RiNo Pale Ale by Epic Brewing Co.

When Utah-based Epic Brewing signed a lease on a warehouse in Denver’s River North arts district, becoming the first out-of-state brewery to start producing in the Colorado market, they were eager to integrate themselves into the community. Which is why David Cole, co-founder of Epic, went on the hunt for the artist behind the landmark mural a block from their new brewery.

The sprawling rhinoceros, whose hot pink eye watches over the neiborhood around 31st & Larimer streets, was the perfect fit for Epic’s new RiNo Pale Ale. “We are hoping to convey that the RiNo Pale Ale is something made in our gritty, artsy, semi-industrial neighborhood in Denver,” says Cole.

But first, he had to track down the painter: THiNK426, whose vibrant murals and tattoo art are much easier to find than the man himself. Cole went through Gary Glasser, a local graffiti-art photographer and advocate, whose website, fatcap.com, was Cole’s introduction to THiNK’s work. “THiNK is fairly well known here for his mural talent and his tattoo artistry, and yet never really seeks any attention,” says Glasser, whose photograph of the RiNo mural appears on Epic’s label.

“I kind of keep to myself,” says THiNK on the phone from Seattle, where he’s just finished airbrushing a giant portrait of Marilyn Monroe during a tattoo convention. “I let the work speak for itself.”

And it does: The fiery strokes of the rhino’s horn and the coarse texture of his prehistoric-like skin must be even more striking in person. “If you look close, you can see the brick texture of the building it is painted on and even a pile of dirt that exists along the wall which, to me, hints to this struggle of urban decay and urban rebirth that embraces that decay in a special way,” says Cole. And don’t miss the little black rhino that’s “the branding for the neighborhood,” he adds.

RiNo is part of Epic’s new Classic line of beers, the labels for which “tell the story of where we come from,” Cole says.

When Glasser delivered one of the first bottles of RiNo to THiNK, they laughed at how things turned out. “I wouldn’t have done this on my own,” THiNK says. “Being published on a beer label is cool enough for me.” ■