Park City Brewing is the Type of Business We Want To See Succeed

Late last week, Park City brewing officially opened their doors to customers. They serve four beers out of their brewery on Rasmussen Rd (across from Burt Brothers in the shopping center). While The Park Record did a good job of providing the backstory on the brewery and the people behind it, we believe it missed the bigger picture of why something like Park City Brewery is so important to Park City.

For years Park City has been ruled by the old stalwarts like the resorts, retailers like Jan’s and Cole Sports, and the restaurants on Main St. However, when we think about what’s new, there isn’t much. Enter Park City Brewery. Unlike Squatter’s and Redrock (which we do like, as well) this brewery is old school. You come into try a few beers and there’s a bar with glass windows that look into the brewing area. In the front there are stools sitting around old whiskey barrels. It’s simple. If you’ve ever been to Fort Collins (Colorado) breweries, it’s reminiscent of that. It’s about the beer. That’s it.

Want to talk beer with guys who made it, they are behind the bar. Want to get a tour? You probably can. Do you want to get a nice meal with the kids, with a 14 page menu, and 12 different salads? You’d better go to Squatter’s or Redrock. This isn’t that kind of place.

So why do we say this is the type of business we want to succeed? It’s a bunch of guys from Backcountry.com who wanted to make beer and also had some friends that wanted to make beer. They started a small business from scratch and set up shop in an old garage (that also happens to be at a trail head). It’s not a chain. It’s not pretentious. It’s people doing what they love. And what they happen to love, many people around here love too.

If someone was smart and could also brew beer they would open up another brewery in the same Burt Brothers complex. Hell, these guys should make another label called Summit Park and open up another tasting room next to Cross Fit. When visitors tire of the snow, and want to get away from Main Street, they could spend a Saturday afternoon tasting some of Park City’s finest.

It has real potential and it’s potentially another take on the tourism market. Would summer visitors in Salt lake take a 20 minute drive into the mountains to taste beer, especially if there were a few different tasting options? No doubt. Is this a start…. for sure.

While we wait on what could be, we’d recommend trying Park City Brewery. They are open to the public from 1-9PM Thursday – Sunday. The consensus from those tasting with us is that the pale ale is nice (and the most popular), the brown is great, and the blonde is surprisingly good. We believe the comment on the blonde was “this is the beer you’d want after a nice long ride.”

We really do hope these guys make it — and if they do — it could be the start of something really interesting in Park City.