About the Owners

The Trail Life is about finding joy in simplicity. It’s that feeling you get a few miles down the trail or the moment you push off from the boat launch and enter the current. When you’re done with the hard work, the jitters fade away, and life turns into the sound of your breath and your surroundings. It is settling into the adventure in front of you, and being fully present for it, often with the ones you hold most dear.

The Trail Life doesn’t come easy; it takes hard work, sacrifice, and planning to get there. We believe in the Trail Life and we believe both in working and playing hard. Because we are certain that both of those make food and drink taste better at the end of the trail.

Our Mission

Trail Life aims to create a comfortable and inspiring experience that helps move Grand Junction toward valuing and protecting the outdoors and building compassion for the community. Owners, in collaboration with a team of valued, well-trained, and beer savvy employees, will work to create an engaging, inspiring, and creative work environment. Through intentionality, simplicity, and passion we will crate good beer, good food, and an atmosphere where customers can enjoy the company of friends and family.

Our Story

Emma, a proud West Virginian, began learning and building her fascination with fermentation in 2006 when she started home brewing with extract in her college apartment. Since then she hasn’t stopped learning and brewing. Her formal education in Engineering at Virginia Tech and years working as a brewer (shout out to Kannah Creek and Jim!), has only assured her there is more to learn, gotten her more excited to brew, and kept her looking to taste and learn about the next beer in her glass. Cheers to the next beer in yours!

As a fourth generation Colorado Native, Ryan has grown up exploring the trails and slopes throughout the state. Within all of that wandering, the trail life gave him his appreciation for the outdoors as well as his mission in life: to make the world a better place through conservation and compassion. Since 2002, he has devoted his life to Outward Bound and the CMU Outdoor Program to teach future generations how to sustainably and responsibly recreate out on the trail. He hopes to bring that passion and commitment to make a difference in the world, to Trail Life Brewing. And just like he believes that the trail gives you exactly what you need, he also believes that good beer and good people help spark the passion.