Oasis Brewing, a small taproom located inside a former church in Denver’s Highland Square, said Wednesday on Facebook that it will close for good on Dec. 23.
“It is with a heavy heart that we are closing Oasis after a final day of serving amazing beer on December 23rd. Words cannot express how grateful we are for the community around us and the support we have had over the last five years,” the brewery wrote.
“This decision was not easy and certainly not what we had imagined when we opened in 2018. Thank you to everyone who has helped build the community and atmosphere at Oasis. Please come in and enjoy a pint with our staff and help us go out on a positive note.”
Brewery owner George Hanna told The Denver Post that the company simply wasn’t able to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic and other economic challenges.
“We, as so many others, were set back and never truly recovered our momentum. In the interim, labor, materials and rent increases all took their toll as well,” he said in an email. “We had many good months of sales but more than not, the years weren’t. We put all our best efforts to keep it afloat but in the end, we just couldn’t carry it further.”
Oasis is now looking for a new investor “to take the reins,” Hanna said.
The brewery has a very unusual backstory. Hanna founded it in 1991 in Boulder as one of the state’s first wave of legacy beer makers, and it quickly built up a large following for its homegrown beers, including Scarab Red, Tut Brown Ale and Zoser Stout.
But in 2001, when the microbrewing industry went through some consolidation, Hanna closed Oasis and moved on. Thirteen years later, he decided to get back into the business with some help from his son and his son-in-law. The group eventually found a location in Denver, inside the renovated and historic Beth Eden Baptist Church, 3257 Lowell Blvd., and opened in 2018.