It Was All a Dream: Brief Thoughts on Losing Unique Breweries

By David Nilsen

I love breweries with unique concepts, especially when those concepts reflect the cultural roots and commitments of its founders. Wah Gwaan in Denver was one of those, brewing Jamaican-inspired beers celebrating the backgrounds of founders Harsha Maragh and Jesse Brown.

I spent a bright afternoon there in fall 2022. For a time it was just me and the barkeeper, a man of effusive personality and little in way of filter, a disheveled puppy dog Lost Boy who was, from what I could tell, harmless.

I tasted through their beers, especially enjoying It Was All a Dream, a Cream Ale brewed with a generous pitch of toasted coconut. I can't think of a beer I would have enjoyed more on that day in that place.

Sadly, the entire thing really did turn out to be all a dream. Wah Gwaan announced they were closing down a few months later. Denver has hemorrhaged good but esoteric breweries of late. Nearby Dos Luces, the only brewery in the country focused on brewing pre-Colombian Chicha and Pulque, announced they were shutting their doors in 2023.

Decades of craft beer growth are over. Breweries are going to close. As bad as it sounds, I don't think that would be all bad if we could choose the ones that did. Sadly, we lose irreplaceable gems like Wah Gwaan and Dos Luces instead.

This brief essay is taken from the Beers Remembered zine. You can read more brief vignettes like this on beer and beer culture by purchasing the zine here.