A Bear's First Birthday
This weekend, Urban Animal celebrates its first anniversary, so we chatted with Mike Centanne and Bryan Bradigan about their first 365 days of selling beer in Southern Colorado Springs.
Uncertainty, at first
Thinking back a year and a half ago, at that point it wasn’t certain that Urban Animal would even be able to open up—on time or at all. During the summer of 2022, Urban Animal was facing multiple construction delays, skyrocketing building costs and a brew system stuck in “shipping container purgatory” after coming off a ship in Los Angeles. It wasn’t looking good for the unicycling Bear branded brewery. Luckily, for them (and all of us), everything had a way of working out.
“It’s definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Opening a brewery at that time (or any business for that matter) isn’t for the faint of heart.” - Mike Centanne
Those were the words Urban Animal’s Mike Centanne texted to me back in early August, 2022. Miraculously, within a week of that text, their brew system arrived, and some “lost” tanks were found a few months later. Coupled with a lot of Centanne’s own custom woodwork, and a plethora of guest taps to fill out their tap list, Urban Animal was able to open on September 30th 2022.
Finding their groove
It didn’t take long for Urban Animal, once they had the fermentation and maturation tanks available, to get to work brewing up enough beer to fill all of their fourteen taps. Along with a lot of new recipes, Mike also brought back some fan favorites from his Iron Bird days, most notably a hazier version of Propaganda IPA and Deathbot, Iron Bird’s Belgian wit.
Centanne, in my recent visit to Urban Animal, remarked on how this first year felt different than other “firsts” for the previous two breweries he helped open. We joked about “if” there will ever be another brewery he’ll help start, and it truly sounds like he’s ready to “settle down” for a bit. Beer wise, I definitely feel like Centanne’s style has matured in a sense, where Iron Bird and Metric were younger versions of Mike’s brewing, Urban Animal beer is almost always a step above.
Take for example their anniversary beer releases. Yes, there’s a pumpkin ale and a pineapple chili blond, but the two standouts are their Bourbon and Sherry Barrel Aged Imperial Stout and a Dortmunder. The Dortmunder was brewed in collaboration with the crew over at Colorado Mountain Brewery and will be on tap at both breweries after the anniversary.
If you like (or hate) the waxed tops, you have Troy Johnson from Cerberus and myself to thank (or blame), as we told Centanne that they had to do it for the anniversary. Centanne was dropping off Cerberus’ labeling machine he borrowed for these bombers when I was there covering their anniversary a month or so ago. You have to admit they look really good, even with the hassle.
Centanne mentions that he went really “traditional” with the imperial stout, but plans to get crazy with next year’s variant, so it sounds like these wax topped anniversary bottles could be a recurring theme at Urban Animal’s anniversaries to come…we’re definitely a fan!
When I asked about fond memories of this first year, all that Centanne and Bradigan could conjure up was thankfulness for their supportive patrons and amazing staff, as this year could have been a lot harder without them both.
Since opening, it’s been pedal to the metal for Urban Animal, with their brewhouse pumping out new releases on a weekly basis. Centanne and his team have been quickly staking their rightful place on the upper echelon of the craft beer scene in Colorado Springs.
Spreading the love
Instead of running specials and releases on a single day, the team at Urban Animal is opting to spread their anniversary over the entire weekend, with special releases happening each day.
On Friday, look for their Pumpkin Pie Amber to join their BA Imperial Stout on tap to kick off the celebrations, followed by the Dortmunder and Pueblo Chile Pineapple blonde on Saturday.
If a bottle for the cellar tickles your fancy, or if you’re planning on having a DD, their BA Imperial Stout is available in both to-go waxed bottles or unwaxed on premise bottles. At 12%+, it’s a hefty critter, so plan accordingly.
Urban Animal will also have limited-edition anniversary glasses that will be available featuring special art by Mike Fudge, the artist who created Urban Animal’s branding.
See you there!
Our Annual Awards, Reimagined
For years, we’ve hosted a voting-style competition for various categories in the local beer scene, and in lieu of a popularity contest, we’re reimagining how we award our top brewery picks for 2023.
Knowing we can’t be everywhere at once, we’re hoping our readers can help us fill in the blanks and nominate who you see as the best of our local brewery scene. We’ll take all of the nominations and then a small committee of local beer enthusiasts and the Focus on the Beer team will sort through all the nominations to make our picks.
Psst: Since you’re a subscriber to Focus on the Beer’s Focal Pint newsletter, you get a head start on nominations…there’s no limit, but make them good.
Timeline:
October 1 - November 23: Nominations Open
December, Dates TBA: Committee Meets to make Picks
First week of January: Awards will be announced and distributed
Some ideas for nominations:
Best Overall Brewery (atmosphere, beer quality, etc)
Best Beer-centric Event (Festival, tasting, etc)
Best Beer Person (brewer, brewery owner, someone who did something that benefitted the Colorado Springs beer scene)
Best Brewery for ____ (Is a brewery really paving the way in a certain aspect?)
Anything else you think makes a local brewery or business worthy of a beer-related award—get creative!
We’ll be awarding 3-5 “Gold” awards total, and will distribute a custom plaque to the recipients (more on those soon). We hope to continue this next year with new plaques, etc. Thanks for your help!