It’s one thing to support craft malt.
It’s a whole different thing to own a craft-malt certified truck.
And when your craft-malt certified truck comes in a bright cherry red, adorned with sage, yet beer-y, advice (It’s easier to start the day when you know it will end with beer) and the picture of a friendly mule looking you in the face, well…you must be Bill Benson, owner of Iron Mule Brewery in Castle Rock and one of our favorite malthouse visitors on pick up days.
Just look at this truck. You can’t not be happy when you look at this truck. The fact that it’s filled to the brim with Root Shoot malt, well, that just adds to the good mojo this truck brings. If you ever see the Iron Mule Jeep on the highway, honk, wave, and smile because that’s a batch of good malt going to make a bunch of batches of good beer. And that driver, Bill, also happens to be a really good guy.
For starters, who else regularly drives up all the way from Castle Rock to pick up malt? Bill and (let’s be honest) Bill’s Jeep are kind of malthouse celebrities. While Bill grabs his grain, we always grab a few photos of the Jeep.
Bill Benson (left) and malthouse production manager Craig Miller.
We met Bill and his Iron Mule project in 2017 when Bill called looking for a bag of malt. Still officially a homebrewer at the time, but In the midst of opening Iron Mule, Bill had discovered Root Shoot malt through The Brew Hut and, impressed with our products, began using it to brew. On that fateful day, however, The Brew Hut was out of our malt, so Bill shot us off an email and we dropped a 50 lb bag of malt at Bill’s front door.
That was the first and last time that we ever made it to Bill’s house, because shortly after that, the Iron Mule opened its doors. Now, nearly five years later, Bill has returned the favor dozens of times over with the Iron Mule Jeep.
A side note,: that fortuitous 50 lb bag of malt was used in Bill’s Mule Skinner, a Baltic Porter that took a homebrew competition Gold Medal and is still brewed and served on Iron Mule’s taps today!
A reluctant homebrewer, Bill Benson never wanted to own a brewery. With over ten years in the foodservice industry, however, he did want to open a restaurant. “If food trucks had been a thing back then [early 2000s]” Bill told us, “ Iron Mule might never have happened.” Knowing his appreciation for cooking and craft beer, a neighbor of Bill’s continually pushed him to try homebrewing. Afraid it was a rabbit hole he would never dig out of, Bill continually refused. Then, in 2005, the neighbor asked him to meet at a local brewery that just so happened to be connected to a homebrew store. Bill left that day with everything he needed and promptly jumped with both feet down the rabbit hole. He brewed three batches of extract on the stove, then skipped straight to brewing 10 gallons of all grain. Less than a year later, he joined ProBrewer.com and developed the concept for Iron Mule. He built a 1 BBL brewing system in his garage and, when that wasn’t enough, opened a whole darn brewery.
Iron Mule is the embodiment of the phase, “Well, that escalated quickly.”
Truly, we’re glad that it did.
Iron Mule Brewery is (in our humble opinion) one of the coolest little breweries in Colorado. Built into the old ACME water tower building, the space reminds us a little of our grain bins (we mean that in a good way!) Originally small, taking up just half of the building’s first floor and seating just 30 people, Iron Mule has been steadily expanding since their opening. They’ve grown from a 2 BBL system to a 6 BBL system, acquired a patio, took over the entire first floor, began canning beer, and are now entering the final expansion of their brewhouse.
It’s a busy life.
Yet somehow, through the business of it all, Bill still finds time to be our biggest fan.
Seriously. This man is about as subtle in promoting Root Shoot’s malt as…well…as a bright red truck with a mule’s face on it driving down the highway packed to the gills with malt.
Bill is on a one-man (one-mule?) mission to promote Root Shoot. In his own words: “I have a big mouth. Really. If I like a product I will talk about it, to it and try to convince anyone that they should use it too. I’m not sure if I have converted anyone [to Root Shoot], but I know a couple of breweries that are using it based on my never shutting up about it.”
Solid. We appreciate that, Bill!
Visiting Iron Mule means preparing to have your ideas around beer stretched.
“We brew beer, not styles,” says Bill. “That may sound weird, but it comes from my cooking background. One of our IPAs started as an American Pale Ale. We listed it as such, and no one would drink it. We changed the name from Pale Ale to IPA and it sold like crazy. (It’s still an American Pale Ale.) I stopped taking stock in styles at that time. I love the creativity that beer offers. We won a local event with our Imperial Black Currant Saison last year. Three types of unique hops. Honey from Hawaii and two different yeasts. We have successfully brewed over 60 unique beers from heirloom/historical styles to full-on crazy.”
Full-on crazy beer? We’ll take it! In actuality, we’ll take everything about Iron Mule: its dedication to craft, its pride in local, its emphasis on quality, and commitment to local relationships.
And its really cool Jeep.
Have we mentioned it has a really cool Jeep?
So, today’s toast (we’re choosing the Cit'n On a Mule American IPA) is to Iron Mule and the entire team behind it. We’d be nowhere without our breweries, and we couldn’t ask for a brewery more dedicated to the craft cause.
Cheers, Iron Mule! You may say that your beer “Tastes Like Happy” but in reality…it’s just you. You make Colorado - and the craft beer world just a little more Happy.
