When I first met Oskar Blues owner Dale Katechis, he invited me on a morning bike ride with him into the hills that loom above his brewpub in Lyons, CO, about an hour north of Denver. Knowing I only had casual mountain biking experience, I expected Katechis to take me on a softball, scenic ride to a lookout over the town of Lyons. That was not the case. Fifteen minutes into the ride, I had gone over the handlebars and was bleeding from my forearm. Katechis looked over his shoulder and spun back, stopping a few yards in front of where I lay and peered down at me, the sun at his back and a water bottle to his mouth. “You good?” he asked.
I was hurting, but couldn’t keep from smiling. I had heard stories about how seriously Katechis took his mountain biking, yet with so much hype and phony corporate advertising in the world, there’s something special about experiencing something as advertised. This was, without question, a trail I needed to continue down. “I’m good,” I said, and we rode off.
“Cool,” he said, looking at my elbow. “Good thing you’re not carrying the beer.”
To get a sense of the impact Katechis has had on the beer industry, one has to look no further than his role as the figurehead in the craft beer canning movement. He saw how the can’s durability fit perfectly into his active, outdoor lifestyle, but was frustrated by the fact that only light, cheap beers ended up in them, and consequently, in his backpack on a ride. At a time when no one else would touch the idea due to a public perception that good beer only came in bottles, Katechis became the first U.S. craft brewer to can his own beer in 2002. It was a bold move that paid off. The movement has since developed into an aggressive trend, especially in Colorado, where beer drinkers are also bikers, climbers, hikers and campers.
“We’re all trailside, riverside, or music festival centric beer freaks,” Katechis said. “It wasn’t something we should do. It was something we had to do.”
With that decision, the brewery was officially on the national map. But Katechis’s vision for the integration of biking and beer was just getting started. As a cyclist, he wanted his two passions to blend seamlessly, both in his personal life and in his business. He adopted the slogan, “Ride Bikes. Drink Beer.” to emphasize the brewery’s dedication to the sport. He hired avid mountain bikers to run his company and produce his beer, from the marketing department all the way down to the can line. It’s not uncommon to see him riding his bike through the brewery or at the front of an organized staff ride after work. His meetings, as I learned, are routinely held on the trail.