Dry Dock Brewing Company is an American

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of be ...

located in southeast

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. Since its founding in 2005, Dry Dock has received awards from the

World Beer Cup The World Beer Cup is an international beer competition organized by the Brewers Association, a trade group A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organizat ...

and the

Great American Beer Festival The Great American Beer Festival (GABF) is an annual beer festival hosted by the Brewers Association, held in Denver, Colorado. Typically held in late September or early October, the event is currently held at Denver's Colorado Convention Center. ...

. It was named "Small Brewing Company of the Year," in 2009 at the Great American Beer Festival. Owned by Kevin DeLange and Michelle Reding, Dry Dock Brewing Co. was the first brewery in Aurora, Colorado to open with a 7 BBL brewhouse.

History

The 2005 brewhouse opened in a 900-square-foot space next to their original business, The Brew Hut, a homebrew supply shop. The brewery was given its name because of DeLange's interest in nautical history. Dry Dock expanded in 2009 and again in 2011. The brewery now runs a 7 BBL taphouse, including a tasting room with 180 seats and eighteen taps. It is located in its original Hampden Avenue location, which is called "Dry Dock." In 2013, Dry Dock nearly quadrupled its production numbers, jumping from 3,200 barrels in 2012 to 12,000 barrels in that year. This increase came with the purchase of a 30,000-square-foot production facility, North Dock. Dry Dock now has the capacity for expansion that enables the brewing of 30,000 barrels/year. In the brewery, it cans its line of beers, including Apricot Blonde, Amber Ale, Sour Apricot Blonde, Hop Abomination, Hazy IPA, and Vanilla Porter. In September 2014, Dry Dock opened the Canoe Room, a four-tap tasting room inside its North Dock facility. This has since grown to twelve taps. The tasting room serves both draft and canned beer. The room, once the storage area for The Boy Scouts of America Aurora Chapter’s canoes, became known as the "Canoe Room," thus giving the tasting room its name.

Beers

Home fleet

Bottled beers

After purchasing a 6-head bottler, Dry Dock began bottling their Seven Seas Double IPA for release in the greater

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

area. Since then, Dry Dock has bottled a wide variety of different beers to date, most notably, Bligh's Barleywine (an English Style Barleywine) and their annual barrel-aged Signature Series releases.

Small Batch Friday

Each and every Friday, Dry Dock taps a special one-off firkin, a cask-conditioned variation of their available beers. Occasionally, the beers are conditioned with odd items such as wasabi and rice. In 2010, Dry Dock served their Kölsch from a watermelon and their Half Moon Pumpkin Ale through a locally-grown 208 lb

pumpkin A pumpkin is a vernacular term for mature winter squash of species and varieties in the genus ''Cucurbita'' that has culinary and cultural significance but no agreed upon botanical or scientific meaning. The term ''pumpkin'' is sometimes use ...

Awards

Dry Dock established itself early on by word-of-mouth, and put itself on the map when it won a gold 2006

for its HMS Victory ESB (now Dry Dock’s Amber Ale). Dry Dock has since been the recipient of 25 GABF medals (5 gold, 12, silver, 8 bronze), the prestigious

Brewers Association The Brewers Association (BA) is an American trade group of over 5,400 brewers, breweries in planning, suppliers, distributors, craft beer retailers, and individuals particularly concerned with the promotion of craft beer and homebrewing. Two of ...

’s Small Brewery of the Year award (2009), and 8 World Beer Cup awards (3 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze). Since its founding in 2005, Dry Dock has received awards from the

and the

. It was named "Small Brewing Company of the Year" in 2009 at the Great American Beer Festival.

References

{{reflist, 2 Beer brewing companies based in Colorado Companies based in Aurora, Colorado American companies established in 2005 Food and drink companies established in 2005