Tony Rau isn’t going to lie. He was a little nervous.
An experienced beer maker, Rau had spent eight years honing his craft at Odell Brewing before joining Great Divide Brewing in 2019 as the Innovation Brewer, overseeing the company’s two five-barrel pilot systems in Denver and Castle Rock. He was pretty confident in his ability, but even so, the latest project he’d been tasked with came with a little bit of pressure: revamping the recipe for Titan IPA.
The beer has a legendary history as any titan should. Created in 2004, Titan was launched at a time when bitter IPAs were capturing beer drinkers’ attention along with their tastebuds, and it quickly became a favorite in Colorado, where there weren’t that many similar hop bombs. By 2008, Titan was being used by beer judges nationwide as an exemplar of the American IPA style alongside California icons like Bear Republic Racer 5, AleSmith IPA, Sierra Nevada Celebration, Anderson Valley Hop Ottin’, Stone IPA and Russi
For
Anthony Martuscello, owner and founder of five-year-old WestFax Brewing Company, the pandemic had already caused a major blow to business. Built around the in-house taproom experience, the majority of WestFax’s business came from on-premise drinking. When the novel coronavirus hit, the team had to completely alter their business model. “No one is ready to switch 100 percent of their product to packaged materials,” Martuscello says.
They began by upgrading from manual canning machines to an automated, professional set-up from Louisville-based Wild Goose Filling. But an immediate shortage of crowlers and cans from local suppliers caused a hiccup; the team was able to catch up to demand after a month or so. By the time summer arrived, Westfax began feeling the shortage again although this time, even larger manufacturers like Ball felt the strain of an increased nationwide demand for cans. With larger manufacturers prioritizing bigger beverage brands, Martuscello was for