Flying Dog Brewery

George Stranahan, a physicist with degrees from the California Institute of Technology and the Carnegie Institute of Technology, who previously co-founded the Aspen Center for Physics in 1962, left an associate professorship at Michigan State University in 1972 to acquire ownership of the Flying Dog Ranch take over in Woody Creek, Colorado. Eight years later, he made his first foray into the restaurant business and opened the Woody Creek Tavern in nearby Woody Creek, Colorado. It became notable for his connection with the journalist and Woody Creek resident Hunter S. Thompson, who visited the house for late lunch almost every night when he was in town. Thompson and Stranahan (who previously served as Thompson's landlords) had been close friends since the late 1960s. In 1990 Stranahan and co-founder Richard McIntyre opened the Flying Dog Brewpub in Aspen. It was the first brewery in Aspen in over 100 years and one of the first brewery pubs in the Rocky Mountain region. The demand for Flying Dog beers quickly grew beyond the brewery's capacity. In 1994, the company opened a 30-barrel Brewery (Broadway Brewing Company) in Denver, Colorado, which was a joint venture with the Wynkoop Brewing Company. Flying Dog acquired Wynkoop's stake in the brewery in 2000 and opened a second location in Denver at 2401 Blake Street. Flying Dog wanted to expand again in 2006 and bought the Frederick Brewing Company in Frederick, Maryland [6] in May and began producing beer in both Maryland and Colorado. Flying Dog also acquired the Wild Goose brand and produced these beers until December 2010, when the brand was sold to the Logan Shaw Brewing Company. In December 2007, Flying Dog announced that it would close the Denver brewery and only produce beer at its Frederick facility. At that time, the Denver brewery needed at least $ 1 million in infrastructure improvements. Flying Dog also saw the strongest growth to date and was able to exceed the production level in Denver by concentrating its activities in Maryland. The Flying Dog Brewery had the capacity to brew 100,000 barrels of beer per year in 2015 and is currently upgrading the facility to 700,000 barrels per year. From October 2017, the expansion project with the owner was suspended, citing legal issues.