Meet Ben Harmelink | Beermonger

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

Hi Ben, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Even from the concept phase, my business partner and I knew we wanted to focus on specifically independent, Colorado-made beverages. This state had become the Mecca for craft beer, with the burgeoning industries of craft cider, mead and spirits right on its tail. Rob, my next door neighbor and first friend when I moved to the state, held the blame for opening my mind and palate to specialty brews, and we had run the gamut of Denver breweries nearest to the apartment complex where we lived. We eventually discovered (and promptly became regulars at) Twenty Brew Taphouse in Westminster, a local craft beer bar that did not produce its own beverages, but rather rapidly rotated through a hand-picked selection of manufacturers and styles. This was where we first experienced the Colorado locavore culture and saw what a strong following the words “local” and “independent” brought to the table. However, even the restaurants and bars with the widest craft beer selection were limited by distribution: all we patronized were entirely reliant on nearby providers and large delivery companies to obtain their inventory. But what if, Rob and I enthused, we might create a Taphouse environment similar to Twenty Brew- but with a business model centered around direct acquisition of small, non-distributing manufacturers to supply our rotating tap list and liquor shelves? In theory, this would allow us to feature a product lineup of which the bulk of options were unique to only our business in whatever region we operated in; in fact much would be unobtainable but for our location and that of the provider directly! With this in mind we devised what we coined a “brewer-centric craft beer bar” that would include all the facilities to serve these lovingly made libations with as much care as they had been crafted: -A massive, custom walk-in cooler with three separate climate zones for serving at different temperatures, both modern American and traditional European,
-A thirty tap beer draught system with multiple coupler and faucet options,
-Over a dozen (13 at open; currently 18) styles of specialty serving glassware paired by style guidelines to best encapsulate the beverages.
Certainly with these, we wagered, we could woo even the most remote or stubborn brewers to allow us access to their products. We also concocted a purchasing scheme to play on the pride and showmanship of these masters; not asking for their best-selling or most awarded options but rather lesser-known product that they as the maker were very proud of, but for one reason or another did not receive as much notice from their customers as they themselves deigned it worth. We would request this item (only one keg or case at a time, of course, to accommodate most small operations’ extremely limited capacity) with the hope that, through our serving methods, we might explore the full potential of the product and reveal the same admiration and enjoyment to our own patrons that the manufacturers expressed.
Now over four years in, High Brau Taphouse has reaped the rewards of our exclusive harvest- although we do not enjoy the same low wholesale cost and high margins of most on-premise alcohol establishments quickly moving large amounts of large-scale, widely available inventory, we are able to provide our patrons with a rare, often unique, and always eclectic selection that has been our trademark and the cornerstone of our slowly-but-surely growing reputation across the entire state. This same reputation has opened doors for additional and newly-established accounts, ever increasing our options and availability of craft beverages. The industry itself has proved the biggest blessing in my opinion; in our ever-expanding quest for unique and exciting inventory we have had the privilege of meeting and working with some of the most interesting, intelligent, and friendly tradespeople I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, many of which I now may count among my closest friends. Every day is an adventure, and we are very much looking forward to seeing what the future brings for High Brau Taphouse!

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
High Brau Taphouse aims to be a “brewer-centric” beer bar. With three separate climate zones in the cooler to dispense from and over fifteen types of specialty beer glassware, we rely on traditional style guidelines and brewer recommendations to ensure that every pour is served at its full tasting potential. We rapidly rotate everything on the menu, and our purchasing method allows us to obtain kegs from remote and small-batch breweries that may not distribute. This means that we’ll be able to offer beers that you would normally only find by going to the breweries directly; instead we’ve lined them all up on one convenient 30-tap system! We consider Colorado the craft beer capital of the world; the state is home to over 400 microbreweries crafting every style imaginable. So why go anywhere else? Every beverage we serve comes from right here in Colorado, and we stand firmly with our independent manufacturers and the Colorado Brewers Guild to keep local beer local and protect endangered beer! The same goes for our food: always available in-house are snacks from our friends at Rocky Mountain Pizza, Styria Pretzels and Colorado Nut Company. We’ve also partnered with La Petite Bakery next door to build a pass-through window for artisan French-Mediterranean patisserie!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Greeley has definitely come a long way in just the last 10 years; while it is still at its heart very much a blue-collar livestock town, it has been one of the fastest growing cities in America and has begun to be drug kicking and screaming into the gentrification of the Front Range. While the property values (and associated taxes) have risen as Greeley’s western edge has rapidly expanded to meet with Loveland and connect via metroplex to the entire Denver-Fort Collins run, it has made the city much more accessible for businesses and their supporting customer bases to exact commerce. Downtown is host to a thriving entertainment scene, with craft food and beverage, cinema and concert venues, and eclectic shops and galleries.

6 breweries:
Crabtree Brewing
Rule105 Brewing
TightKnit Brewing
Weldwerks Brewing
Wiley Roots Brewing
Yetter’s Brewing

3 distilleries:
477 Distilling
Syntax Spirits
The Shine Shop Craft Spirits

Recommended Drinking Establishments:
Gentry’s
Meeker’s Colorado Bar
Patrick’s Irish Pub
Speakeasy at The Kress
Stella’s Pinball Arcade
The GOAT

Recommended Restaurants:
Cosmic Dogs
Jenny’s Malt Shop
La Petite French Bakery
Pelligrini Cucina Italiana
Seven Fish Food Truck
The Cow

Recommended Shops/Attractions:
Distortions Unlimited
Greeley Hatchet House
Madcap Ink Studios
Mom’s Popcorn
The Emporium Bookstore
The Midnight Oil

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
To state the obvious; the COVID-19 shutdowns were a bad time. Small businesses in particular took a big hit, and payroll costs were one of, if not the most, important and difficult to meet. Going into 2020, we had no employees and no payroll (just two business owners working every day), so our first thoughts were how we might be better off than most to weather the storm- we ran very light and streamlined without much overhead. We canceled standing and recurring orders, suspended accounts, and requested relief on our fixed costs such as rent and utilities. When government assistance began becoming available, we were dismayed to learn that the vast majority of the forthcoming grants and loans awarded amounts based on the businesses’ previous year payroll costs. As we had no payroll up to this point, we did not qualify for federal assistance. We were able to obtain a few thousand dollars in local assistance via the county and state, but were very unsure how we would proceed without being allowed to move inventory. As it turned out, we had been open just long enough (slightly less than 18 months) to build up a small group of friends and loyal customers who came out of the woodwork to show their support. We were allowed to sell off-premise for the first time, and our patrons took away almost all of it before it expired, often intentionally overpaying and leaving very generous gratuity. They bought ludicrous amount of gift cards, the majority of which still have not been redeemed to this day. During the second closure period in the wintertime, our customers braved the cold to sit outside on our patio so they could still provide us income. This is the true and only reason that High Brau was able to survive the pandemic period. Now, it has come full circle that while many other small businesses who took federal grants and loans now have to pay additional taxes and interest that, while necessary at the time, are disadvantaging their operations going forward. Meanwhile, we are moving forward confident that we are building a customer base that transcends the normal retail relationship and is a true community of friends who support each other through difficult times.

Website: highbrautaphouse.com

Instagram: @highbrautap

Twitter: @highbrautap

Facebook: @highbrautap

Other: https://untappd.com/v/high-brau-taphouse/8352455

Image Credits
Aaron & Alissa Zimola Ben Harmelink Rob Baumgartner Siri Cooper