By Steve Graham

After 21 years of brewing at New Belgium, Peter Bouckaert still has plenty of fresh ideas — and plenty of fans.

They followed him from the land of Fat Tire to midtown Fort Collins for the opening of his new venture, Purpose Brewing and Cellars. Bouckaert opened the new brewery with Zach and Laura Wilson. The couple used to work for 1933 Brewing at the same site. They chose to reopen this month with a new focus on unique, small-batch beers that are only made once.

“We never brew the same beer twice,” Laura said.

There was a standing-room crowd at Purpose on Saturday, despite the rainy weather, for those single-batch beers.

Purpose opened with four beers, including a rose-hued Belgian blonde brewed with pink peppercorns and hibiscus flowers, and a hoppy ale made with local Troubadour Malting grains and rare Japanese citrus fruit, then double dry hopped with Belma and Bravo hops. They also tapped a sour blonde and a sour brown, both aged in Infinite Monkey Theorem wine barrels.

Purpose is open weekends, with a new beer lineup almost every week. Laura said she is particularly looking forward to the “Nacht Up.” The name is a reference to her pregnancy, and she roasted Sumatra coffee over pecan wood for the beer, which is also brewed with coconut, grains of paradise, orange peel and vanilla beans.

Bouckaert is still working at both breweries, but plans to move to Purpose full-time early next year. Laura will also soon start offering her wood-roasted coffee at the brewery.