AURORA | Nathan Flatland held the frosty mug of beer to his face and took a big whiff.“I don’t know,” he said with a groan, shaking his head before knocking back a big gulp of the freshly-tapped brew.
That gulp in Flatland’s Aurora garage marked the first time he — or anybody — tasted Mu Brewery’s new India Pale Ale.
“It’s a bit grassy,” he said, cocking his head to the side as he deliberated the beer’s flavor. “It’s not bad, just grassy.”
He took a few more sips before reaching his conclusion.
“Yeah, that’s not it,” he said with a disappointed shrug.
The beer, like Flatland’s brewery and tasting room on East Colfax Avenue, is very much a work in progress.
The plan, Flatland said, is for the IPA he is tinkering with this summer to be one of the new brewery’s flagship beers when Mu Brewery opens this fall.
Opening the brewery is a dream for Flatland, and making it a reality involves a boatload of work along two parallel paths.
On one, he is gutting and remodeling the storefront at 9735 E. Colfax Ave, in the heart of the city’s arts district. And on the other, he’s trying to perfect his beer recipes, getting them ready to move from his small home-brewing operation to a professional, state-of-the-art brewhouse.
For now, as he waits on permits and architects to tweak designs for the planned 1,800-square foot brewery and tasting room, much of the work is focused on the beer side of things, and that’s just fine with Flatland.
“The beer part, that’s the fun part. There’s actually joy in that,” he said.
Getting the business off the ground — negotiating contracts, seeing his plans take shape and building relationships with his neighbors on Colfax — have all been fun, too, but they aren’t brewing beer.
Standing over a steaming kettle and mixing grains until his shoulders ache, that’s the best part. It combines the methodical — following a step-by-step, detailed recipe — with the aesthetics of aromatic, tasty beer in a way that Flatland has loved since he brewed his first beer just a few years ago.
“There is also a satisfaction to just doing work,” he said.
Last year, feeling not overly enthused about the future prospects of his career in the telecommunications business, Flatland said he started thinking about a career change. He came across two articles, one that said the brewing industry was taking off and another that said breweries are an increasingly sound investment.
With those ideas in mind — and with his home-brew hobby already getting rave reviews from friends — he decided to jump into the brewery business.
“I love doing it, so it would be something I really enjoyed doing. And if I could make a living doing it, then great,” he said.
These days, the brewing piece of Mu’s development is taking place a few days a week at the south Aurora home Flatland shares with his wife, Miranda Morningstar, their dogs, Zeek and Beau, and their cat, Ossey.
It’s a small operation, and one that, until his brewhouse is ready later this summer, relies on a home-brew set up that can be a bit frustrating. On a recent rainy Wednesday afternoon, Flatland’s attempts at brewing his English-style brown ale were briefly stymied by a burner that wouldn’t cooperate.
“This is the one part of home brewing that’s kind of a drag,” he said, watching the burner’s flame swell before petering out time after time.
When the brewhouse opens at the back of his storefront on Colfax, Flatland is hopeful these kinds of problems will fade. The setup he is looking at cranks out more than enough power to generate the heat he needs. Plus, that brewing equipment is stationary, so it should be more reliable than the constantly-mobile set up he relies on now.
Earlier in the week, Flatland had brewed that first batch of IPA, and it sat in a nearby fridge, waiting to be tapped. It likely hadn’t had enough time to get adequately carbonated, but Flatland’s friend and Mu’s CFO, Lance Franklin, thought the struggling flame was a good excuse to try it.
“I say you just tap that IPA and have a drink,” he said with a grin.
Eventually, Flatland scrapped the black outdoor stove for an old Coleman camping grill, leaned against his Subaru station wagon and slowly stirred the steaming pot with a great big spoon — but he took Franklin’s advice, too.
The IPA is an important part of Mu’s impending fleet of brews. Already, Flatland has four flagship beers planned: maple cream porter, raspberry red ale, pilsner and that English brown.
Among avid craft-brew enthusiasts, IPAs have grown in popularity in recent years, and Flatland said it’s vital that Mu cranks out a tasty one.
Brewing one has meant using a dry-hopping technique that’s new to Flatland, and he wants to make sure he gets the flavor just right, with the right amount of bite and hoppiness to it.
“I feel pretty confident, but it could always go awry,” he said.
After that first batch, Flatland scrapped one of the techniques he used — which involved essentially recycling yeast from his brown ale for the IPA. That seemed to mellow out the flavor too much, robbing the beer of the trademark bite, which wasn’t acceptable. “We won’t be doing that again,” he said.
After a second batch, Flatland felt the IPA still has a ways to go. “I’m still at the drawing board,” he said.