Boulder brewery offering beers and tacos on huge patio

By Liam Easley

After a Covid-19 slowdown in March, Sanitas Brewing Co. decided to get creative in order to keep selling beer in Boulder.

The taproom re-opened June 24. However, the five-year-old brewery also blew up its patio, which now features the largest outdoor seating space among Boulder breweries, the brewery reports. With a bar on the patio and a taco truck, the patrons are coming back.

“The realities of COVID-19 hit us hard in March, and that reality forced us to look deep into our business and search for ways to pivot and be creative,” co-founder and CEO Michael Mesmic said. “With the new cautions that exist in this unpredictable world, we looked to our patio as a way to celebrate our customers and our community.”

The expanded space wasn’t the first idea Mesmic and the crew had come up with. Shortly after the state-mandated modifications were announced in spring, Sanitas busted out its Adult Ice Cream Truck. Music blaring, the Sanitas van rolled into neighborhoods in Boulder, Lafayette and Broomfield, delivering canned beer and crowlers. There were a few negotiations that were held with the Liquor Enforcement Division to deliver beer but the creatives at Sanitas pulled it off. “The project was wildly popular and a ton of fun,” Mesmic said.

The brewery is still delivering beer for those who place orders online with valid identification.
As people get used to wearing masks and social distancing, the expanded space at the brewery seemed to be a natural fit. A new bar top made from a 12-foot-long shipping container sits among the 8,000 square feet of new space. On tap, the bar offers several Sanitas microbrews as well as a selection of other Sanitas beers in bottles and cans. To add to the excitement of the patio, three new Sanitas beers are available exclusively at the outdoor bar.

“We obviously don't know how long this virus will be here to slow business, but we are eager to give our customers and fans a place to celebrate summer in our backyard,” Mesmic said.

While on the patio, guests can indulge in food from McDevitt Taco Supply, which was voted Boulder’s best food truck two years in a row, all while comfortably situated underneath the patio’s retractable shade sails.

To accommodate safety regulations during the pandemic, there will be a limit of 200 guests on the patio.

“Sanitas Brewing is, at its core, fueled by the community. The relationships we’ve built with people around the brewery have kept us going all these years,” Sanitas Controller Zach Jardinico said. “Everything we’ve put into this patio is to provide an even better space for our people to let the good times roll, all while ensuring safe and socially distance procedures.”

If you go, be sure to grab a four-pack of the brewery’s first-ever 16-ounce cans, which hold their Experimental Hop Series.

Sanitas Brewing is open every day at 11:30 a.m. and offers beer pickup and deliveries Monday through Saturday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.