For a farming family in the San Luis Valley, every ingredient in its beer traces back to the land.
The Colorado Farm Brewery grows its grain in its own fields, draws its water from its own well and cultivates its hops on-site. Even their yeast comes from the farm.
“We live in a very special place in this beautiful valley,” co-owner and brewmaster Josh Cody said.
That sense of place – what winemakers call terroir – is at the heart of everything here.
In 2006, after Cody’s grandfather died, the family prepared to sell the farm. The paperwork was ready and the deal was almost complete.
“My grandmother couldn’t do it,” he said. “There was so much history and so much legacy tied to the land that she didn’t want to let it go.”
That moment changed everything for the Codys.
Josh, then a teacher living out of state, returned home with his family to figure out how to make his parents’ family farm viable again. The answer transformed the land and the family’s work.
“The irony is that … beer was always the thing that made it work but from the agricultural side,” he said.
They started by growing barley, wheat and rye, then malting it themselves. Eventually, they built the final step – a public brewery on the farm. Today, that full-circle system defines the place.
From the grain to what gets poured into the glass, “everything’s here on the farm,” he said. “There’s a piece of terroir in our water that I love, and I want people to taste that.”
Nothing travels far and hardly anything goes to waste. The farm’s wastewater is recycled back into the irrigation. Spent grain goes straight to local livestock. And it all contributes to drinks that reflect the valley's flavor.
Cody said the water is one of the most defining and challenging elements of brewing in the valley.
“The water here is so high in pH because this is an ancient lake bed,” he said. “It comes out of the ground at a pH of over 9.0.”
Before brewing, that water must be neutralized, a small but critical step. The soil, rich in alkali, shapes the grain. The Southern Colorado climate also stresses crops in ways that give the beer its character. And then there’s the yeast, perhaps the most distinctive piece of all.
“My brother cultured it initially in my grandmother’s kitchen,” Cody said.
That wild strain, now banked and reused, gives the beer a signature profile that can’t be replicated elsewhere.
That same philosophy is now shaping Cody’s latest experiment: a non-alcoholic hop water made entirely from the farm.
It starts with the same well water, adjusted and heated, then steeped with estate-grown hops.
“This will be a 100 percent estate product,” he said, adding that his goal isn’t to replicate beer exactly but to mimic it. “My objective is to remind the drinker of beer without giving them beer.”
It’s also meant to accommodate brewery visitors who could be designated drivers, families or anyone who doesn’t want to consume alcohol.
He said the brewery isn’t just about what’s in the glass. It’s about what happens around it.
“We wanted to give people a space to gather,” he said.
On any given day, that looks like children climbing hay bales, families sharing tables and neighbors catching up over a pint. And soon, maybe even a glass of hop water.
A community built not just around beer but around a place and a legacy.
To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org.
