Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Six years on Colfax. That is a long time in Denver bar years, and Bruz Off Fax made every one of them count.
But the taproom at 1495 York St. is pouring its last Belgian on September 24, 2026. Ryan and Rachel Evans, the couple behind Bruz Beers, are closing the doors and throwing a going-away bash that same day. So if you have ever nursed a Hellraiser Golden Strong Ale on that patio, this is your window to say goodbye properly.
Here is the thing though. This is not a sad-brewery-fails story. Not even close.
Let me give you the part people miss. Bruz Off Fax is not closing because nobody showed up. It is closing during the middle of the Colfax BRT era, and that construction has been chewing into business up and down the corridor for a while now. Bus rapid transit is going to be great for Colfax eventually. Everyone says that. But "eventually" does not pay a taproom's rent while the street is torn up and the parking is a nightmare and your regulars start deciding it is easier to just stay home.
Bruz is not the only spot feeling it. This is a wave, not a one-off. When a street the length of Colfax goes under the knife, the shakeout hits the places you love right alongside the places you never noticed. That is just how these big transit projects go.
And to be clear, the Evanses are not throwing shade on the neighborhood on their way out. In their statement they said "We accomplished what we wanted at Bruz Off Fax" and that "Colfax will always have a special place in our hearts." That reads like people who got what they came for and are leaving on their own terms, not people getting run off.
So where is the money going? Home. Ryan and Rachel are Golden residents, and Ryan spent roughly five years searching for a bigger flagship location. Five years. That is not an impulse. That is a guy who knew exactly what he wanted and waited until it showed up.
What showed up is a one-acre property at 17575 South Golden Road, the old Golden Animal Hospital site. And here is a detail I love. The former building owners specifically picked Bruz to carry on the building's legacy. They did not just sell to the highest bidder. They chose who gets to be the next chapter of that corner. In a town like Golden, that kind of thing still matters.
The design work is going to a Golden firm, Ewers Architecture, which is a nice local-keeps-it-local touch. And the plans are ambitious. We are talking a two-story building with west-facing windows staring straight at the foothills, plus a roughly 5,000-square-foot outdoor patio. Picture a summer evening, the sun dropping behind the mountains, a Puppy Dawg Session IPA in hand. That is the whole pitch, and honestly, it is a good one.
Construction is expected to start within about six months. The tentative grand opening is targeting mid-2028. So this is a long game. You are not walking into the new place next spring. Buckle up for a couple years of anticipation.
Quick clarification before anyone panics. Bruz's original production facility and taproom at 1675 West 67th Avenue #100, over in Midtown, keeps running exactly as it always has. That is the mothership. The Belgian beers you know are still getting brewed there. Nothing changes.
So really what is happening is a shift, not a shrinking. Colfax closes. Golden opens bigger. Midtown holds steady. Bruz is trading one footprint for a better one and keeping its home base intact the whole time.
Look, I have watched the Golden market for years, and there is a reason a beer couple with five years of patience planted their flag there. South Golden Road is not the Golden of postcards. It is the workhorse corridor, the one that has been quietly filling in with the kind of everyday businesses that tell you a place has real staying power. A one-acre site with foothills views on that stretch is not a thing that comes up often, which is exactly why Ryan waited so long to grab one.
And when a Golden family business gets to choose its own successor for a building, and that successor turns around and hires a Golden architect to design the thing, that is the local flywheel doing what it does. Money and craft staying in town. If you ask me, that is worth more to a community than a dozen chains rolling in.
So mark September 24. Go raise a Belgian on Colfax one last time while you still can. Tip well, tell the staff thanks, take the photo. Then keep an eye on South Golden Road, because the next Bruz is going to be the big one, and Denver's loss is very much Golden's gain.
Six years done. The best chapter might be the one they have not brewed yet.