The Tivoli Story
THE BEGINNING
The story of Tivoli began with the formation of Denver and the settling of the Colorado Territory in 1861. Gold was discovered in July 1858, and soon thereafter the German settlers arrived and began brewing beer. The first two breweries in Colorado were the Rocky Mountain Brewery and Sigi's Brewery. The Rocky Mountain Brewery, established in 1859 by John Good, eventually became the Zang's Brewery. Sigi's Brewery, established in 1864, evolved into the Tivoli Brewery. In 1900, John Good, the original owner of The Rocky Mountain Brewery, acquired Sigi's Brewery (now named The Milwaukee Brewery) and renamed it Tivoli, after the famous amusement park in Copenhagen. Until Prohibition, Tivoli and Zang's were the two largest breweries west of the Mississippi. Good kept Tivoli alive during Prohibition by producing "Dash," a cereal beer with minimal alcohol content.
THE MIDDLE
Tivoli continued to grow and the public continued to embrace Tivoli beer. After Good died in 1918, the brewery stayed in the hands of Good's descendants and his long time business partner, William Burghardt. By the 1950s, the brewery became one of the largest breweries in the country by producing up to 150,000 barrels a year, which were sold everywhere west of the Mississippi. In the early 1960 ²s Tivoli continued to grow with the Hi-En-Brau brand.
THE END OF AN ERA
When Loraine Good, the final Good descendant, passed away in 1965, Carl and Joseph Occhiatio purchased the Tivoli-Union Brewery from the estate. The brothers immediately faced hardship when the Platte River flooded in 1965, damaging the brewery. One year later, a labor strike set the business back exponentially. Sadly, in April of 1969, the Tivoli Brewery closed for business. Until Tivoli closed, it was the second oldest continuously operating brewery in the country with Pennsylvania's Yuengling brewery being the only brewery with an existence surpassing that of Tivoli.
A NEW BEGINNING
In 2012, a group of native Coloradans formed the Tivoli Distributing Company and Tivoli Beer was reborn. The first batch, a recreation of the historic Tivoli Beer recipe, entered the brew kettle on August 1, 2012. At this time, establishments in the Denver area began selling Tivoli Beer for the first time in over 43 years..
