Not so long and forever ago, a group of Colorado Springs entrepreneurs herded its creative energies and funds into a startup brewery named after an epic display of chin whiskers.

When we first met Goat Patch Brewing Co.’s founding friends in 2016, they’d secured an anchor location inside Lincoln Center, a former elementary school and then under-development community and small-business hub on Cascade Avenue. Co-owner and head brewer Darren Baze’s braided, beaded megagoatee wasn’t yet old enough to drink.

Today, the project is a model of success at a time when craft beer is facing challenges unseen in a beer generation. Goat Patch has raised the bar, recently opening a second taproom on the city’s north side, and, in late 2024, announcing the acquisition of Monument’s iconic Pikes Peak Brewing Co.

We caught up with several of Goat Patch Brewing’s owners early this year, to ask about the impacts of wild economic times, how they survived and what’s next.

Justin Grant: We pivoted pretty quickly after COVID. We were able to kind of weather the storm and maintain cash flow. July will be eight years that we’ve been open, and I think every year, every day, every month, we learn something new. I feel like when we first started this journey, we had a lot of trial and error and things that didn’t work.

Question: Can you give some examples of what worked and didn’t?

Grant: We looked at expansion prior to COVID, and we were looking for an industrial space to really focus on our wholesale. We (considered) 23 places … (but) we didn’t put money into an expansion at that time, which really would have impacted us. I mean, who knows what could have happened?

Cate Baze: I don’t think that you can always point to they did something wrong and we did something right. I just think that there’s so many factors that go into being successful. Some of it is pure luck, some of it is hard work. If we had signed a lease on one of those industrial spaces in November of 2019, there probably wouldn’t be a Goat Patch right now.

So timing and a little luck played into it. Is there something else that helped you stay the course?

Cate Baze: Success is based on the community that we have — whether it’s the staff that’s stood with us and did this adventure or it’s the patrons. … One of the things that makes us a little bit different is our ownership structure. We have a couple of couples involved. We don’t always make the fastest decisions, which can be hard in some ways. But in a lot of ways, for the big ones, the slow decisions and really talking it through and looking at it from every angle has helped us have success.

How is the identity or trajectory of Goat Patch today different from when you opened?

Grant: There’s certain things that will probably never change about us from a culture standpoint, (but) change is sometimes needed and that’s a good thing. For example, we never, ever thought that we would do food. That was something we talked about early on. And, you know, when you look at, what the food element brings to the overall experience … we took a chance. Our Voyager Parkway location (which will have a kitchen) was something that we wanted to go and do as kind of a proof of concept. That is really something I feel has changed our perspective of the industry.

Will you be using the larger canning system at Pikes Peak Brewing to expand production in more of a to-go direction?

Cate Baze: In some ways, you could say we were a little late to the game with canning, but we did it in a time that made sense for us. We didn’t do it too soon. We don’t feel like we did it too late. We just did it at the right time. So I think it’s always kind of, you know, trying to read the tea leaves as best as you can.

Sounds like that’s a … not yet?

Grant: Quality of beer has always been No. 1 in our mission. We’re pretty methodical in those approaches with putting stuff out there, and when it’s the right time and we’re sure we’re doing it right … we’ll pull the trigger and go full steam ahead. But as of right now, the only place you can buy packaged Goat Patch beer is at the Lincoln Center.

Just to bring the conversation full circle, how long is Baze’s goatee these days?

Darren Baze: (He started growing the chin cascade around the turn of the millennium.) I don’t have a tape measure handy, but the bottom is about 6 inches above my knee.

Cate Baze: (After consulting measuring tape) 36 inches.