When a small neighborhood brewery shuts its doors, the usual pattern is predictable. The tanks get sold off, the sign comes down, and the space sits empty for a stretch before it becomes something with no connection to beer at all. That is not what has happened at 6035 Longbow Drive, Unit 109 in Gunbarrel. And if you have been paying attention to the taproom scene here for the past few years, you already know this is not the first time.
The Space That Kept Its Job Description
Beyond the Mountain Brewing opened at that Longbow Drive address in 2017. Its owners, Morgan Way and Chuck Hixon, posted a message on the brewery's own website announcing that after seven years in business, the concept would close on April 27, 2025. No public reason was given for the closure.
What replaced it was not a new tenant hunting for cheap square footage. The Lyons-based craft brewery MainStage Brewing Company expanded into Gunbarrel and established its own brewery, taking over the Beyond the Mountain brewing space. Same address. Same fermentation tanks behind the same windows. Different name on the door.
The Deal Was Already Four Years Old By the Time Anyone Announced It
Here is the part that most quick write-ups on this transition miss. This was not a stranger walking in after a For Lease sign went up. MainStage founders Sam Scruby and Eric Kean had been contracting with the Gunbarrel brewery to have their beer brewed there since 2021. Scruby put it plainly:
"We did a collaboration with the guys at Beyond the Mountain. We started talking with them and just said, 'Hey, do you guys have room to get some extra contract brewing for your spot?' And they did."
That is four years of literal foot traffic through the building before MainStage ever owned it. And the timing of the actual handoff is stranger still once you look at the lease terms. Beyond the Mountain's lease wasn't up until 2027, and MainStage reached out early to see what the owners were planning, rather than wait for the space to hit the open market two years later. Scruby's reasoning:
"If we're gonna figure out where to go or do something different, we want a head start on that."
In a lot of small commercial food-and-beverage corners of the Front Range, that is not how these things work. Operators wait for a lease to lapse, then compete for the listing. In Gunbarrel, at least in this case, the succession ran through a four-year working relationship and a negotiated exit two years ahead of the deadline. If you are a regular at any small taproom in this neighborhood, that is worth filing away: the next operator here is more likely to already be inside the building than to show up after a sign goes dark.
What Actually Changed, and What Didn't
The transition itself was gradual rather than an overnight swap. The brewery moved through a transition phase while licensing and other regulatory aspects were finalized, pouring through the remaining kegs of Beyond the Mountain beer alongside its own before the taps went fully MainStage. By 2026, customer reviews on Yelp and Roadtrippers dated February, April, and June confirm the changeover is complete and running.
Here is how the two eras compare on the specifics that matter to a regular:
| Beyond the Mountain (2017-2025) | MainStage Gunbarrel (2025-present) | |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Morgan Way, Chuck Hixon | Sam Scruby, Eric Kean |
| Food | Limited to pizzas and similar foods that could be heated in a pizza oven, like pretzels and empanadas | Expanding food options beyond the original pizza-oven menu, with gluten-free pizza drawing specific praise from recent reviewers |
| Music | Stage-and-live-music format the space was built around | Continuing and expanding that part of the experience, since Scruby called live music "a little bit of an underserved space in Boulder" |
| Hours | Not consistently documented | Monday through Saturday, 3 to 9 p.m., Sunday 1 to 7 p.m. |
One customer review from December 2025 sums up the mood on the ground better than a press release could: they missed the old spot but said the new operators had made a great one of it. That is a more honest read on neighborhood continuity than most brewery-swap stories get.
This Isn't the First Handoff, Either
Kean was direct about why he saw this transition as good news rather than another loss. He noted that Beyond the Mountain wasn't the only small brewery to close in Gunbarrel in recent years, and said it was an interesting time in the industry, but that he was glad this wasn't just another brewery closing.
He is referencing Gunbarrel Brewing Company, which opened at 7088 Winchester Circle in 2017 under brewer Jamie Fox, a fifteen-year brewing veteran who also holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience, and his wife Marie, who brought a marketing and hospitality background to the operation. That brewery closed on May 29, 2022, after five years.
Two small, independently owned Gunbarrel breweries, two closures within roughly three years of each other. But look at what actually happened next in each case. One space got picked up by an operator who had already been brewing there for years. The pattern here is not that Gunbarrel is losing its beer culture. It is that the specific format, a taproom with a patio, a stage, and a dog-friendly footprint tucked between the Diagonal Highway corridor and the open space trails, keeps finding a new operator rather than getting converted into something unrelated. That is a narrower and more interesting claim than "breweries come and go," and it's the one the actual sequence of events supports.
A Trail Loop Built For a Patio Evening
None of this happens in isolation from what is next door. Twin Lakes Open Space sits a short walk or bike ride from the Longbow Drive taproom, and it is the kind of amenity that explains why this particular commercial format keeps working here. Twin Lakes Open Space is a 42-acre protected wetland area in Gunbarrel, purchased in January of 2002 by Boulder County, with the Boulder Left Hand Irrigation Company maintaining the water rights.
The two loops are short and specific in what they allow. The East Twin Lakes Trail runs 0.7 miles and is rated easy, with dogs required to stay on leash, while the West Twin Lakes Trail also runs 0.7 miles and allows dogs off leash. The corridor connects into something bigger, too. This short section of trail makes up part of the broader LoBo, or Longmont to Boulder, trail system, so a resident on a bike can link the lake loop into a longer ride without ever touching a car.
The wildlife draw is real and specific rather than a generic amenity line. A dirt path rings both lakes with birds constantly present, coyotes that can be heard chorusing in the evening, and turtles, owls, and waterfowl spotted along the way. A quick loop around the West Lake with a dog off leash, followed by a patio table at the taproom next door, is not a marketing pitch. It is what the geography here actually supports, and it is a big part of why an operator like MainStage would fight to keep this specific footprint rather than start from scratch somewhere else.
The Actual Takeaway
If you live in Gunbarrel, the lesson from this handoff is not "a brewery changed hands, go check it out," though you should. It's that the neighborhood's small commercial spaces tend to pass between operators who already know each other rather than sit on the open market waiting for a stranger. The next time a small storefront here goes quiet, the more useful question isn't who's listing it. It's who has already been working inside it.
If you are thinking about what a neighborhood like this means for a home search, or if you already live here and are curious what your place is worth in a market that keeps rewarding continuity over turnover, Kim Hullett Real Estate knows Gunbarrel block by block. Work With Kim.
