Brewing Cocktails

The Eastside, a combination of gin, mint, lime and club soda, bursts with refreshing, mildly sweet, summertime flavors.

If you Google the phrase ‘cocktail brewery,’ the search engine becomes a bit confused. It populates a list of breweries, thinking I’m looking for a place to grab a beer. Further down, results pop up for distillery and brewpub tours, with Google relying on the independent meanings of ‘cocktail’ and ‘brewery’ to pull valuable information. But, sandwiched between drink menus and canned cocktails is the result I’m actually looking for: Goodlander Cocktail Brewery.

Goodlander, run by Pittsburgh industry veteran Wes Shonk, is, as the name gives away, like a cross between a cocktail bar and a brewery. Wes and his team craft excellent drinks, ones that taste like they’re fresh-out-of-the-shaker, to be carbonated and kegged. The crazy bubbly cocktails are served ready-to-drink, sold by the glass or returnable growler.

Housed in the former spot of Red Star Kombucha in Larimer, neighboring both KLVN Coffee Lab and East End Brewing Company, Wes runs a smooth, low-waste production at Goodlander. He and his team batch the cocktails in the back-of-house, hooking freshly-carbonated kegs up to draft lines that connect to the front taproom.

Highballs, drinks typically made with soda water, are Goodlander’s stars. (This is not to say, Wes stresses, that they won’t make a draft Old Fashioned in the future.)

Their current draft runs through classic cocktails, like the mojito, Tom Collins, Moscow Mule, and Eastside, a lesser-known combination of cucumber, lime, mint, gin, and club soda. Each of them tastes made-to-order, even if they've been sitting in a keg for a week. The Eastside bursts with refreshing, mildly sweet, summertime flavors and the Tom Collins, as Wes puts it, tastes so seamless that individual components – gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup – are almost impossible to discern.

Non-alcoholic options round out the drink menu. A strawberry jalapeño sparkling draft hits with a pleasant, fruity spice at the end of every sip, delightfully toeing the line between heat and sweet; the sparkling oolong tea starts dry, almost bitter, before opening up to a sweet, herbal peach flavor.

Wes’s final touch, to any cocktail, is ice. Ice has the power, with any cocktail, to drastically change the taste and “vibe.” For highballs, the ideal is something big and dense that melts slowly, like an ice spear or stack of large cubes.

For his cocktails, Wes purchased a Hoshizaki ice maker. The cubes, which he calls "the best," are heavy, clear, and square, each with a small dimple on one side. Though much smaller than a spear (Goodlander ice is scoopable), the cubes work the same way, melting slowly so the bubbles in the drink dissipate less.

Wes sells his Hoshizaki cocktail ice by the bag, saying that they’re in the “education phase” right now, teaching customers what cocktail ice is. “You can come buy these cocktails with a milk jug, I don’t really care,” he says. “Have fun at the party. If you want to pour these cocktails over no ice, I don’t really care. But, if you want a good cocktail and good ice, it’s here.”

Goodlander Cocktail Brewery is currently open on Fridays and Saturdays, selling drinks to-go.

Craving more cocktail content? Visit our Spirits page for at-home recipes, the low-down on local spirits, and more!

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MAGGIE WEAVER