When Twisted Pine Brewing President Bob Baile reflects on the brewery’s 30th anniversary party in August, he can’t quite decide what to call it. Most of the time, it’s “a celebration” or “a party.” But every so often, he slips and calls it what it really was: a reunion.
“Breweries are traditionally meeting, gathering places,” he said. “That’s why I was so glad with our anniversary party to see a lot of the old-timers, so many people that contributed to this.”
That mindset has helped Twisted Pine endure as one of Boulder’s oldest breweries. In a city where craft beer pioneers have come and gone, the brewery has stayed alive by evolving with the market while holding onto what made it special in the first place: a welcoming atmosphere, loyal regulars and a willingness to experiment.
“I don’t think you can bullshit customers,” Baile said. “You have to be in tune, and that means a lot of things. It means your atmosphere. Is the music okay? Is the food? Is the place clean? Does it look good? Does it feel good? And one thing I’ve always been proud of over the years is people come in and say, ‘I like the atmosphere. You have a great vibe.’”
A legacy born from Boulder’s early craft scene
Founded in 1995 by legendary Boulder-area brewer Gordon Knight, Twisted Pine was the third brewery Knight founded in a few years. At the same time, Baile had opened Peak to Peak Brewing in Rollinsville, using secondhand brewing equipment previously owned by Knight.
Knight had founded High Country Brewery in Boulder in 1993 using New Belgium Brewing’s original system, which later ended up in Baile’s hands before returning again to Knight for his Nederland project, Wolf Tongue Brewery.
In 1996, Knight told Baile he wanted to sell Twisted Pine, and Baile told him he didn’t have to go far to find a buyer.
“Gordon [Knight] was great at starting breweries. But once he had to get employees, he didn’t like it,” Baile said. “He really liked making [beer], he didn’t like all the other stuff.”
The original brewery operated out of a 2,500-square-foot warehouse on Valmont Road, brewing amber, brown and raspberry ales on a seven-barrel system. There was no tasting room, only 22-ounce bottles, growler fills and deliveries to bars and restaurants around Boulder. Knight’s amber ale won a gold medal at the 1995 Great American Beer Festival.
Knight, who remains the only brewer known to have won GABF gold medals with three different breweries, died in 2002 when the helicopter he was piloting crashed while fighting the Big Elk Fire.
The move that changed everything
By the late 1990s, Boulder County’s brewery landscape was expanding. Among them were Boulder Beer, Avery, Left Hand, Mountain Sun and Oasis Brewing. Twisted Pine’s growing popularity led Baile to move the operation to its current location at 3201 Walnut St. in 2002, taking over half the building and opening a customer-facing tasting space for the first time.
“We had this little bar, and it would be packed,” he said. “And we were stupid enough to have a pinball machine in there and let people bring their dogs,” he said. “Friday nights would just be insane, and I loved it.”
The brewery installed a small bottling line and gradually built capacity to brew up to 15,000 barrels annually. A partnership with Bill Marshall, a former pharmaceutical colleague, in 2004 helped finance the expansion without debt. Twisted Pine also added food — first peanuts, then hot dogs, then a pizza oven and wings — transforming the space into a full brewpub.
By 2014, the company had taken over the entire building, expanding the restaurant and adding a packaging hall.
However, despite eventually distributing to 13 states, Twisted Pine never reached the 15,000-barrel tipping point needed for profitability.
Cutting off distribution in 2016 to focus on on-site sales was “by far the best decision that we ever made in 30 years,” Baile said. When the general manager at the time showed him the numbers, it was clear that they weren’t making any money on the beer that was leaving the back door by the case and by the pallet. It was the traffic in the front of the house that sustained the company.
By selling directly to customers, the brewery turned a $120 wholesale keg into $750 worth of pints, keeping quality in its own hands. They had also been concerned about freshness. Once the beer left their dock, it might sit in a hot warehouse for weeks or months. “Then you would buy it and go, ‘This is the worst beer I ever had,’ when it was a phenomenal beer when it left here,” Baile said.
Without the pressures of national distribution, Twisted Pine leaned into experimentation. Its chile beers became local legends. The first, Billy’s Chiles, began as a homebrew made with five types of fresh chile peppers. When customers kept asking for something hotter, Baile finally told his brewers, “Fuck it. We’re going to kill you,” and they added ghost peppers. The result was Ghost Face Killah (named for a member of the Wu-Tang Clan rap group), a fiery beer that gained them some notoriety, including press in the Los Angeles Times and the Amsterdam Times.
“Even the Wu-Tang clan got wind of the whole thing,” Baile said. “We sent them a case.”
Adapting to new tastes
Baile is still very hands-on at the brewery, pouring beers, working the floor and chatting with customers about what they are and aren’t enjoying about their experience. He’s not micromanaging the brewing decisions. “When IPAs first became popular, I’m going, ‘No freaking way. That’s gonna be done in a year,’” he said, laughing — but the company has added a lot of diversity to its offerings in recent years.
That includes its best-selling beer, a hazy IPA; lagers and other lighter beers; seltzers; nonalcoholic options, including NA beers and NA cocktails; and slushies, which were originally made with a seltzer base but now use spirits since the brewery received its liquor license earlier this year.
They also offer a couple of wines, and Baile is excited to be able to offer both wine and spirits for events in their 100-person event space. In the past, he said, they were turning away 40% of their potential business in that space because they couldn’t put those things on the menu.
The brewery is also experimenting with ultra-low-ABV beers, attempting to drop its Patio Pounder session IPA to just the 2-3% ABV range.
“You’d be surprised how many times I hear people come up to the bar and say, ‘What’s your lowest-alcohol beer?’” Baile said. “That, coupled with people not getting out and people not drinking as much — how do you get these people in the door?”
The number of hop varieties available has exploded over the decades, as well as the availability of quality malts and yeast. Even the spreadsheets, brewery management programs, quality-control equipment and other tools to measure and analyze the business and the beer have improved.
But Baile’s focus is still on creating a gathering place first and foremost. The brewery hosts bingo on Monday nights, trivia on Wednesdays and a loyal group of New York Giants fans on Sundays. Lately, a group of college kids has started showing up on weekend nights for game night.
“We provide them a place and that’s okay. We have to find ways to get people to come in and interact,” he said.
For Baile, that philosophy extends to brewing itself. He said he’s run into some arrogant brewers over the years who bring a mindset of, “This is our beer, and if you don’t like it, go somewhere else.”
“You’re crazy to ever have that attitude,” Baile said. “We make the kind of beer you like to drink, and we’re gonna do the best job we can.”
TP is a jewel in Boulder’s crown of legendary brewers and am grateful that their business model was well poised to sustain their longevity.
Thank you for this excellent feature. Always loved Twisted Pine and their focus on the local community. Cheers to 30 years and see you soon!