While the majority of Colorado’s craft breweries had to rapidly alter their business models or even make wholesale changes as a way to stay in business over the past years of the pandemic, nine-year-old Grist Brewing has taken a different approach — one that is paying off.

It has almost entirely abandoned canning in favor of its high-concept venues, which feature food, Grist beer and historic, literary and sometimes trippy atmospheres. The latest, Field and Forest Fabled Bistro Pub, opened last week in the former Close Quarters coffee shop at 415 South Cherokee Street.

“We try not to be cheesy. We’re not Epcot Center. … But we are building what we’re calling these immersive experiences,” explains Gary Hilton, a longtime marketing consultant who bought into the brewery three years ago with his son, Kaleb, who now runs the growing company’s day-to-day operations.

Rare by Grist, for instance, located in Lone Tree, has what he describes as a “steampunk meets Alice in Wonderland on LSD” theme, with big murals, 360-degree photo ops and a Cajun-style menu. The brand-new Field and Forest, meanwhile, is decorated loosely around the Wild West and Native American themes from The Last of the Mohicans. It serves more rustic fare, like salads and wild mushroom soup. Both also serve a lineup of eighty to one hundred different cocktails that were designed in-house.

Eventually, the Hiltons hope to have eight locations in Denver, each with a completely different theme, as a way to max out the brewing capacity at its original and more traditional taproom in Highlands Ranch. “That way, we become our own distribution network…focused on selling one pint at a time.”

The father and son, who…