great American Beer Festival.
RELATED: South Park called this Colorado city 'the exact opposite of Hawaii.' Here's why it's pretty great
> Top stories curated daily just for you! Sign up for the 9NEWSLETTER to get can’t-miss stories, Next and Broncos content, weather and more delivered right to your inbox.
SUGGESTED VIDEO: Next with Kyle Clark
MORE WAYS TO GET 9NEWS
Subscribe to our daily 9NEWSLETTER
Download the 9NEWS APP
iTunes: http://on9news.tv/itunes
Google Play: http://on9news.tv/1lWnC5n
HOW TO ADD THE 9NEWS APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KUSA.
For both Apple TV and Fire TV, search for "9news" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
