The Ghosts of Tivoli Brewery
The Tivoli Brewing Company, constructed bt Moritz Sigi in 1864, and nestled up high in the Auraria neighborhood of Denver Colorado, is widely considered by the general population to be something of a local legend. The building, home of what was formerly known (and is now again known) as the Tivoli Brewing Company, was named after none other than the famous Tivoli Gardens of Copenhagen – one of the finest beer gardens in all of the world.
Throughout the generations, the Tivoli Brewing Company has not only made a name for itself in the state of Denver but all over the entire western seaboard. This success was carried largely in part, by both the beers potent flavor, and well as it’s deep ambrosiac aroma. So heavy, and sumptuous, in fact, was the aroma of the Tivoli Brew of old, that as legend has it – many a brewer had begun to drowse as we worked over the large, swirling vats of alcohol, and having been unable to temper his faltering lids – had fallen in, to meet his untimely demise.
To this very day, we were told excitedly by our tour guide, that if you get lucky and come on just the right night – you may still have a chance to hear one of those unlucky souls who had fallen into his work some completely and met such a gruesome end.
Now, I can’t speak towards any disembodied voices, but I can say this: The room where they had kept those vats – is ominous. There’s just something about it, even now after all of this time, and after all of the changes have been made. There is still a certain emotion to the air of the place – as if something is not quite right.
In this modern day, the Tivoli Brewing Company has in many ways changed completely. Now, instead of merely brewing beer, the building proper is home to the Tivoli Student Union. A place where students from the local colleges can come together to meet up, study, and to have a drink when it’s all said and done. However, even with this shiny new veneer, the dark and sinister past of the Tivoli Brewing Company still managed to poke it’s ugly snout through the cracks – of only you know how to coax it.
Upon inquiry to one of the local students, of all people, I actually managed to uncover one more piece of haunted history, tied into this sinister beer spot. As the story went, back in the winter of 1955, a group of homeless men was seeking shelter from the bone-chilling gale that had sprung up around them – when they had come upon no other building than the very one that we speak of today – the Tivoli Brewing Company. The men, nearly chilled to the bone and on the verge deaths doorstep, tried the door immediately – and to their utmost surprise, it was open.
Crowding into the dank, musty brewery floor, these poor, misbegotten souls huddled together for warmth and began the arduous process of attempting to survive the night. Unfortunately, these gentlemen had made a grievous error. In their terror-stricken panic, they had assumed that any building would be more than effective in keeping them out of the storm. That anything at all would be better than that gale – that wicked blizzard that lay high out above them, lurking in wait. They were, unfortunately, incorrect.
One thing a brewery has to be – is cold enough to keep the beer from turning before its time. And in the 1950’s, that meant stone walls, big locks, and no air seals to speak of. That’s right… Those poor souls had frozen to death – before the night was even up.
I was told by this young woman, in no uncertain terms, that she and her friends had undoubtedly borne witness first hand to the paranormal goings on around this gem from Denver’s past. I was told that there were clanking sounds that could be heard at all hours of the night – as if fists were being hammered down hard onto some great, hollow metal tank. The sound of metal can be heard from time to time, scraping its way across the hardwood floor – grating the ears of anyone unlucky (or lucky, depending on how you’re looking at it) enough to be present for it’s dark and ominous arrival.
Never mind the brewery’s seemingly innocuous surface – underneath its newly polished exterior, lies a haunting mystery, creepy enough to give any other tale a run for its money. Long departed vat worked, lost to a briny demise – a group of poor, misbegotten wretches, taken by the building in conjunction with mother nature herself. These are the perfect ingredients for a haunting – and in fact, if you pay close attention to it in this place, the malcontent is very nearly palpable in the still, ancient air.
