Everyone is Welcome to Gather Around the Bonfire

By Kyle Kirves

Most of us have one of those memories. Maybe it’s camping and roasting up hotdogs on a stick you sharpened with a pocketknife. Or you and your crew sitting in folding lawn chairs after a high school football game sipping beers cribbed from your old man’s beer fridge. Maybe even your first kiss and all the promise and possibility that goes with that.

These memories or one like them are common to many of us. I’m guessing an integral part of that memory that lies at its center was a bonfire.

That spirit is what Bonfire Brewing in Eagle hopes to conjure up for you every time you have one of their craft beers.

“When we were first talking about what our identity would be, we asked ourselves ‘what was the first beer you had?’” says Amanda Jessen, co-founder and marketing lead at Bonfire. “And we all had memories of having one around a fire. We wanted to tap into that sense of nostalgia as part of our identity and a symbol of our core values – living an authentic mountain lifestyle.”

Amanda and her husband Andy Jessen, with the help of a third partner, kindled up the idea for Bonfire Brewing in 2010. Like a fire itself, once they got it started, it really took off. “We went from an initial concept to opening our doors in six months. From the get-go, our local community really let us know that this was a great idea and that they wanted to see us succeed. We were bolstered by those first few weeks.”

Embraced quickly by Eagle, Bonfire Brewing has a home-team vibe that wasn’t really apparent on their original dual-tone cans. They sought to change that and embrace everything Eagle in 2017 with an art refresh effort for their core brands.

“We realized we wanted to tell a better story and we wanted to tell that story through our packaging,” Amanda says. So, she convened representatives from the entire organization – marketers, brewers, designers, beertenders, wait staff, everybody – to weigh in. The result?

“We discovered that we remain authentic to our original vision and the dream we have – that everyone is welcome to gather ’round the Bonfire,” Amanda says. And that’s not just lip service – it’s a point of pride, in fact, that Bonfire Brewing has never closed for a private event or party. Their doors remain open to all during business hours, a testimony to their credo of inclusion and that everyone is welcome.

The desire to create images and branding that truly reflected that remained. Working with artists Heather Neale and Riley Cran during 2017 and 2018, Bonfire Brewing created new images for established, well-loved beers. The charge was to create images that would serve as postcards from the brewery and Eagle area itself in new motifs and bolder colors.

Now their beers flash with eye-catching, vibrant colors that pop off the shelf, thematically centered on the place Bonfire calls home. The remarkable transformation of flagship favorite Kindler Pale Ale is particularly striking: a full wrap mountain lake scene in cyan hues with the silhouette of a solo hiker and her dog in full exclamation. The art on Firestarter IPA is a thematically similar rendering of a mountain chalet A-frame, but done up in vibrant yellow, pinks, and purples.

When asked if she has a favorite, Amanda cites the look of WTFO and its deep purple art. “It’s the night sky here in Eagle. It twinkles. And if you look closely, that’s the Gore Range and I-70 at night. There’s nothing else out there like it.” She also calls out the Brush Creek Blonde’s tribute to its namesake waterway – the town of Eagle’s main water source – as a favorite. Because the images are inspired by Eagle and the surrounding area, they’ve been a hit with people here. But they’ve also served to represent this true mountain brewery to other parts of Colorado.

Their new Community Creator Series of beers are one-timers and special series or seasonsal series beers Amanda describes as a “distilled version of everything we do. We are good community creators. Whether we’re making a beer or doing design work or working in the brewery, all of that creates a community. We return to that again and again as a company.” Look for new Creator offerings coming to beer stores soon, with other releases coming frequently throughout the year. Amanda suggests that Bonfire was inspired to use “gradients radiating out from the warm heart Bonfire center, while glowing fireflies --- our community members -- are drawn to it.”

The fiery logo that has served as Bonfire’s flagship image is well-chosen and remains unchanged, just like the people who started the brewery nearly ten years ago. Like the brewery itself, bonfires are often the center of a community, big or small. For a brief moment in time, a bonfire is the heart and hearth, a place where stories are told, laughs shared, and lifelong friendships forged. But while your backyard bonfire may burn bright for only a short while, you can be certain that Bonfire Brewing and the people who make it special will remain stoked for years to come.

Kyle Kirves drinks beer, plays guitar, runs trails, and manages projects – all with varying degrees of success. While not a craftsman himself, he is quite content writing about the Colorado artisans who create such wonderful things and memorable experiences.