Liquid Mechanics builds on fermentation and fun

LAFAYETTE — The Lafayette brewery and tasting room with the odd name could have had an even odder one.

“We originally wanted Boneshaker,” said Liquid Mechanics chief executive Davin Helden. “It’s a British slang term for a wooden bicycle with metal wheels. But a pub in California had that name.”

OK, how about Barking Iron?

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“That was a British term for a revolver,” Helden said. “Again, the name was kind of nostalgic, old-timey, gritty.” But no, that idea got shot down as well, this time via a cease-and-desist letter from New York.

So Josh Emrich, who had done the branding for breweries including Grimm Brothers in Loveland, came up with Liquid Mechanics, and that name stuck — “again, sort of weathered and old-timey,” Helden said.

The brewery’s three founders — Helden, Seth Townsend and Eric Briggs — had worked together for 13 years for biotechnology company Amgen, working on pharmaceuticals such as Epogen, the “Lance Armstrong drug” used to treat anemia.

“Seth kept bringing in homebrews when we had lunch,” Helden said, “and Eric said, ‘What would it take for you to open a brewery?’ So with some market research and private-equity funding, we got it done.”

The result is a 2,300-square-foot brewery, 2,100-square-foot tasting room and 39 award medals from beer competitions from venues as diverse as the Great American Beer Festival and the Colorado State Fair. Their award-winning brews have included Dunkelweizen, Amber Altbier, Kolsch, Imperial Porter, a Saison, Peanut Butter Porter, Belgian Double IPA, Special Bitter, Czech Pilsner and Barleywine.

Liquid Mechanics sells its brews in cans, bottles and kegs to bars and retailers.

Helden attributes the brewery’s growth to “investing in making the tasting room fun-looking,” creating great brews and providing great service. “We’ve got people who’d be willing to talk to your grandma for a half-hour about her dog,” he said.

He also enhances the experience by managing schedules for live music and a stable of food trucks so that one is parked outside every night.

The trio has doubled Liquid Mechanics’ fermentation capacity with in-house cash and eventually would like to open another tasting room, but Helden said they’re being cautious, what with the explosion of craft brewers in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado.

“We’ve been watching how this market saturation comes out,” he said. “We’ve seen 10 go out of business just this year.”

But Helden believes Liquid Mechanics’ survival will be through its suds, its space and its service. Or as the brewery’s website puts it:

“At our core, we are ‘down-home’ good old boys with a splash of sophistication.  We are hard-working, humble, nostalgic, and strive to provide our fellow beer drinkers with an unforgettable experience.”

See list 2018 BizWest 500 – Boulder Valley Mercury 100