USA, CO: Trail Life Brewing finally opens its doors in Grand Junction

Grand Junction’s Trail Life Brewing finally opened its doors to the public on August 3, filling the other remaining half of the void that had been left on Main Street by the Twisted Turtle’s closing, The Daily Sentinel reported.

The brewery at 436 Main St. is co-owned by married couple Ryan and Emma Dutch and shares its building with Gear Junction.

The two are thematically similar, with Gear Junction providing equipment for the outdoors and Trail Life Brewing hoping to serve as a gathering place for lovers of the outdoors.

Gear Junction opened in May, and now, after nearly a year of work to bring their side of the building up to code, renovate it and install the framework for a brewery, the Dutches can get down to beer business.

“It feels awesome. I don’t know how else to say it,” Ryan said. “Everything we’ve been working for for the last year... it’s amazing. Everything, down to the beer board, turned out how we wanted. It came out excellent.”

Trail Life’s initial beer board included nearly two dozen options from the region and around the state, such as the Palisade Brewing Laid Back Blonde, the Telluride Face Down Brown, Cedaredge’s Snowcapped Honeycrisp Cider, Durango’s Ska Mexican Lager and the Great Divide Denver Pale Ale.

The food menu includes items both American and foreign, with items such as a two-patty burger, chicken katsu, a Swiss melt and fish and chips.

“We’re big travelers, so we have a pretty eclectic menu from all over,” Ryan said. “It’s not like one type of sandwiches. You don’t have to choose from many types of hamburgers. It’s all varied.

“It’s a little bit of something for everyone. You can definitely see the international flair on there. You can tell that it’s from our travels,” he said.

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