Telluride. Skiing. Rafting. Grateful Dead. But most of all, BEER brought best friends Chris Fish and Tommy Thacher together.

The pair first met at a local bar in Telluride. Fish was the brewmaster, and Tommy the bartender. At night, they spent long hours discussing their quest for the perfect beer and their ultimate dream of opening a brewery.

Over time, Fish’s beers began attracting attention – winning gold and bronze medals at the Great American Beer Festival and developing a dedicated following throughout Colorado. Tommy, meanwhile, went on to become a middle school history teacher. He and Fish remained close, however – seeing music, going on rafting and ski adventures, arguing over their favorite football teams, and, always, talking about their quest for the perfect beer.

Now, more than a decade in the making, Fish and Tommy made their quest for that perfect beer a reality. In May 2011, Fish and Tommy partnered with Telluride real estate broker Brian Gavin and local graphic artist John Lehman to form the Telluride Brewing Company. The team spent much of 2011 working to build their brewery and fine tune their brewing process.

The result is a variety of beers that come straight from Rocky Mountain snow-melt, which are made with premium malts and worthy hops. Since the first beer was poured in 2012, Telluride Brewing has been on a tear. Telluride Brewing has undergone four different expansions, which has allowed production to roughly double each year. The brewery also took home Gold medals for their Face Down Brown at World Beer Cup (2012), Great American Beer Festival (2012), and Great American Beer Festival (2014), and Bronze at the Great American Beer Festival (2016). In addition to Face Down Brown’s accolades, Telluride Brewing also won hardware for the Whacked Out Wheat at Great American Beer Festival (2015) and World Beer Cup (2016).  Over the last five years, Telluride Brewing has also expanded distribution of its kegs and cans throughout the great state of Colorado and has no plans of distributing outside of Colorado.  Fish and Tommy are always scheming to fine tune their quest for the perfect beer, but it is a safe assumption that their dream continues to come true!

Head Brewer: Chris Fish

156 Society Dr, Telluride, CO 81435

2024 Beer Styles

Regular Tasting Sessions

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High ABV Session

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House of Brews

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