Matt Dettmann didn’t set out to take over a business in the middle of a pandemic. But when you’re an entrepreneur with an eye for opportunity, and serendipity seems to drop one in your lap, you try not to let timing stand in the way.

“Even in a perfect economy, risk is high,” said Dettmann, a Colorado Springs restaurateur who, in July, bought Trinity Brewing Co. from founder Jason Yester. “A bunch of things happened and kind of came together that made this opportunity possible, and I’m just so glad to be able to do it.”

Dettmann, 51, has been in the Springs since 2009, a year after Trinity opened. He said he’s been a long-time customer at the award-winning brewpub, off Garden of the Gods Road.

“Back then, there weren’t a lot of brewpubs in Colorado Springs,” said Dettmann, of a city that’s now home to more than two dozen. “Trinity is in such a unique spot and it just did so many things and has always been extremely creative, pioneering so many styles that every place is doing now.”

In addition to a background in restaurants and real estate, Dettmann’s resume includes work as a Hollywood foley artist, providing “everyday sound effects” such as doors closing and glass breaking for blockbuster films such as “Spider-Man” and “Identity” in the 1990s and early 2000s.

“Graduating into brewing is a dream come true. If I could be anywhere, I would be in the brewhouse, all day everyday,” said Dettmann.

When Yester opened the brewpub in 2008, now-familiar beer terms like “sours” and “saisons” were more likely to raise eyebrows than glasses, and scoring a barrel-aged brew was a rarity. Its sophomore year, Trinity earned its first medal at the Great American Beer Festival, for TPS Report, a Wild Ale style beer made entirely with wild Brettanomyces yeast. It was ranked the top brewpub in the state for six years running, starting in 2012, and the 27th best brewpub in the world in 2011, by the website ratebeer.com. Its brews were twice included among the top 25 beers in the world by Draft Magazine.

Yester announced in July that he had sold the brewery and would be departing at the end of the month to pursue the “next chapter” in his life.

“Times have changed and I am respectfully exiting under my own power,” said Yester, who is currently lending his nonbrewing talents to the production of a “Portlandia”-style show about Manitou Springs, called “Laundromat Chronicles.”

Dettmann said Trinity will continue the traditions of creativity and innovation Yester established. Though he’s been a homebrewer for more than a decade, Dettmann is taking a back seat in the brewery, which is run by Jon Taylor, a former brewhouse chief for San Francisco’s Magnolia Brewing Co.

“Jon said, ‘I just want to make really creative beers, and not every brewery will let me do that,” Dettmann said. He assured Taylor he’d come to the right place.

The brewpub’s 40 taps means there’s plenty of room for art, including a line of 10 new IPAs.

The pandemic has slowed down business at the brewpub, which is offering patio seating and to-go food and drink orders during the shutdown. Production, though, is still going strong.

“We are brewing new beers monthly, usually a couple a month. We have not stopped since we got here,” said Dettmann. “All of our optimism is future based. We’re hoping we’re going to reopen soon, and when we do we want to be ready to go. I think there are a decent amount of people that are going to be ready to go out and have a beer.”