Meet Donovan Routsis | Owner & Head Brewer, Black Forest Brewing Company || Co-Owner & Coach, Rail Stop Fitness

We had the good fortune of connecting with Donovan Routsis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Donovan, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
After retiring from the Air Force, we decided we wanted to start businesses where we could give back to the community where we decided to retire. Having spent 26 years moving from assignment to assignment, it’s always challenging to establish roots in a community. After getting stationed in Colorado Springs, we decided we wanted to build businesses that would be a gathering place for community members to socialize with their friends, meet new people and grow a stronger community.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
As a child, I wanted to be an architect as it brings a delicate balance of art and science. A career in the Air Force wasn’t conducive to an architecture degree, so I majored in Aerospace Engineering (helpful eventually when it comes to fluid dynamics), however that passion for balancing art and science remained. After falling in love with craft beer, homebrewing and the craft brewing scene, I decided to try my hand at commercial craft brewing by opening the Black Forest Brewing Company. Similar to architecture, craft brewing is an amazing mixture of art in recipe design and flavor development, as well as science with biology, chemistry and the craft of fermentation, or zymurgy.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
As a member of the brewing industry, I would definitely take them to several of the breweries in town. Additionally, some of our amazing sights like Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods and Manitou Springs would be on the sort list.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
This entire journey has been a family activity with my wife Tara being the heart and soul of the legal aspects, customer service operations and human resources. Our kids, now college age, were instrumental in teardown and buildup of our facilities as well as stepping in to help out with operations during events and staff shortages. Additionally, our amazing staff and regular clients are like family and care about the businesses as dearly as we do. Whether it’s helping to keep us afloat during the pandemic through sales or initiating and running regular events like our trivia nights and run clubs, our staff and caring customers are instrumental to our success.

Website: blackforestbrewingco.com, railstopfitness.com

Instagram: blackforestbrewingco, blackforestbrewingcoeast, railstopfitness

Facebook: BlackForestBrewingCo, BlackForestBrewingCoEast, RailStopFitness

Image Credits
Melany McKnight Photography