AURORA | Nathan Flatland is ready to dirty his hands with something besides beer suds.
Not that the founder of Mu Brewery minds hunching over a steaming kettle of beer a few days a week, getting his hands dirty with some home-brewed beer — that part is always fun.
But a few months into launching his own brewery and tasting room on East Colfax Avenue, Flatland is ready to augment his brewing efforts with some manual labor. He’s itching to swing a hammer, to knock down a wall or two and finally see his dream start to take shape.
Flatland likens the excitement to the weeks before Christmas when he was a child. Months of anticipation have only made him more excited to start demolition and construction.
Adding to the excitement are finished plans from the architects that are designing the brewery and tasting room.
The plans call for 46 seats in the tasting room, including about a dozen at the bar near the front entrance. The front wall will be a garage door that staff can keep open on nice days to let fresh air in.
The simple Mu logo will be prominent on the brick facade out front, and Flatland hopes to have work from local artists dotting some of the walls.
And the wall separating the tasting room from the brewhouse in the back will have a window so customers can watch Flatland and his staff brew the beer.
Having those plans is akin to the days before Christmas when the tree is up, and you know the holiday is inching ever closer, Flatland said.
But a hefty workload stands between now and seeing those drawings become a reality, a workload Flatland is more than ready to tackle. He has visualized that first swing of the hammer plenty in recent weeks. He sees himself and the rest of Mu’s board of directors lined up along one of the weathered walls of his store front at 9735 E. Colfax Ave., hefty sledge hammers in their gloved hands, ready for that ceremonial first swing.
“That moment when all of that is going on is when it’s going to sink in,” he said. After that, equipment for the bar and brewhouse will start arriving and Mu will finally take shape.
Flatland had hoped that moment with the hammers would come later this month, and the brewery’s opening would follow in early September. But, as is often the case with new small businesses, the project has bumped into a handful of delays, so those walls will be intact until sometime in August. The grand opening will likely come in late September or maybe early October.
The delays haven’t been anything major — a slower-than-expected back and forth with the state about getting a permit for outdoor seating along Colfax among them. And Flatland hasn’t let a hiccup or two dilute his excitement about the project.
“I know how this works,” he said. “None of this is a surprise to me.”
Tim Gonerka, retail specialist for the city of Aurora, said that kind of attitude is an asset for Flatland, especially considering the often-tricky task of launching a business from the ground up.
“It always takes longer than anyone thinks it’s going to,” he said.
City officials have long wanted to revitalize the stretch of Colfax that Mu is moving into. Gonerka said he wants the neighborhood — dubbed the Aurora Cultural Arts District — to be a hub of arts and night life, and he sees Mu as a central piece of that.
“There is a certain hipness to it,” he said.