The honest answer to how many breweries there are in Arvada, Colorado is smaller in 2026 than it was in 2024, and the directories have not caught up. Twelve Arvada-linked brewing operations were screened for this page against the Colorado Liquor Enforcement Division's file of every active state liquor licence, downloaded August 18, 2026. Two of the twelve have stopped trading, one is a cocktail lounge that happens to hold a brewpub licence, two are beer companies with no Colorado liquor licence at all, and one is a brewpub this publication already covers in its Arvada restaurants ranking. Five taprooms survived every test, and this page ranks those five.
The screening turned up something worth stating before any ranking: a current state licence does not mean a brewery is still pouring. Stay Tuned Brewing, which opened on West 64th Avenue in September 2024 with beers named after films and records, says on its own website that it is permanently closed. The state file still lists its Manufacturer (brewery) licence, 03-20691, as current to April 21, 2027, along with a wholesale beer licence and a live sales room permit. LUKI Brewery, further west at 14715 West 64th Avenue, links from its own press page to an Arvada Press story headlined on the brewery's closure after six years in Arvada, published May 7, 2026, while its manufacturer and wholesale licences, 03-12648 and 03-12647, run to April 28, 2027. Licences outlive businesses. Read them together with the brewery's own front page, never instead of it.
The independence screen came back cleaner here than in the towns on either side. Golden's beer story is inseparable from Coors, and Littleton's from a Breckenridge Brewery that Tilray now owns; Arvada has no multinational-owned brewery at all. The closest thing is Denver Beer Co, whose Olde Town Arvada taproom and brewery belongs to Wilding Brands LLC, a Colorado group that also holds Station 26, the Acreage cidery in Lafayette, and a brewery in Phoenix. That is a multi-brand craft company, not a global brewer, and it clears the Brewers Association's independence threshold, which turns on whether 25 percent or more of a brewery is owned or controlled by a beverage alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer. Denver Beer Co is therefore ranked rather than set aside. It is ranked second rather than first because it is one of five taprooms in a group, and no lower than second because the medals it has won were won at the Arvada address.
Everything below was checked twice over. Licence class, licence number, licensee, address and expiry come from the state spreadsheet rather than from any brewery directory. Every official website was fetched the same week to confirm the business still trades, and hours and amenities were taken from the operator rather than from a review site. Every medal was read from the Great American Beer Festival's published winners database and the World Beer Cup's published winners lists, never from a brewery's own wall, and where a brewery has no medal in those records this page says so plainly instead of reaching for softer language. None of the five paid for a place, and none knew they were being evaluated.
How We Evaluated Arvada Breweries
The Top 5 Breweries in Arvada
2026 Rankings · Arvada, Colorado
Odyssey Beerwerks
Odyssey Beerwerks is the oldest craft brewery still operating at an Arvada address, and the only Arvada-founded independent on this page with hardware from both of American brewing's senior competitions. Chris and Deana Hill, a husband and wife team, opened it in 2013 on West 56th Avenue in the light industrial belt north of Olde Town, and named it for a taste for travel rather than for anything Homeric. Thirteen years later it still describes itself as a full production brewery, running six year-round beers against a long rotation of seasonals, and the state file backs that description with the deepest licence stack of any brewery ranked here.
Colorado records a Manufacturer (brewery) licence, 03-00948, and a wholesale beer licence, 03-00947, both held by Odyssey Beerwerks LLC at 5535 West 56th Avenue, current to April 3, 2027, plus a wholesale branch house permit and a sales room permit on the same wholesale number. There is a fifth entry no other Arvada brewery has: an alternating proprietor premises licence, 03-02576, recorded at Odyssey's own suite under Odyssey Beerwerks LLC with High Gravity Brewing Inc as the trade name. That is the arrangement Colorado uses when one brewer makes beer on another brewer's licensed system, and it means the equipment on West 56th Avenue does more work than the taproom out front would suggest.
The competition record is the part most worth checking, because Odyssey's own site claims a Great American Beer Festival silver and a World Beer Cup gold without naming the beers. Both claims hold up in the awarding bodies' published data. The GABF winners database records silver in 2017 for Woods Monk in Category 29, Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer, and the World Beer Cup's published 2016 winners list records gold for Clan Warrior Scotch Ale in Category 78, Scotch Ale. The taproom itself is deliberately narrow in its welcome: 21 and over, no children at any hour, and in exchange a room where leashed dogs are allowed inside as well as out. There is no kitchen, food trucks rotate, you may carry in your own food, and the bike rack sits a few strides off the Ralston Creek Trail.
Denver Beer Co Olde Town Arvada
The most decorated brewhouse in Arvada is not owned by an Arvada company, and pretending otherwise would be the quickest way to make this page useless. Denver Beer Co's Olde Town location is a working brewery as well as a taproom, which the company states in its own words and the state file confirms: Brew Pub licence 03-22130, held by Denver Beer Co Arvada LLC at 5768 Olde Wadsworth Boulevard, current to January 23, 2027. The class matters twice over. A brewpub licence permits manufacture and sale on the same premises, and this one is city-issued, which is the quickest proof that the address sits inside Arvada's municipal limits rather than in unincorporated Jefferson County.
The medals are the reason it ranks this high, and they are unusually specific. The Great American Beer Festival's published winners data credits three golds to the Olde Town Arvada location itself rather than to the company's Denver plant: 2018 for Barrel Aged Japance Off in Wood- and Barrel-Aged Beer, 2019 for Amburana Dream in the same category, and 2020 for Amburana Dream again in Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer. The World Beer Cup's 2024 winners list adds a bronze to the same address for Smooth Exportations in Category 43. Read the festival's Arvada results end to end and there have been six GABF medals ever awarded to breweries listed in this town. Three of them were won here.
What keeps it second is ownership scale, disclosed rather than buried. Denver Beer Co runs five taprooms plus a canning works and belongs to Wilding Brands LLC, a Colorado craft beverage group whose other brands include Station 26 in Park Hill, the Acreage cidery in Lafayette, and Formation Brewing in Phoenix. Nothing in that structure breaches the Brewers Association's independence test, which is concerned with ownership by non-craft alcohol industry members, so the brewery is ranked rather than treated as an anchor. It is simply not an Arvada-founded independent, and a reader asking which Arvada brewery to back with their money is entitled to know that before they order. On the ground it is the easiest visit on this page: a large patio with fire pits in the middle of Olde Town's open-container district, live music, a dog-friendly patio, and food served on site.
New Image Brewing
New Image is the Arvada-founded independent with the broadest reach, and the one whose licence file tells the clearest growth story. Its Olde Town taproom opened in 2016 at 5614 Olde Wadsworth Boulevard, a short walk from the Denver Beer Co patio, and the company still calls it the flagship. Colorado records Brew Pub licence 03-05174 there, held by New Image Brewing Company LLC, with a sidewalk service area and a takeout and delivery permit attached to the same number. Note the expiry: October 15, 2026, the nearest renewal date of any brewery on this page and the one worth a glance before a special trip.
The expansion is recorded just as precisely. A second brewpub licence, 03-09165, and a vintner's restaurant licence, 03-18170, sit at 9505 West 44th Avenue in Wheat Ridge, where New Image opened a wood-fired pizza location in March 2022. That second address is outside Arvada and outside this ranking, but it explains why the Olde Town room is busier than a neighbourhood taproom of its size would normally be: the brand now pulls from two towns. The Arvada site keeps its own brewpub licence, which means beer is still made where it is sold, and the sidewalk permit means the tables outside are licensed rather than tolerated.
What the Olde Town room gives you that Odyssey does not is dinner. Arty's Burgers Plus runs the kitchen in house, serving burgers and sandwiches to indoor and covered outdoor seating, and doors are open from 11am seven days a week, to 9pm Sunday through Thursday and 10pm on Friday and Saturday. The taproom sits inside Olde Town's open-container district, so a beer can legally travel with you between shops. What it does not have is a medal. Neither New Image nor its Wheat Ridge sibling appears anywhere in the Great American Beer Festival's winners database or in the World Beer Cup lists searched for this page, and it is ranked third on tenure, licence depth, and the kitchen rather than on competition results.
SomePlace Else Brewery
SomePlace Else began the way a lot of Colorado breweries claim to and rather fewer can document: Ryan and Tori Miller brewing in a garage on reused kegs. The Arvada room at 6425 West 52nd Avenue opened on September 22, 2016, and the company now calls it the mother ship, which is accurate in the only sense that matters here. It came first, and the two newer rooms, in Thornton on East 120th Avenue and in Broomfield on Zang Street, both arrived in 2026. Arvada is not a satellite of this business; it is the original.
The licences are the full production set rather than a brewpub permit: Manufacturer (brewery) 03-06389 and wholesale beer 03-06388, held by SomePlace Else LLC at the West 52nd Avenue unit, with a sales room malt permit on the wholesale number. Both run to August 7, 2027, the longest runway of any licence cited on this page. The practical difference from the two Olde Town brewpubs is that a manufacturer can sell its beer into the trade, which is why cans from this address travel beyond the taproom while brewpub beer largely does not.
The room itself is built around a straightforward idea the owners call a brewcade. Pinball machines and skeeball lanes sit alongside the taps, weekly Friday releases put small research batches on the board, and the events calendar runs to trivia, comedy, bingo and tournaments. There is no kitchen at all: outside food is welcome, food trucks visit, and leashed dogs are allowed in the taproom. Doors open at 3pm on weekdays and 1pm at weekends. No SomePlace Else beer appears in the Great American Beer Festival or World Beer Cup winners data searched for this page, so it is ranked fourth on a decade of continuous Arvada trading, a full manufacturer licence, and the most distinctive taproom on the list rather than on medals.
Resolute Brewing Tap and Cellar
Resolute has the strongest competition record of any company on this page and the weakest claim to being an Arvada brewery, and both halves of that sentence are load-bearing. The medals are real, and were confirmed in the awarding bodies' own data: Great American Beer Festival silver in 2022, gold in 2023 and bronze in 2024, all three for Execrator in the German-Style Doppelbock or Eisbock category, plus a 2023 World Beer Cup gold for Unearthing the Orb in Smoke Beer and a silver for Execrator the same year. Medalling with one doppelbock at three consecutive festivals is a rare thing, and it is not marketing.
Every one of those records lists the brewery in Centennial, not Arvada, and the licence file explains why. Colorado records Resolute's Manufacturer (brewery) licence, 03-06115, and a wholesale beer licence, 03-06116, at 7286 South Yosemite Street in Centennial, where the company was founded in 2016 in the Denver Tech Center. At 18148 West 92nd Lane in Arvada's Candelas neighbourhood it holds only a wholesale beer licence, 03-11237, and the sales room malt permit that lets it pour to the public, both current to May 5, 2027. There is no manufacturer licence at the Arvada address. Of the five entries on this page, this is the one where no beer is made where you drink it, and the brewery's own site calls the location a satellite.
Taken as a place rather than as a brewery, it is a good one, and for anyone in northwest Arvada it is the only craft taproom for miles. The room sits on the southeast corner of Highway 72 and Candelas Parkway with a patio and long western views, food trucks daily, and hours that start at 2pm Monday through Thursday and 11am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It ranks fifth on a rule this page applies consistently rather than on the beer: an Arvada breweries ranking leads with breweries that brew in Arvada, and a taproom pouring excellent Centennial beer sits below four operations that make their own on site. A reader who cares only about what is in the glass is entitled to reverse that order, and now has the licence numbers to do it with.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many breweries are there in Arvada, Colorado?
Five taprooms were confirmed open and pouring in August 2026: Odyssey Beerwerks, Denver Beer Co Olde Town Arvada, New Image Brewing, SomePlace Else Brewery, and Resolute Brewing Tap and Cellar. A sixth Arvada brewpub, Yak and Yeti on Ralston Road, holds city brewpub licence 42-61008-0000 and is a genuine Arvada brewing operation; it is covered in our Arvada restaurants ranking rather than repeated here. Beyond those, Olde Town Social at 5610 Yukon Street holds a city brewpub licence but presents itself as a chef-driven cocktail lounge with no brewery site of its own, and Ceria Brewing and Donavon Brewing are Arvada beer companies that hold no Colorado liquor licence under those names and run no public taproom. Directory counts run higher than five because they still list LUKI Brewery and Stay Tuned Brewing, both of which have stopped trading.
Did LUKI Brewery and Stay Tuned Brewing close?
Both have stopped trading, and both still appear on the state licence file, which is exactly why this page checks operators' own websites as well as the register. Stay Tuned Brewing, which opened at 5127 West 64th Avenue in September 2024, states on its own website that it is permanently closed, while Colorado still records its Manufacturer (brewery) licence 03-20691 as current to April 21, 2027 and its sales room permit as live. LUKI Brewery, at 14715 West 64th Avenue, opened in July 2020 under owner Jeffrey Smith with a 1920s circus theme drawn from his family's Ringling Brothers history; its own press page links to an Arvada Press story on the brewery's closure after six years in Arvada, published May 7, 2026, while its manufacturer and wholesale licences run to April 28, 2027. A licence expiry date tells you when paperwork lapses, not whether the doors are open.
Which Arvada brewery has won a Great American Beer Festival medal?
Six GABF medals have ever been awarded to breweries listed in Arvada, and they belong to three businesses. Denver Beer Co's Olde Town Arvada location holds three golds, in 2018 for Barrel Aged Japance Off and in 2019 and 2020 for Amburana Dream, all in wood- and barrel-aged categories. Odyssey Beerwerks holds a 2017 silver for Woods Monk in Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer, and separately a 2016 World Beer Cup gold for Clan Warrior Scotch Ale. Yak and Yeti holds the other two, from 2010 and 2013. Resolute Brewing's silver, gold and bronze for Execrator are recorded against its Centennial address rather than its Arvada taproom. No medal appears in the official winners data for New Image Brewing, SomePlace Else Brewery, LUKI Brewery, or Savoie Brewing at Olde Town Social. If a taproom wall shows plaques, ask which competition and which year, then check the awarding body's published winners list rather than the frame.
Is Denver Beer Co independent, and who owns it?
Denver Beer Co states on its own site that it is a member of Wilding Brands LLC, a Colorado craft beverage group whose brands also include Station 26 in Denver's Park Hill, the Acreage cidery in Lafayette, Formation Brewing in Phoenix, Ghost Box Pizza and Outpost on Platte. That is a multi-brand craft company rather than a global brewer, and it does not breach the Brewers Association's craft brewer definition, which requires that less than 25 percent of a brewery be owned or controlled by a beverage alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer. This is the main difference between Arvada and its neighbours: Golden's brewing story runs through Coors and Littleton's through a Breckenridge Brewery now owned by Tilray, while no Arvada brewery is owned by a multinational. Denver Beer Co is ranked here for that reason, with its group ownership and its five-taproom footprint disclosed on the entry.
Which Arvada breweries serve food, and which allow dogs or children?
Only two of the five feed you from a kitchen on the premises. New Image Brewing runs Arty's Burgers Plus in house at its Olde Town taproom, and Denver Beer Co's Arvada location serves food on site alongside its patio and fire pits. The other three follow the Colorado taproom model: Odyssey Beerwerks and SomePlace Else both host rotating food trucks and permit outside food, and Resolute's Candelas taproom has food trucks daily. On dogs, Odyssey allows leashed dogs indoors as well as on the patio, SomePlace Else allows leashed dogs in the taproom, and Denver Beer Co's Arvada patio is dog friendly. On children, note one firm exception: Odyssey Beerwerks is 21 and over at all hours, so a family visit means one of the other four.
How can I check that an Arvada brewery is licensed and still open?
Use two records together, because either one alone will mislead you. The Colorado Liquor Enforcement Division publishes a spreadsheet and PDF of every active state liquor licence, listing licensee, trade name, licence number, class, address and expiry, alongside separate lists of sales room permits and of recently expired and surrendered licences; every licence number on this page was read from the all-licences file downloaded on August 18, 2026. Then open the brewery's own website and look for current hours and any closure notice, because a licence can stay valid for a year or more after a taproom stops pouring, as both Stay Tuned Brewing and LUKI Brewery demonstrate. The licence class is worth reading too. Brew Pub means beer is made and sold on the same premises, and a city-issued brewpub licence tells you the address sits inside Arvada's municipal limits. Manufacturer means a production brewery that can also sell into the trade. A wholesale licence with a sales room permit and no manufacturer licence, as at Resolute's Arvada address, means the beer you are drinking was made somewhere else.
Sources & References
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Colorado Department of Revenue, Liquor Enforcement Division
Liquor License Lists — all active state liquor licenses, sales room permits, and recently expired or surrendered licenses
Primary source for every licence class, licence number, licensee, address and expiry cited on this page; the all-licences spreadsheet was downloaded August 18, 2026. The division's site rejects some automated requests with an HTTP 403; the published spreadsheet downloads without one.
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Brewers Association, Great American Beer Festival
GABF Award Winners — official competition results database
Backs every Great American Beer Festival medal cited here, including the three golds credited to Denver Beer Co Olde Town Arvada, Odyssey Beerwerks' 2017 silver, Resolute's 2022 to 2024 Execrator medals, and the absence of medals for New Image and SomePlace Else.
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Brewers Association, World Beer Cup
World Beer Cup Winners — official published winners lists
Backs the 2016 gold for Odyssey Beerwerks' Clan Warrior Scotch Ale, Resolute's 2023 gold and silver, and the 2024 bronze credited to Denver Beer Co Olde Town Arvada. The competition publishes year-by-year PDF winners lists rather than a searchable database.
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Brewers Association
Craft Brewer Definition — small, independent, and a brewer
Backs the independence test applied on this page, including the threshold of less than 25 percent ownership or control by a beverage alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer.
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Wilding Brands, LLC
Our Brands — Denver Beer Co, Station 26, Acreage, Formation Brewing
Backs the ownership disclosure for Denver Beer Co, its five taproom locations, and the description of Olde Town Arvada as a taproom and brewery.
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LUKI Brewery
Press
The brewery's own press page carries the Arvada Press headline on LUKI's closure after six years in Arvada, dated May 7, 2026, which is the basis for excluding it from the ranking.
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Stay Tuned Brewing
Stay Tuned Brewing — location and hours
States that Stay Tuned Brewing is permanently closed, while the state licence file still records its manufacturer licence as current to April 2027.
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Odyssey Beerwerks
About Us
Backs the 2013 founding by Chris and Deana Hill, the description as Arvada's oldest craft brewery, and the taproom policies cited.
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Denver Beer Co
Olde Town Arvada Taproom
Backs the 5768 Olde Wadsworth Blvd address, the description of the site as a taproom and brewery, the patio and fire pits, and the Westword Readers' Choice awards the taproom cites.
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Visit Arvada
15 of the Best Breweries in Denver's Suburbs
Backs the 2016 opening of New Image Brewing's Olde Town Arvada taproom, the March 2022 Wheat Ridge opening, and LUKI Brewery's July 2020 opening under Jeffrey Smith.
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Colorado Brewery List
SomePlace Else Brewery — Arvada
Backs the September 22, 2016 opening date for the Arvada location, which matches the decade of trading described on the brewery's own site.
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Resolute Brewing Co.
Our Story
Backs the 2016 founding in Centennial and the company's own description of its Arvada Tap and Cellar as a satellite location.
Our Recommendation
If you have one afternoon in Arvada and want the town's own brewing at its best, start at Odyssey Beerwerks on West 56th Avenue: thirteen years at one address, a medal from each of the two competitions that matter, and a room that will let your dog in but not your children. If the afternoon is a family one, or if you want dinner without waiting on a truck, New Image Brewing's Olde Town flagship is the better booking, and it sits a short walk from Denver Beer Co's patio, where three Great American Beer Festival golds were brewed. Make SomePlace Else the stop when the group wants something to do with its hands, and Resolute's Candelas taproom the stop when the beer itself is the whole point and you do not mind that it was brewed in Centennial.
Before you drive to any Arvada taproom you found on a list somewhere else, check two things: the Liquor Enforcement Division's published licence file, and the brewery's own front page. Two of the twelve operations screened for this page have stopped trading while their state licences run into 2027, and the register alone would have sent you to both.
Denver Dean's List maintains editorial independence. We do not accept payment for rankings and do not accept advertising from the businesses we evaluate. Rankings are based on public licence records, official competition results, publicly available reviews, and editorial research. Business information should be independently verified before you travel.