Burns Family Artisan Ales has held a unique place in Colorado’s craft beer scene: the tiny brewery specializes in rich, high-alcohol beers and has been run, almost entirely for much of its existence, by husband-and-wife owners Wayne Burns and Laura Worley.
Despite its family feeling, loyal followers and its highly-rated beers, though, Burns, at 1236 S. Broadway, said Tuesday that it will close its doors on May 31.
“When we opened to the public on August 18, 2018, our pride was in our great service and in the quality and innovation of our beer,” the owners wrote on social media. Wayne Burns, who helped start Jagged Mountain Craft Brewery (now closed) in Denver in 2013 before opening Burns Family Artisan Ales, had been an award-winning beer maker for two decades at the Vine Street Pub in Denver, and at Kuhnhenn’s Brewing and Bell’s Brewery, both in Michigan.
“We developed classic and experimental styles from 2.2% ABV to 25.1% ABV. We succeeded with our niche of barrel-aged and high-alcohol beer to an extent that we remain the 4th highest rated brewery in the state of Colorado,” they continued. “We have a client base of loyalists who visit us regularly, cheerlead for us, promote us and can’t say enough good things about us (thank you!)”
Burns, which originally operated in the former Wit’s End Brewing space in a business park at 2505 W. 2nd Ave., moved to the more heavily trafficked South Broadway location (the former home of Dos Luces Brewing) in late 2023. “But the truth of the matter is that our taproom was full only on the rarest of occasions. We needed more patrons,” Burns and Worley said online.
“The most advantageous way to get the best cash flow is by selling someone a glass of beer, in your own place, over the bar. We simply didn’t have enough people visiting to enable growth. Thank you for buying beer, for attending our events, and recommending us to others … It is not your fault that we are closing. It is not our fault. It’s just the way business can be.”
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Originally Published: May 14, 2025 at 10:34 AM MDT
