Denver brewery plans to reopen, but a lot of questions remain — literally
A group of trivia night hosts buys Fiction Beer Company on East Colfax.
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After announcing in December 2024 that they would close Fiction Beer Company after 10 years, owners Ryan and Christa Kilpatrick got a call from some longtime fans of the brewery.
They wanted to ask “about the possibility of buying the taproom and the brand,” Christa said.
And they were used to asking questions. Because the group — Ted Menendez, Derek Boyce, Elise Sjostedt, Kyle Rosen, Anna Bromberg, Ali Kelly, and John Ragole — had been trivia hosts at Fiction, 7101 E. Colfax Ave., during its weekly Thursday night trivia contests.
“We felt it was our responsibility to make sure this great East Colfax establishment continued to thrive for so many of us that have come to call this place a home away from home,” the group, Thursday Night Ventures, LLC, said in a statement emailed by Menendez.
“Many of the new owners have lived or continue to reside within walking distance of Fiction. All of us have memories we will never forget that are a part of the greater story. We couldn’t in good conscience walk away from Fiction when we knew we had the obligation and the ability to continue something special,” they continued.
Menendez said that brewing has already begun and that Fiction hopes to reopen “soon.”
The Kilpatricks founded Fiction in 2014 as a literature-themed brewery. The bar is made out of books, there are literary quotes on the tables, and the beers are named for characters or themes, including Old Bums & Beat Cowboys, a pale ale inspired by Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” and Madame Psychosis, a hazy IPA named for David Foster Wallace’s “Infinite Jest.”
When they decided to close, they said “the craft beer business is a difficult and demanding one, and it’s time to move on to less stressful ventures for the sake of our kiddos and ourselves.”
But on Tuesday, Christa Kilpatrick said that she and Ryan “love that our company is going to a group of folks that we’ve known for a long time — some of them close to ten years. This is a wonderful group of people and we are confident in their ability to carry on the brand and taproom for years to come. Cheers to the future of Fiction Beer Company.”
Fiction isn’t the only Denver brewery to return from the dead recently. Last July, Aaron Uhl and Dan Colbourne took over Renegade Brewing Co., which had closed under previous owners.
