{"id":114870,"date":"2025-10-30T09:44:28","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T15:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.craftbeer.com\/?p=114870"},"modified":"2025-11-05T13:50:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T20:50:36","slug":"cloudy-with-a-chance-of-fresh-hops-how-denvers-flyteco-catches-lighting-in-a-bottle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.craftbeer.com\/full-pour\/cloudy-with-a-chance-of-fresh-hops-how-denvers-flyteco-catches-lighting-in-a-bottle","title":{"rendered":"Cloudy with a Chance of Fresh Hops: How Denver\u2019s FlyteCo Catches Lightning in a Bottle"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 6:32 a.m. when I see the latest email from Eric Serani, cofounder and president of Denver-based FlyteCo<\/a> Tower brewery and bar: \u201cUgh, looks like the clouds aren\u2019t going away.\u201d I\u2019m already halfway from Denver to Erie Municipal Airport<\/a>, where Serani had been planning to fly his four-seater RV-10<\/a> to Billy Goat Hop Farm<\/a> in Montrose, Colo., for a fresh hop pickup.<\/p>\n

FlyteCo has been making this trip\u2014typically mid- to late August\u2014since the brewery opened in 2019. Plenty of beer writers count a ride-along on their bucket lists, and I\u2019d been eagerly anticipating the experience for months. But the weather doesn\u2019t much care about fresh hop beers, pilots\u2019 passion projects, or journalists\u2019 dreams. As the hop flight gets postponed from a Monday to a Wednesday and then again, it becomes clear just how little about this endeavor is under Serani or any mere mortal\u2019s control\u2014and how getting to make this flight and subsequent beer is like catching lightning in a bottle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always so last minute,\u201d Serani says. \u201cThe harvest, they don\u2019t know when that\u2019s going to be until a few weeks ahead of time. The weather for the flight, we don\u2019t know for sure until the day of.\u201d Once both the harvest and weather patterns prove willing to play along, Serani has to remain in constant communication throughout the journey with the FlyteCo team back at the brewhouse. \u201cThey\u2019re getting the beer ready for us to get back and get the hops right in. Every time we\u2019ve been able to make this beer, it\u2019s a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The miracle has had a good track record. After six consecutive years, 2025 is the first time Serani isn\u2019t sure if they\u2019ll be able to make the flight at all. If he can\u2019t fly to Billy Goat by the end of the week, he says, they\u2019ll just have to get the hops shipped overnight.<\/p>\n

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Hop is My Co-Pilot<\/a> Fresh Hop IPA<\/a> is a \u201cdifficult beer to make,\u201d Serani acknowledges, and in the era of hop pellets and extracts, navigating the challenging flight path over the Rocky Mountains isn\u2019t exactly the most efficient way to get hops. But, says Serani, \u201cthe entire FlyteCo brand is about aviation, about inspiring people to push their limits and do something they don\u2019t think they can do.\u201d He thinks of his own path to getting his pilot\u2019s license, how tough the going could get, and how the people who believed in him saw him through. \u201cWe want to do that for other people, whatever we can inspire them to do.\u201d Plus, he adds, this excursion helps him and any pilots who come along keep their skills sharp.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just as much about community, too,\u201d Serani notes. \u201cIt\u2019s not often we can get together and fly out unless we have this common mission. And then we get a great beer out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning to Fly<\/h2>\n

On the cloudy Wednesday that this year\u2019s hop flight had been pushed to, just a few of us\u2014significantly down from the eight planes\u2019 worth of hop-motivated pilots and passengers originally signed on\u2014showed up to Erie for what would essentially become a post-mortem for the day\u2019s flight of fancy. One member of the group is Serani\u2019s father, Scott, which is how I learned that building and flying planes is a treasured family tradition generations strong. As Scott Serani points out photos, newspaper clippings, and plane pieces tacked to the wall of the family\u2019s hangar and father and son share stories, I learn just how deep aviation\u2019s roots run for Eric Serani and FlyteCo.<\/p>\n

Serani grew up in Broomfield, Colo., about a 20-minute drive from Erie Municipal Airport. When he was just three years old, his grandfather took him up in his own 1946 kit plane during the toddler\u2019s visit to Chicago. By the time Serani was five, his grandfather had moved to Colorado, where he could closely foster his grandson\u2019s love of flying. His friend, a flight instructor, started teaching Serani to fly in earnest when Serani was 13. Sixteen is the earliest one can legally fly a plane alone, which Serani did; at 17, he got his full license allowing him to take passengers up with him. Between those two milestones, his grandfather passed away. The members of the EAA\u2014Experimental Aircraft Association<\/a>\u2014chapter he and his grandfather belonged to rallied around Serani, realizing he\u2019d lost his biggest supporter, and also that he needed to train in a more contemporary plane. They raised enough to give Serani a scholarship to hone his craft and become certified at Erie\u2019s airport.<\/p>\n

From that moment on, Serani wanted to pay that community support forward. He joined the EAA\u2019s Young Eagles program, which gets kids between the ages of eight and 17 up for their first flights to spark their interest in aviation. And yes, that means Serani was sometimes flying kids older than him.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne time, one of the kids\u2019 mothers came over to me and asked if I was excited to go up for my first flight. I told her, \u2018Ma\u2019am, I\u2019m the pilot,\u2019\u201d Serani says with a chuckle. Serani has continued his work with the EAA and balances running FlyteCo with a position as a flight instructor at Erie.<\/p>\n

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