Armillary Brewing opens in Colorado Springs after yearlong buildout

A former flooring shop at 4810 Old Farm Drive Suite 120 has become Armillary Brewing Co., and the first proof came quickly when neighbors started showing up within an hour of the April 21 soft opening. After more than a year of buildout, the brewery moved into its official grand opening on Sunday with a room that was built to work as both a production-minded taproom and a neighborhood hangout.

That rollout matters because Armillary did not try to do everything at once. The kitchen was not quite ready when the first beer was poured, so the business used a phased launch, beer first, food second, polish third. Kristin Lockhart said people had been walking by with dogs and kids asking when the place would open, and that early buzz turned into real traffic as soon as the taps came online. The menu stays deliberately tight, with pizzas and other items that can be dipped in beer cheese, a setup that keeps the food program manageable while leaving the brewery room to focus on beer.

The location explains a lot of the confidence behind the project. Earlier coverage described the site as part of a three-unit shopping plaza off Austin Bluffs Parkway in Northeast Colorado Springs, in an area that felt like a “beer desert.” Jeff Lockhart, a veteran Colorado brewer, and Kristin Lockhart, a retired elementary school teacher, initially framed the project as their little mom-and-pop brewery. The couple also said on-site food mattered from the start, and the property’s prior back-of-house upgrades helped seal the deal. The business later changed names from Constellation Brewing to Armillary Brewing after a trademark issue, then filed Armillary Brewing Company LLC in Colorado on May 13, 2025. The city also listed a brew pub license application for the address with a hearing date of Oct. 17, 2025, underscoring how long the move from concept to service took.

Armillary arrives in a Colorado Springs beer scene that is still active but under pressure. Springsmag counted 31 local breweries and pointed to recent closures including FH Beerworks, Trinity, Metric and Rock Bottom Brewery. Across the country, the Brewers Association said 2025 craft beer production fell 5% to 21,859,000 barrels, with 300 new openings and 481 closures, while 2024 production totaled 23.1 million barrels and retail sales reached $28.8 billion. In that kind of market, a focused neighborhood brewpub has to earn its place fast.

Armillary’s opening suggests that a repurposed building, a restrained food program and a clearly defined local footprint can still work, especially in a pocket of town where residents were already waiting for a place like this to show up.