Interview with Dave Rosso & Jason Paulman owners of Snowbank Brewing. Be sure to follow Snowbank Brewing on Facebook & Instagram.
Let’s show up and support Snowbank during construction!
Construction for the new Lemay Bridge means the best route to Snowbank is through the Red Truck Beer Co. parking lot. There’s plenty going on at Snowbank, so don’t let the construction deter you from coming out and supporting them.
Who are you? How did Snowbank get started? Why did you decide to start it in Fort Collins?
A group of homebrewers and engineers, we started Snowbank back in August 2014. We wanted to bring our unique take on business and brewing to the Fort Collins community. We specialize in modern American beer styles and our name comes from the time we put our kettle in a Snowbank to cool it down before pitching yeast way back when we first started homebrewing. I have been in Colorado since 2001 and before that I loved visiting my grandparents who lived here. I fell in love with Fort Collins and Colorado, so I wanted to make Snowbank a celebration of everything Colorado has to offer.
Do you have any special events, promotions, products upcoming you would like to share with the community?
Our newest beer released just last week called FRIGID, a Cold IPA. This new style of IPA is a lighter lager base beer, but still hopped heavily like an IPA, this crisp and delicious beer is perfect for a sunny afternoon. Frigid is brewed with a pilsner malt base, plus heavy additions of Cashmere and Mosaic hops.
We have ongoing events each week:
Mondays – Snowballaz Run Club, 6:00 p.m.
Thursdays – Snowbank Trivia Night with prizes, 6:00 p.m.
Fridays – Weekly Chocolate Beer Release, a different chocolate beer each week using Nuance Chocolate cacao nibs
July 24, 2021 Xmas in July
July 25, 2021 Plant exchange
August 8, 2021 Tye-Dye Shirt Event
August 21, 2021 Snowbank’s 7th Anniversary Party
September 4, 2021 Big Bones Canine Rescue Adoption Event
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for updates and more events!
What advice would you give to community members who are looking for ways to support our local businesses?
Visiting and buying at local businesses. We always appreciate when people follow us on social media and spread the word. If you can buy something locally vs going to a big box store or chain I suggest you try to do that. Small businesses are having a very hard time of it lately and they need the support to recover.
What’s one thing that would surprise people about your business?
We have a much smaller team than people expect. There’s about 10 of us total, including brewers and bartenders. I’m one of the only few owners that continue to brew. I’m involved in every aspect of production. Also our bar staff is highly trained in beer and very knowledgeable. We use many local suppliers to make our beer. Our cacao nibs come from Nuance Chocolate, our coffee comes from Wander Coffee, we buy our can labels from LabelTec, and many of our spices come from Old Town Spice Shop, etc. We support local whenever we can.
How does owning a local business keep you connected to the community?
I get to constantly interact with many people in the community. Everyone likes to go out for beers from all walks of life. We get to hear about many peoples struggles and things they deal with. We get to hear about things going on around town and sometimes we get involved to help.
What do you love most about running a business in Fort Collins?
I personally love connecting with other local brewery owners. In the brewing world we are all collaborative. After learning about the construction impacting our business, I immediately reached out to the brewery group for help in directing people around the construction if they were coming here. Many other breweries have supported us by sharing our posts on social media and telling people about us in their taproom and it was even picked up by some other small businesses like Obee’s. It is truly impressive and humbling community support.
How has the pandemic and challenges of the last year changed the way you do business?
We employed a system to enable ordering from your table during Covid. We are 100% going to keep that service going with some minor changes. We have also learned about the importance of outdoor seating. I think we will continue to do expanded outdoor seating as long as we can and will try to install something more permanent.
What has the past year taught you about our Fort Collins community?
So much. The amount of to-go beer in the first month of shut-down was incredible, maybe even heroic. People were showing their support at local restaurants and breweries big time. Many people were kind and understanding of the changes we had to put in place due to Covid and we appreciated that. I think there is a spirit of kindness in our community.
