MainStage Brewing has developed a reputation as one of the best free bluegrass nights on the Front Range. Credit: James Hanlon
MainStage co-founder and brewmaster Sam Scruby says the craft beer market has “matured” rather than declined. Credit: Tyler Hickman
Tucked in an industrial cul-de-sac northeast of Boulder, a banjoist, an upright bassist, a guitarist and a mandolinist take the stage. Together, they twang out a smooth succession of songs about trains, prison and heartbreak to the laidback audience of craft beer sippers who have gathered this Friday night in February.
Their band doesn’t have a name, because they’re not a band. Besides Aaron and Erin Youngberg, who are married (and like to joke about having the same phonetic name), these musicians have never played together before tonight. It’s a living room jam session on stage.
“Part of the fun is making sure the crowd knows we're not a band. We're figuring this out as we go,” says Aaron, the banjo player. “It’s not much different than if the four of us went to one of our houses.”
The weekly band scramble is an extension of a summer series that began five years ago on the patio of MainStage Brewing in Lyons, where it developed a reputation as one of the best free bluegrass nights on the Front Range.
Since MainStage opened a taproom a year ago at the former Beyond the Mountain Brewing location in Gunbarrel, more indoor space has allowed the “MainGrass” tradition to continue through the colder months.
“We're very proud of what we’ve built,” says Eric Kean, MainStage co-founder and CEO. “It speaks to the musicians who play. It's really good music.”
Before the original MainStage opened in 2021, folk artist Emma Rose approached Kean through a mutual friend with the idea of organizing a series of rotating musicians from different bands. It would be curated with serious players, yet keep with the campfire vibe: Just call a tune and play it.
Rose, a former member of Big Richard now known for Sound of Honey, moved on to bigger projects, but her legacy continues. Kean has taken over booking the showcase — not a stretch, since he has been immersed in the bluegrass scene throughout his career as a sound engineer. He worked for Planet Bluegrass for a dozen years and is still the production manager for eTown, the nationally syndicated radio broadcast recorded live from Boulder.
“This area of Colorado, especially Boulder County and parts of Denver, probably has the best bluegrass scene in the country, maybe with the exception of Nashville,” Kean says. “It's as good as it gets here.”
In the half-decade since MainStage opened, the craft beer industry has struggled with closings, consolidation and slacking sales. Last year in Boulder alone, Beyond the Mountain and Sanitas Brewing Co. closed, and Upslope Brewing Co. sold its production to Lafayette-based beverage conglomerate Wilding Brands.
MainStage’s other co-founder and brewmaster Sam Scruby, previously Upslope’s head brewer, says the craft beer market has “matured” rather than declined.
“For the longest time, more breweries were opening than closing, and that was a decade,” Scruby says. “With any industry, that's not sustainable.”
Breweries continued to expand during the pandemic, when people were drinking more. Since then, nonalcoholic craft beverages have become more popular, like the Boulder-based Hoplark line of hoppy teas and seltzers. And a lot of think pieces say Gen Z just isn’t that into beer.
Scruby says that’s mostly overblown. The market, he believes, will bounce back.
“People have been drinking beer for thousands of years,” he says. “I think a generation will discover beer over the next 10 years, too.”
The brewery’s beer is nothing fancy, focusing on drinkability while embracing creativity. The Bavarian-style pale lager called I Hope They Serve Green Chili in Helles, for example, has a hint of spice without too much kick.
“I particularly like brewing white lagers and hoppier IPAs,” Scruby says while opening the hatch of a kettle tank to check on boiling wort. “Not that that is a shocking thing — a lot of brewers will tell you that. That's what I find myself drinking.”
Nested in a business park without much traffic, the new Gunbarrel location has its challenges. People no longer go out of their way to find craft beer like they did a decade ago. Kean and Scruby hope branding MainStage as a performance venue will make the taproom more of a destination.
Kean’s attention to acoustic quality sets MainStage apart from other bars with a microphone, mandolin player Dave Pailet says during a set break. He points up to a sound diffuser made of wood panels suspended above the stage that distributes sound waves over the bar chatter and across the box-shaped building without an echo.
“This makes it a nice-sounding room,” Pailet says, “which is something most breweries don't invest in.”
MainGrass returned to Lyons for its classic Thursday summer nights in late April, with the showcase coming back to its new location for the winter in October. The Gunbarrel stage also hosts a bluegrass open pick — led by members of The Sweet Lilies and open to anyone with an instrument — Wednesdays year-round.
“Our core thing is putting great beer in front of people with great experiences like MainGrass,” Kean says. “A couple millennia of beer drinking proves that doesn't go out of style. People gather and enjoy each other's company if there's something fun going on.”
ON TAP: MainGrass Jams. 6-9 p.m. Thursdays, Mainstage Brewing, 450 Main St., Lyons. Free
