Red Truck delivers bold look, cold brews

FORT COLLINS — One thing about Red Truck Beer Co.: You can’t miss it.

Devotees of Northern Colorado’s burgeoning craft-brewery scene are used to searching for new taprooms that are tucked away in nondescript warehouse districts with minimal signage.

Not so with Red Truck. Its sprawling white building dominates the northwest corner of a busy intersection in east Fort Collins, festooned by a 40-foot water tower, bright red patio furniture and umbrellas, and deep red trucks displayed on three sides.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Select your Republic Services residential cart now!

In preparation for Republic Services becoming the primary provider of residential recycling, yard trimmings, and trash, residents should now select the best cart size and service schedule for their household needs.

“Yeah, we bit off a big bite,” said Laird Mulderink, general manager of the 34,000-square-foot brewery that opened last August on a site that had been home to Fort Collins Brewery for seven years.

The concept started small in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2005, where owner Mark James embraced the truck theme as part of a “back to basics” philosophy. Mulderink said the Vancouver operation started with draft-only offerings and produced about 3,000 barrels of beer a year before moving into a larger facility in 2013. That building is located southeast of downtown in Vancouver’s appropriately named Brewery Creek district, where beermakers congregated in the late 1800s to cater to thirsty forestry workers, and its design is the pattern for the Fort Collins concept.

“Over the course of the next five years, it went up to 25,000 barrels a year,” Mulderink said, but added that James “always wanted to come to the U.S. and play on our playground down here.”

Why did he choose Fort Collins and not the nearby Pacific Northwest?

“The power of the brand is nostalgia,” Mulderink said. “The Midwest or east of the Rockies lent itself to the laid-back, truck-drivin’ mentality. Here in Colorado, it’s cowboy country. We still love our trucks.”

______________

If you go

Red Truck Beer Co.
1020 E. Lincoln Ave., Fort Collins
970-400-1670
redtruckbeer.com/fort-collins-truck-stop/

______________

When Fort Collins Brewery went up for sale in 2017, he said, “it was kind of hard to pass up an existing facility. All we had to do was a bunch of remodeling to brand it, theme it the way we wanted.”

Doing it “the way we wanted” was apparently worth quite a bit to Red Truck — six figures worth.

The city’s Downtown Development Authority had given Fort Collins Brewery a substantial tax incentive to build on the site, and in exchange the DDA got a 25-year easement so it could have a say in the building’s design. But when James bought the building, he wanted to recreate the theme from Vancouver, so he returned $131,749 to the DDA as part of an agreement to terminate the easement and let him have control of the property’s look and feel.

“He brought down Red Truck’s very strong branding,” Mulderink said, “something that would appeal to everybody — men, women, boys and girls.”

The truck theme is everywhere. Parked on the patio nearest the intersection of Lincoln and Lemay avenues is a 1957 Dodge Power Wagon nicknamed “Paul” and loaded with silver beer kegs. Around the back is a 1956 GMC. Near the entrance to the “Truck Stop” restaurant on the west side is a 2005 MXT International.

The star attractions are just inside that door. To the right, near a retail corner featuring branded hats, t-shirts, cozies and bottle openers as well as coolers full of beer, sits a gleaming, custom-built beast that placed first in its division in the Baja 500 in 2017 and is featured on the label of the brewery’s “Baja Bound” Mexican lager. To the left is “Lucy,” a 1941 Dodge that had carried weapons in World War II and whose image graces the label of the “Czech Point” red pilsner.

The theme even extends into the restrooms, where repurposed truck tires frame the sinks.

While the branding draws visitors in, Mulderink said, the brews and food bring them back.

Mulderink, a Colorado native with an economics degree from Colorado State University, was recruited from Rockyard Brewing Co. in Castle Rock, and head brewer Shaun Salyards — who held the same post at Fort Collins Brewery — had started Barrels and Bottles in Golden and worked at Oskar Blues in Longmont and Snowbank Brewing in Fort Collins.

“Shaun’s very true to style, very analytical,” Mulderink said. “He definitely knows what he’s doing.”

The counter-service restaurant dishes up hot dogs, burgers, wings, sandwiches, fries and salads, and breakfast items all day.

“We use all-natural cage-free chicken and eggs,” he said. “They’re hormone free, antibiotic free, never frozen.

“We have 18 beers on tap at any given moment. We’re very lager-centric but we also produce ales. They’re not too high or low in alcohol content, and we don’t really go out and do crazy beers — but we do the damn best Vienna lager we can, the best Irish ales we can.”

Ever conscious of the stiff competition for craft brews in the area, Red Truck tries to stand out even with the six beers it offers for sale on store shelves.

“When we go outside, we’re trying to break the mold too,” Mulderink said. “We do that by creating eight-packs instead of six-packs, a little more you can share with friends. It’s a beautiful carton that we aim to get on a shelf for only $11.99.”

The complex includes the kitchen — viewed through an open counter near the entrance so diners can thank the cooks on the way out, seating for about 100 at a bar and high-top tables inside as well as room for more outside, a private meeting room, and the brewhouse, packaging line, cold storage and warehouse. At the far end of the public area is a stage for live music, and more entertainment happens outside in warmer months.

Red Truck’s Fort Collins operation employs about 35 people, Mulderink said, and “our main focus is on being good people. We want to connect with our town and its people, and if somebody needs help, we try to be a leader in just being good.”

Red Truck’s charitable work has included brewing a coffee IPA aimed at building a living wage for South American coffee growers, and creating a pina colada saison that will be tapped March 8 in honor of International Women’s Day and benefit the Pink Boots Society, which encourages women in the brewing industry.

What’s in the future for Red Truck? For one thing, a restaurant and taproom in Denver’s River North district. But mostly, Mulderink said, “getting out there, finding more people and organizations to connect with — and, at the same time, sell as much beer as we can, and make our market penetration throughout Colorado. We’ll go deep before we go wide.”