by Peter Mertz
DENVER, the United States, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Black Shirt Brewing Company, one of the hottest brew pubs in the United States, is struggling to stay afloat amid raging COVID-19 pandemic, while the pub saw crowds filling its tap room every night a year ago.
"Unfortunately, the silver truth is going to reveal itself -- and it doesn't look promising," said Black Shirt co-owner Chadwell Miller.
Located in the popular RiNo Art District, north of downtown Denver, Black Shirt, serving local famous pizza and award-winning beer, dodged a bullet when Colorado Governor Jared Polis unexpectedly shut down alcohol-only bars.
"We're fastening our seatbelts," he told Xinhua, as a number of beer pubs in Colorado were thrown off the bus by the governor's 30-day COVID-19 restriction reenactment.
ECONOMIC PAIN
In addition to California, Colorado with its 425 breweries is considered as one of the hottest craft beer states in the country.
In 2000, there were only 1,800 craft breweries; today, America has 8,386, according to data from the Brewer's Association (BA). Many of the owners are young businesses, still working to gain a foothold, and trying to pay bills and make a profit.
Opening to the public eight years ago, Black Shirt has survived in the most hostile business climate the craft beer industry has seen since 1980s, becoming one of Denver's most popular and successful brew pubs.
However, the pandemic has crushed the bottom lines of craft breweries, and many of them have lost their most critical source of revenue as restriction measures have stopped customers from tasting their beer.
Recent BA studies said up to 20 percent of breweries feared that they would fold.
"A vast majority of brewers get a majority of their revenue from direct, 'on-site' sales that occur at their breweries," BA Chief Economist Bart Watson told Xinhua on Monday.
STRICT GUIDELINES
Reacting quickly to the pandemic, Polis closed bars and restaurants across the state on March 16 and allowed them to reopen with guidelines on June 9. On Tuesday, he closed alcohol-only establishments once more.
Polis, a Democrat, has addressed the COVID-19 crises more proactively and cautiously -- by closing businesses early and following guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) -- than the Republican governors in Colorado's neighboring states, which saw record spikes of infections last week.
In Colorado, the confirmed cases are up, but not to the degree of other western states.
Since the reopening of breweries in Colorado, Black Shirt has strictly followed CDC guidelines.
"The whole restaurant-brewery industry will fall if one of us fails," Miller said, indicating that adhering to strict preventive measures and health department guidelines is the only way forward.
Tables and social distancing are set at 8 feet, instead of the 6-feet national standard. Tap room staff disinfect "high touch" areas every 30 minutes, rather than every hour as CDC recommends. Servers with masks strictly abide by the requirement of frequent hand washing.
"Hopefully we'll swim out of this mess," Miller said. Enditem
