Meet Your Neighbor: Cerebral Brewing

Join us as we sit down with Sean Buchan, co-owner of Cerebral Brewing, who, alongside Dan McGuire, is transforming the local brewing landscape through their pioneering approach.

Meet Sean Buchan | Cerebral Brewing

What was the inspiration behind Cerebral Brewing and its name?

I had been home brewing. I was a physical therapist, and I was looking for a hobby. Something to get out of health care, get out of that mindset, and start homebrewing. A few years in, I realized this was something I was passionate about and thought was a lot of fun. And I made a lot of friends in the industry that made me want to, like, dive in further. Luckily, Dan McGuire, who was our other owner, was my college roommate, and he signed on to, you know, help more on the business and financial side. That made my wife a lot more comfortable with the decision. But, you know, her support meant the world to me. And we just got it off the ground. And that was in 2015 when we opened.

We struggled with the name for a while because, you know, once you name something, you're stuck with that name forever, right? And there were so many breweries opening that there wasn't a perceived lack of options, but we just took our time with it. We were part of the Denver Small Business Development Center's business plan group and their marketing assistance. We were kind of just bouncing names off the wall and trying to say that we were putting a lot of thought into what we did, and we said, it's a very cerebral, you know, nature. And then we're just stuck and became the name.

You opened a new location here in Aurora! What drew you to this area? In this building?

Well, we've probably been looking for a building for two years. So we needed a combination of size and building height so that we could fit our tanks and equipment here. I was born in Aurora and grew up here for a few years of my life. We moved to Evergreen after that. But then I went to school at Anschutz, so I was familiar with it. And our first location was very close to where I started school, the eighth Colorado campus. And then, you know, finished up as we moved to it. It was like mid-transition that year. So we drove and shot. So, I was pretty familiar with this area then. The diversity is really awesome. For example, I grab lunch at Mango House, which is one of my favorite spots to go to. But, you know, also something that made us feel like the community welcomed us. As soon as we voiced interest here, people were excited for us to be here.

We have a total of 17,000ft² in the building, 10,000 of which is on the main floor. And then there's some warehouse in the back. So we make beer measured in barrels, from 31 gallons to a barrel, just purely for taxation purposes. Right now, we do about 4700 barrels a year, and about 980 to 90% of that is produced here versus our other spot.

What are some of the menu offerings that you're particularly proud of and that are unique? Do you have a personal favorite beer?

We're more well-known for our IPAs, but our more extensive program excites us. We do a lot of barrel stouts, and we find those to be really invigorating. So, on the lager side, we released a blue corn lager, the Indigo effect. That just happened when we opened this facility. That one turned out great. We used a combination of malted and unmalted Texas corn. Blue corn turned out great. We have several lagers. Neon Light is our American light lager, our ode to full facts. We have two locations on Colfax. So we're really happy about that one. And then again, this houses all of our barrels, are clean barrels for barrel-aged stout.

I think I get more excited about its art, but it depends on who you ask. So we have Caroline, our QA and QC brewer, who helps us ensure that everything we do hits a certain benchmark for quality assurance and quality control. So it's not always the most exciting thing, but ensuring that everything we put out is of high quality and stays that way is essential. And the package. We don't have any issues, you know, after we sell it to a customer.

What's more complex, the science of brewing or the art of it? How do you decide what recipes to pursue? 

I think I get more excited about its art. But you know, it depends on who you ask. So we have, you know, Caroline, our QA, QC brewer, who is helping us ensure that everything we do hits a specific benchmark for quality assurance and quality control. So it's not always the most exciting thing, but ensuring that everything we put out is of high quality and stays that way is essential. And package. We don't have any issues, you know, after we sell it to a customer.

Deciding recipes is a group decision, but I would say there are things that, you know, we'll tell our brewers, hey, this does or does not fit our vision for our brand. But you know, they know that. And there are some creative projects that we're allowed to do. We can offer them at our first location, which is just a smaller turn to prove, you know, a proof of concept, essentially, and say, like, you know, this is not a style we usually do. Still, we can do it here and allow you to execute your creative vision outside of that. You know, we'll look at the schedule and come up with, like, we need an IPA on this date. Does anybody want to toss in ideas on how we create this one? So it's pretty collaborative. Ultimately, Sam, our head brewer, and I guide that more, but everybody's involved.

What makes you proud as a business owner?

It's the team and the people, and I think it's, you know, making sure that we do everything we can to, like, give them the best place to come in every day, which is a big challenge. But you know that. And, like, just seeing the community gathering spaces that we've created for our customers at both locations, we have, like, a national appeal, but we also really try to make sure that we stay true to our identity as a community brewery and a neighborhood brewery. So, regulars and like seeing kids grow up in the space, right? It's been really awesome to watch.

Last question: what's your superpower?

I mean, I think Wolverine's pretty, pretty cool. The ability to, like, regenerate. That'd be. That'd be sweet. Yeah, but human superpower, I don't know. I think the side of a business owner is that you have to be above average at everything but not super at anything. So it's kind of how I feel in my life!