Boulder, Colorado – June 2010 – Twisted Pine has decided to branch out with a 12% expansion of its brewery. The expansion includes a larger production area, an extended patio with beer garden and a recently acquired grain silo.

The expansion comes after the company’s decision to begin out of state distribution last fall. Twisted Pine first ventured outside Colorado with distribution to Texas. Nine months later Twisted Pine Beer can be found in Colorado, Texas, Louisiana and Missouri. Future plans include distribution in Arizona and New Mexico. “I’ve been getting requests to ship out of state for years,” say owner Bob Baile. “We felt after 15 years it was time to share our beer with the rest of the world.”

The grain silo will allow for delivery of bulk grain reducing material costs and labor costs. The increased production area frees up space for more brewing vessels and eventually a bottling line.

Strong sales are attributed to the company’s seasonal beer program with a strong push from 22oz offerings of Le Petite Saison, Hoppy Man Imperial IPA and Razzy Xpress. Also scheduled for release this summer is the 15th Anniversary Beer Hoppy Knight India-style Black Ale which will be tapped during the Anniversary Party on July 17th.

Ale House sales have been soaring due to increased interest in craft beer by the general public. “More and more people are deciding to spend their evenings at the local microbrewery. Almost every brewery provides some kind of music or night time entertainment these days,” says Bob Baile. .

###

Based in Boulder, Colorado Twisted Pine Brewing Company has been handcrafting beer since 1995. They are the brewers of such favorites as “Hoppy Boy IPA,” “Raspberry Wheat Ale” and “Billy’s Chilies.” The Ale House is a very popular local hangout and boasts 17 taps, 5 rotating. Twisted Pine is active with local charitable organizations and a strong believer in sustainable business practices. You can find more information at www.twistedpinebrewing.com.

STEVENS POINT, Wis. June 2010 – Stevens Point Brewery will add keg cooler space and more aging tanks this summer to increase production capacity and keep pace with growing sales.

A 2,700-square-foot addition will be constructed on the south side of the brewery adjacent to the loading docks. The project includes an expanded keg cooler room big enough to store more than 3,000 half-barrels and quarter-barrels of beer. The brewery also will add four 6,200-gallon aging tanks, increasing its aging capacity by 16%, which will increase the brewery’s total brewing capacity to more than 80,000 barrels.

Groundbreaking is planned for the end of June and construction will be completed by the end of September, according to Joe Martino, Stevens Point Brewery Operating Partner. “Our draft beer business is doing tremendously well, sales are up in our core markets and we are expanding distribution into new states,” Martino said. “Our overall business is up double digits and we need to increase the brewery’s capacity. It’s that simple.” (CONT)

Via the social medium of twitter and an online Blog, Greg Koch and Steve Wagner announced the long awaited news about their next major step in world domination – expansion into Europe. Greg Koch explained that they are going to “actively and openly look to open a brewery over there [Europe]“– except for France .

They have started their journey by formally putting out an RPF (request for proposal) – looking for someone to make an offer.   To watch the expansion announcement video, click here

Stone Brewing Company is very global conscious and decided to make this move for a couple of different reasons a) demand for their products b) to be closer to the European drinking community – which has a long history of making beer c) to expand their market but not increase their overall carbon foot print to drastically.

Stone Brewing Company has taken many steps to protect the environment and reuse/eliminate the waste from beer brewing. It was only a years ago where they spent $850,000 to install a waste water treatment plant (read more).

As a dedicated follow of @StoneGreg on twitter, I was anxious to read this news today. He has “teased” us for a few weeks that there will be some “news” coming.  [I asked if it was a collaboration beer with aliens, I guess I wasn't too far off ]

I’m not sure how the European community feels about this idea. They are used to a reverse relationship – where the European Breweries/Beers were shipped to North America. Now, the tides have turned.

I believe that this is a good move, but must be taken with extreme caution. Many Europeans are not fans of change and when change occurs, it moves slowly (many consumers are still using Windows ME – Gosh!!)

Good Luck Greg, Steve and Stone Brewing Company. If you’re looking for some beer ambassadors to make the move, let us know when and where – and we’ll be there!!

Please let us know what you think about this move?

Thanks

Sean
2Beerguys.com

Drink Craft Beer, You’ve Earned It!!!

Other related topics:

Video – I am a craft brewer
Stone Brewing Company release Vertical Epic 09-09-09
Recap of the juxtaposition collaboration between Cambridge Brewing, Stone and Brew Dog
Beer Wars – The Movie Review

COMSTOCK TOWNSHIP — Expansion plans at the headquarters of Bell’s Brewery Inc. are moving ahead with site plan approval for the project last week by the Comstock Township Planning Commission.

The brewery plans to add 15,000 square feet of office space onto its 60,000-square-foot production operation at 8938 Krum Ave.

Owner Larry Bell estimates that a cramped 2,000 square feet is currently used for office cubicles, employee breakroom space and other non-production uses. The craft brewer uses the balance of the space for beer production.

The $5.2 million expansion project, which will be on the east side of the existing facility, is expected to start in late March or early April after final drawings and other administrative groundwork is completed, Bell said. He said the CSM Group of Kalamazoo will be construction manager.

“The office building is going to be super-econfriendly,” Bell said. “We are shooting for platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.”

Why?

“First of all, it’s the right thing to do given energy costs these days,” Bell said. “Our competitors are doing it. I think its good marketing for us. And I think our customers are looking for us to be an eco-friendly, responsible company.”

The maker of Oberon and Third Coast Old Ale has been in Comstock Township for about seven years but had its origins in downtown Kalamazoo in 1984. It continues to have a retail operation, storage warehouses and a workshop area in downtown Kalamazoo, adjacent to 355 E. Kalamazoo Ave. Of some 40,000 square feet of space there, most is for storage, Bell said. Only about 3,000 square feet is for production.

The Comstock office expansion continues the growth of the company, which over the last two years added a new warehouse, completed the $3.2 million expansion of its fermentation cellar, and added a new beer kegging line.

The brewery’s fermentation capacity has grown to 280,000 barrels per years, versus 140,000, Bell said.

Beer production grew by more than 22 percent in 2008, to more than 111,000 barrels, Bell said, the seventh consecutive year of double-digit growth. The business anticipates an additional 20 percent growth this year.

Of the Comstock office expansion, Bell said, “One of the things that we’re building is a large room to hold 150 people –Â to get all employees together or so we can host meetings of master brewers or other professional organizations.”

The business has 92 employees, 65 of whom are in Comstock Township.
If all goes according to plan, the development will be finished by the end of 2010.

Link to article.

It’s always great news to hear.

Sean
2Beerguys.com

Drink Craft Beer, You’ve Earned It!!!

Legend brewery to expand
By John Blackwell

Fans of locally brewed beer have at least one good thing to look forward to in 2009.

Even with the economy in a downturn, managers at Legend Brewing Co. in South Richmond say they are forging ahead with plans to add production capacity at its brewing operation adjacent to its pub on West Seventh Street.

The microbrewery, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, sells its beer at retail stores in 22-ounce bottles now. But in the next few months, Legend is planning to start selling at least some of its beer in six packs of 12-ounce bottles.

Asked what the recession means for the business, Legend President Tom Martin had a straightforward answer: “There is a lot of bad news in the economy, but people still need to live, and they still want to have a good time.”

Consumers typically keep hoisting the beers during a downturn, according to industry observers. The Nielsen Co., a consumer research firm, considers beer one of the most recession-resistant consumer products.

The Brewers Association, an industry trade group, reported that sales of craft beer — beverages made by more than 1,400 regional, independent breweries in the U.S. — were up more than 6 percent by volume in the first half of 2008, after growth of about 12 percent for all of 2007.

Alcoholic beverage sales have been “relatively resilient in the face of economic challenges,” analyst Judy Hong of Goldman Sachs wrote in an October report, which predicted overall U.S. consumption of alcoholic beverages was likely to grow 1 percent to 1.5 percent in 2008. Hong said beer sales were expected to hold up better than wine or spirits.

Not that the outlook is entirely peachy for small brewers, whose sales also depend on how often consumers go out to celebrate.

“The bars and restaurants are having a tough time right now,” said Mark Stepanian, president of Loveland Distributing Co. in Richmond, a third-generation family business that distributes more than 200 brands of beer to bars, restaurants, convenience stores and grocery stores in central Virginia.

“I would say we are more resilient to [a recession], but there are no islands in the stream,” said Stepanian, who said business slowed in the third quarter last year. He thinks it will improve by summer.

“It is still an affordable luxury relative to many other items,” he said. “I think that is what will sustain us until we sort this [economic] mess out.”

At Richbrau, a popular down town Richmond brewpub, President Mike Byrne is more concerned about food sales than beer sales. “Beer aside, the hospitality industry is going into 2009 in very precarious conditions,” he said.

In Virginia, pubs and bars must offer food to sell alcohol. Food and fuel prices rose much of last year, and when combined with a downturn in business as the economy soured later in the year, restaurants have suffered, Byrne said.

“Beer is probably the staple thing, in the sense that pretty much everybody will go out and drink a beer,” he said. “But spending $20 on lunch or $30 on dinner, or having a retirement party for someone at work, those are the things that are uncertain.”

The beer industry saw some turmoil in 2008. A worldwide shortage of hops, along with rising costs for other ingredients such as malted barley, forced many brewers to increase prices. Also, many fans of domestic beer were shocked when Anheuser-Busch Cos., the nation’s top-selling beer company with the Budweiser brands, agreed to be acquired by Belgium-based InBev SA. Anheuser-Busch reported that its U.S. beer shipments grew through the third quarter of 2008 compared with the previous year.

For microbreweries such as Legend, the outlook for 2009 depends a lot on whether consumers feel good enough about the health of their wallets to keep buying their favorite craft beers.

“We’re optimistic,” said David Gott, Legend’s sales manager. The brewery’s management team says sales were up about 10 percent in 2007 and about 6 percent in the first 10 months of 2008. The company is expecting growth in 2009 but was not specific with a prediction.

The expansion plans include adding a bottling line, fermenters and storage tanks. Plans to introduce six-packs are part of a push to gain more retail sales beyond the roughly 50-mile radius from Richmond, where Legend sells its beer at stores and restaurants.

As the economy slumped last year, the Brewers Association noted that consumers were shifting their purchases away from on-premises, bar and restaurant drinks, to buying for home consumption, a spokeswoman for the association said.

“A 22-ounce bottle is a nice package,” Gott said. “But Americans are conditioned to a six-pack of beer. That is really the package that retailers and wholesalers are set up for. In order for us to expand any further, six-packs are the way to go.”

Link to article.

Sean

2Beerguys.com

Maker of Schlafly beer sees opportunity in InBev takeover
By Jeremiah McWilliams
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Walking through the Schlafly Bottleworks brewery a few weeks ago, Dan Kopman found himself half-apologizing for what looked like controlled chaos. Hoses snaked across the floor. Water gushed from equipment and spilled onto the floor. Pieces of a dismantled boiler sat in a box as bottles of pale ale whizzed by on a nearby conveyor belt.

“A bit messy in here,” said Kopman, chief operating officer of St. Louis Brewery Inc., as he eyed spilled kernels in the grain room.

The scene at St. Louis’ biggest small brewer stands in stark contrast to the digital industrialism of the  mega-brewery down the street.

But St. Louis Brewery — maker of Schlafly beer — is about to get more sophisticated. The company plans to roughly double its production capacity by this time next year by modernizing the Bottleworks, which is tucked into downtown Maplewood.

The quirky upstart will be sleeker, better organized and bigger, able to produce about 45,000 barrels a year, thanks to a modernization project that could cost about $600,000. The planned improvements span the entire brewery — from temperature control and liquid storage to packaging.

“There’s just a lot to do,” Kopman said.

There also is a sense of urgency. The Schlafly operation will become St. Louis’ biggest independent brewery later this year, when InBev of Belgium expects to finalize its $52 billion takeover of Anheuser-Busch Cos. and its flagship brewery in Soulard.

The buyout has rocked St. Louis. Managers of bars around town say they have been peppered with questions from drinkers about which “American” beers are still available.

“We have this unique situation with A-B in St. Louis,” Kopman told dozens of bar managers, grocers and restaurateurs at a beer panel at Bottleworks last month. “It probably doesn’t go beyond 50 miles. But people are saying, ‘I want to drink something else.’”

The folks at Schlafly smell an opportunity: The company’s accelerated expansion plans are aimed at capitalizing on the turmoil and angst caused by InBev’s ascension.

If all goes according to plan, a significant amount of new brewing capacity will be added at Bottleworks during the last three months of this year. Two big fermentation tanks are on the way, squeezing more beer storage capacity into the facility. Installation originally was supposed to happen next year, but InBev’s purchase of A-B — along with the strong demand for locally made craft beers — sped up the plans.

Over in the brewhouse, a new kettle will help ease a bottleneck created by the slow extraction of a hot, sugary liquid — called wort — that is eventually fermented into beer.

Automated systems run from a control room will replace the manual systems that now regulate the temperature of fermenting beer.

This year, Schlafly plans to make about 23,000 barrels of beer, or 713,000 gallons. The changes this year will raise its production capacity to about 30,000 barrels — what Anheuser-Busch’s St. Louis facility could crank out in roughly 17 hours.

Six other fermenting tanks are to be installed next year if demand holds up for Schlafly beer. That could bring capacity to about 45,000 barrels.

TROUBLE BREWING

For small brewers, these are uncertain times to dive headfirst into major expansions. The craft beer industry’s dollar sales were up 11 percent in the first half of the year, but costs of ingredients such as barley malt and hops are stratospheric compared to just a few years ago.

In the U.S. beer industry, the top of the food chain is undergoing an unprecedented wave of consolidation, with Miller and Coors combining their operations and Anheuser-Busch succumbing to InBev’s advances.

Anheuser-Busch and other major brewers also keep churning out beers that compete directly with little breweries’ main specialties, such as wheat beers and ales.

“The challenge for the smaller brewers is to keep that panache, that mystique,” said Chris Wong, category manager for beer at Schnuck Markets Inc.

The Brewers Association, a Colorado-based trade group of small brewers, worries that the MillerCoors combination and InBev’s buyout of A-B could make it harder for small, independent craft brewers to get their beers on shelves.

By many accounts, it’s been the beer industry’s craziest year since Prohibition. And no one seems to know exactly how small brewers should adapt as the biggest and most powerful brewers become even more formidable.

Over in Kansas City, Boulevard Brewing Co. — one of the country’s biggest craft breweries — is pouring money into its operations, adding a $6 million bottling line and planning to install fermentation tanks to take its capacity up to 250,000 barrels.

A few years ago, Boulevard jumped into the expansion game with guns blazing. Faced with strong demand but strained capacity, managers had a choice: stop shipping beer to some promising markets, or make a big, potentially risky investment. They chose the latter, opting for a $25 million expansion in 2006.

Boulevard now sells beer in 13 states from North Dakota to Texas and expects to brew 140,000 barrels of beer this year, up from 46,000 barrels in 2000. Its growth slowed this year as a weaker economy cut into spending, but the company still expects sales to rise between 6 percent and 10 percent.

“You have to be pretty confident that you’ll continue to grow to make that kind of investment,” Bob Sullivan, vice president of sales and marketing, said of the 2006 expansion. “We were maxed out — we couldn’t make any more beer.”

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

Schlafly is firmly anchored to the St. Louis region, hemmed in by Boulevard to the west and Chicago’s hyper-competitive beer market to the north. About 95 percent of its beer is sold within 50 miles of St. Louis.

Now, with InBev’s takeover calling A-B’s all-American credentials into question among some drinkers, Schlafly hopes more local consumers and retailers will give craft beers like Schafly’s another look. Maybe bars will install an extra tap of Schlafly brew, or groceries will hang a little more Schlafly signage.

“We’re going to be saying to folks: ‘Hey, we’re here, we’re happy to be St. Louis’ local brewer,’” Kopman said recently. “St. Louis deserves products and companies that are unique to St. Louis, that are not ubiquitous. … That’s what we do well. We’re going to tell that story more and more.”

The company is walking a fine line, hoping to promote its beers but careful not to be seen as kicking sand in the face of Anheuser-Busch. This is St. Louis, after all, and Anheuser-Busch’s brewery on Pestalozzi Street is still one of the biggest games in town.

“We have employees that are married to A-B employees,” Kopman said. “We don’t need to do anything to insult the work they’ve done and the work they’ll continue to do.”

But starting with its name, St. Louis Brewery has always been a bit of an upstart — a little beermaker happy to scratch out a living in the giant’s shadow. It uses poetry nights, oyster festivals and bluegrass shows to build buzz. At least one brewmaster works in a kilt. The brewery has no advertising agency.

Ben Bruker, sales manager with Koerner Distributor Inc., said he still runs into grocery shoppers who don’t know about Schlafly beer — as close to St. Louis as Fairview Heights.

“There are still folks who say, Oh, where’s that from?’” Bruker said of Schlafly beer. “I say, ‘Over in St. Louis.’ And they say, ‘Where can I get it?’ And I’m like, ‘everywhere!’”

From the Schlafly brewery’s early days, the little outfit encouraged a David and Goliath storyline between itself and Anheuser-Busch. The media gleefully ran with the theme. In a book about the microbrewery, Tom Schlafly — the company’s co-founder — likened the business to “a new religion in Mecca.”

But the Schlafly brewery has nurtured a cooperative relationship with its huge neighbor in the last few years. Anheuser-Busch has been the driving force behind the St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival, which showcases local brews and has attracted thousands to Forest Park over the last two years.

“In one sense, there’s competition,” said Schlafly, an attorney with Husch Blackwell Sanders. “But not really. That’s like saying my softball team is competition for the Cardinals. We’ve benefitted from being near them because they’ve made a great name for brewing in St. Louis.”

When InBev made its offer, the folks at Schlafly offered to ride to A-B’s rescue. Professing to like A-B as much as everybody else in St. Louis, the little brewer launched a fundraising effort aimed at making a counteroffer for InBev. It raised a few hundred dollars.

Tongue planted firmly in cheek, Tom Schlafly personally tried to deliver an offer to purchase InBev to its headquarters in Leuven, Belgium. No response.

On the night of July 13, when Anheuser-Busch’s board said it had approved InBev’s $52 billion takeover, Kopman sent an e-mail to the crew.

“We now work for the largest locally owned brewery in StL,” he wrote. “I cannot predict what this is all going to mean for us.”

Link to article

Enjoy!!

Sean
2Beerguys.com

Great Divide Completes Major Brewery Expansion

Acclaimed craft brewery adds new bottling line and cooler space, debuts new art for all beers, makes Hades a full-time beer.

(Denver, CO) – Great Divide Brewing Company (one of America’s most acclaimed craft breweries) has now completed a major expansion of its Denver brewing facility.

The $1.2 million expansion of the facility (a downtown Denver building that originally served as a dairy-processing plant) took 8 months to complete. It involved demolition and expansion of the space, construction of additional refrigerated storage, and installation of a new bottling line.

The new bottling line increases the brewery’s bottling capabilities to 125 bottles per minute, three times the bottling speed of Great Divide’s old filler.

The most important benefit of the new line is its technology for minimizing oxygen pickup in the beer during filling. The much lower oxygen content in the bottled beer provides substantially increased flavor stability and a much longer shelf life.

The new line also has an inkjet coder that will clearly print the bottling date on each label. The dating continues Great Divide’s efforts to educate beer drinkers about the importance of fresh beer.

The new line uses bulk glass, flat six-pack carriers, and case boxes that are opened and loaded automatically. These features eliminate a great deal of the non-automated effort that was needed with the previous bottling system. They also provide the brewery with greater flexibility than the prior system of purchasing glass in already built-up cases.

“This is a giant step forward for our brewery’s packaging system,” says Great Divide founder Brian Dunn. “It’s much better for the beer and our customers. It cuts out a great deal of manual labor, speeds up our packing rates, and makes us much more fast and flexible when it comes to packaging the wide variety of styles that we brew.”

Great Divide also increased cooler storage by 50% to handle the increased capacity of the bottling line.

In conjunction with the expansion, the brewery is releasing brand-new art for all of its labels, six-pack carriers, cases and tap handles. Great Divide beers with the new packaging will be released the week of September 8, 2008.

“The new artwork better reflects what we are: a 14-year-old downtown Denver brewery making great beer and having fun doing it. Our new labels have a classic, time-worn look to them, with a bit of a beer-city feel” said Dunn. The labels list various honors for Great Divide’s beers, as well as food pairings for each beer.

With the completion of the expansion, Great Divide is also making Hades (a Belgian-style strong golden ale) a member of the brewery’s year-round sixpack lineup. Hades was originally released in 2007 as a 22-ounce seasonal beer.

“We have a lot of new things happening right now,” Dunn says excitedly. “But I’m most excited about having Hades around throughout the year. I love that beer.”

Great Divide is one of the most decorated microbreweries in the US. The brewery has seven placements in the current Best of Beer Advocate “Top Beers” rankings. Three Great Divide beers were chosen to Ratebeer.com’s 2007 “The Best Beers in the World” list, which ranked the globe’s top 100 beers.

Great Divide is ranked 14th in Ratebeer.com’s 2008 “The Best Brewers in the World” rankings (of the top 100 breweries) and the craft brewery has won 12 medals at the Great American Beer Festival, held each year in Denver, Colorado.

In 2003, the brewery was one of craft beer’s first to defy the mainstream and expand its focus to bigger, more assertive beers that reflected the original spirit of the company. The move to more challenging beers has helped Great Divide grow 45% to 8,760 barrels of beer production in 2007.

In 1994, Great Divide set up shop in an abandoned dairy/yogurt plant on the north edge of downtown Denver. The company has expanded several times at that location. The Great Divide Tap Room is a hit with local beer lovers and Denver visitors.

Link to article.

Within the past year, I’ve seen some smaller, local craft breweries lose shelf space to Leinenkugel. Unfortunately, this is a result of da big guys flexing their muscle over small mom and pop stores — along with making deals with national retail chains. It is what it is.

Anyways, I’ve had the sunset wheat. It was ok – but I don’t remember it much. Give it a try. Try a blind taste vs. a local craft selection? Tell us what you think.

Sean
2Beerguys.com

Drink Craft Beer, You’ve Earned It!!

Leinie’s charts national craft beer rollout
by Rich Rovito

The Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. is nearing completion of a national rollout of some of its craft beer brands while preparing to launch a new beer this fall.

The Chippewa Falls-based beer brewer, which began a phased national rollout of some of its brands two years ago, is completing the rollout in the Northwest and West.

“That’s your more prodigious craft beer areas — California, Oregon and Seattle,” said Jake Leinenkugel, president of the 141-year-old beer brewer, in an interview at his office in the Leinie Lodge, a museum and tour center next to the Chippewa Falls brewery.

With planned distribution of some brands in Hawaii later this year, it will leave Alaska as the only state without Leinenkugel beer.

The rollout began as an effort to capture additional market share for Milwaukee-based Miller Brewing Co., which served as Leinenkugel’s parent company for 20 years. The rollout is now expected to benefit MillerCoors LLC as the craft beer segment continues to grow, although not at the astronomical levels of the past few years, Leinenkugel said.

MillerCoors is the joint venture involving Miller and Coors Brewing Co., Golden, Colo., which launched in July.

Leinenkugel’s beers previously had been available only in the Upper Midwest until the launch of the national expansion. Leinenkugel entered each new market with its Sunset Wheat brand, followed by Honey Weiss, Berry Weiss and then its seasonal craft brews led by Summer Shandy.

“The last two years we’ve gotten our feet wet on what it means to be national, and that’s pretty big for guys that always thought local and regional,” Leinenkugel said.

Leinenkugel produces 12 brands, including Fireside Nut Brown Ale, a seasonal beer that will be available in November and December.

Projects in the works

Leinenkugel plans to “hibernate” its Big Butt brew and replace it with a beer created from an original 1888 Leinenkugel bock recipe that will be available beginning in January 2009.

“We are also working on a very big project right now for a very intriguing new style-beer for 2009 and that’s all I can say at this point,” Leinenkugel said.

Plans to go national with Leinenkugel developed after Miller’s top executives approached the brewer to see if it could develop a beer that could capitalize on the immense popularity of Blue Moon, a Belgian-style craft beer brewed, ironically, by Coors. It was at that time that Leinenkugel developed Sunset Wheat.

“It’s allowed us to go to the Miller distributor network on a national basis because they’d been pining for something that is authentic, original and real craft to put into its pipeline,” Leinenkugel said.

Under Miller’s ownership, Leinenkugel Brewing had a great deal of autonomy, something that the MillerCoors leadership has vowed will continue, he said.

“They give us the autonomy and flexibility to run our business smartly the way the Leinenkugels see that it should be run,” he said.

In a meeting with The Business Journal’s editorial board earlier this year, Tom Long, MillerCoors president and former chief executive officer of Miller Brewing Co., said he believed a national rollout of Leinenkugel would succeed.

“It looked like we could turn this into something more powerful and let people outside of Wisconsin and Leinie’s core states know about this great beer,” Long said. “And with personalities as powerful as Jake, Dick and John Leinenkugel, it seemed to me like it was Ben & Jerry’s (ice cream) all over again. All people had to do was get exposed to those characters and try the beers and they would like it and that’s really come true.”

Long admitted that Leinenkugel Brewing is faced with stiff competition in the craft beer market.

“That’s a real competitive area and there are a lot of great beers in that arena, but the Leinenkugel brewery can compete with any craft brewery in America,” he said.

Leinenkugel also credited his father, who is terminally ill with a brain tumor, for giving him a deep appreciation of beer brewing. Bill Leinenkugel served as company president from 1971 until he retired in 1987.

“Beer is fun. Beer is good. He’d tell us that every day,” Leinenkugel said of his dad. “He said you won’t get paid a lot, but at the end of the day you can walk out to the tap handle and pour yourself a product that has your name on it.”

Under Miller’s ownership, Jake Leinenkugel reported directly to Long. Since the launch of the joint venture, he has been reporting to Leo Kiely, CEO of MillerCoors.

“This allows me to basically educate Leo as to the strength and value of Leinenkugel’s within the MillerCoors portfolio,” Leinenkugel said. “This is a fabulous opportunity to keep Leinenkugel’s top of mind with the entire MillerCoors network.”

Leinenkugel Brewing has about 115 employees at its Chippewa Falls brewery and 10 at its North 10th Street brewery near downtown Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee brewery primarily produces Honey Weiss to supplement production at the Chippewa Falls facility.

“There’s still room for bigger opportunities for the 10th street brewery,” Leinenkugel said. “Who knows where the Coors and Blue Moon impact may help fill some things in there. MillerCoors also is interested in piloting some different kinds of beer there.”

The Leinenkugel breweries have been operating at close to capacity, which has required the MillerCoors brewery on Milwaukee’s west side to handle some production of Sunset Wheat.

Craft segment slowing

Craft brewing has experienced double-digit annual growth over the past five years, but growth in the segment slowed to about 6.5 percent in the first half of 2008, with restaurant and bar sales experiencing the biggest slowdown because of the soft economy, he said.

“I look at that as still being very healthy,” he said. “Leinenkugel’s will be in or above that figure for the year.”

Although the sale of the various Leinenkugel brews make up less than 1 percent of MillerCoors overall sales, Leinenkugel said he is convinced the brewer adds value to the joint venture.

“Each year we should continue to grow from a very small base, but add on additional muscle to MillerCoors in terms of having a very viable, neat, eclectic collection of fabulous, adventurous beers,” Leinenkugel said. “It gives credibility to MillerCoors.”

JACOB LEINENKUGEL BREWING CO.
Founded: 1867
Based: Chippewa Falls
Parent company: MillerCoors LLC
President: Jake Leinenkugel
Employees: About 115 full-time and seasonal in Chippewa Falls; 10 at satellite brewery in Milwaukee
Annual revenue: Not disclosed
Beer brands: Sunset Wheat, Honey Weiss, Berry Weiss, Red, Creamy Dark, Original, Light and Special Ale (year-round); Summer Shandy, Oktoberfest, Fireside Nut Brown and Bock (seasonal)

Link to article.

Sean
2Beerguys.com

Drink Craft Beer, You’ve Earned It!!

New home will double Fort Collins Brewery capacity
BY PAT FERRIER

Fort Collins Brewery will more than double its capacity when it builds a new $5 million brewery, upscale restaurant, lofts and commercial space at the northwest corner of Lincoln and Lemay avenues.

Owners Tom and Jan Peters will vacate the building on Lincoln Street that has served as a brewery since the early 1990s when it opened at H.C. Berger Brewery.

“It’s a little sad,” Peters said. “It’s destined to be a brewery and it has served us well.”

But the site is small, parking is difficult and there are no bike lanes to accommodate cycling tours that often visit, he said.

“This popped up as an almost ideal location.”

Design plans are under way for the 2.5-acre property owned by the Kennedy Family Trust but the brewery could be open as early as June, Peters said. Closing on the property is expected by the end of the year.

The new facility, on what is now the city’s dumping ground for excess snow, will allow the brewery to expand its production and distribution beyond its current 20 states.

“We have new distributors contacting us every week,” Peters said. “We want to offer the same quality beer to enthusiasts in all states that Coloradans have enjoyed for so many years.”

The craft beer market has grown 16 percent in the last year, according to the Boulder-based Brewer’s Association.

Fort Collins Brewery experienced 80 percent growth last year and is working on expanding its distribution on the West and East coasts.

Widening distribution of its Chocolate Stout, Major Tom’s Pomegranate Wheat, Rocky Mountain IPA and other brews means expansion is critical, Peters said.

“It’s poor business to turn away business,” he said.

The brewery produced more than 5,000 barrels last year, still small in the craft brewer market, but will have the capacity to produce 45,000 barrels at the new site.

Accompanying the brewery will be a 4,000- square-foot upscale restaurant with glass walls that allow guests to watch the packing line, brew house and fermentation areas.

Link to article.

We’ve tasted the following:
- Hoppin to Heaven IPA – 21,
- Mean Manalishi Double IPA – 22,
- Bodacious Black & Tan Blend – 20,
- BORIS The Crusher Imperial Stout – 22,
- Smashin Berry – 17 (Nice aroma, strange taste)

Sean
2Beerguys.com

Drink Craft Beer, You’ve Earned It!!!

Hoppin’ Frog leaps ahead – Microbrewery wins rave reviews, should double output with expansion

By Rick Armon
Published on Sunday, Jul 20, 2008

Brewer Fred Karm likes to say he doesn’t make beer for the masses.

Instead, he brews what he likes. What his family and friends like.

Bold beers bursting with flavor and, in some cases, high in alcohol content.

It just so happens, that’s what plenty of the masses enjoy, too.

So less than two years after opening his small Hoppin’ Frog Brewery across the street from the Akron Airdock, Karm is tripling the size of the facility to 6,000 square feet and preparing to double production. He’s even hiring a full-time assistant brewer.

Hoppin’ Frog — in signature 22-ounce brown bottles with the logo of the green frog holding a beer mug — is now available in six states: Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York. And Karm is hoping to add Wisconsin soon.

Most important to Karm, his beers — which range from $5.99 to $10.99 a bottle — are in the Chicago and Boston markets, and soon will be hitting New York City.

”So far, so good,” he said. ”We can sell everything we can make.”

Hoppin’ Frog and other beer makers are benefiting from the continued growing popularity of craft beer. Last year, the craft segment of the beer industry grew 12 percent by volume and 16 percent in sales, according to the Brewers Association in Boulder, Colo.

Today, there are 1,420 craft breweries operating nationwide, compared with 1,385 just last year. Akron itself has seen the opening of three breweries in the last few years: Hoppin’ Frog, Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. and Ohio Brewing Co.

Trying to stand out in a beer industry that has seen an influx of American microbrews and
imports on the local grocery shelves can be difficult. But discriminating beer fans are noticing Hoppin’ Frog.

BORIS the Crusher Oatmeal-Imperial Stout is ranked 44th on Ratebeer.com’s Top 100 Beers in the World: 2008.

One reviewer called it a ”spectacular beer. One of those ones that you would kill to have available locally.”

It also is rated as one of the Top Beers on Planet Earth by BeerAdvocate.com, an online beer community known for being persnickety in its critiques. BORIS is ranked 88th on the list of the top 100 beers.

When Karm started the brewery in September 2006, Hoppin’ Frog had a stable of four beers. That’s grown to seven available year-round and other seasonal brews: Wild Frog Wheat, Smashing Berry Ale, Smashing Berry Dark, Gulden Fraug Belgian Ale, Silk Porter, Hoppin’ to Heaven IPA, Mean Manalishi Double IPA, BORIS the Crusher, and Bodacious Black and Tan.

The brewery expansion will allow Karm, who also is treasurer of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association, to increase production from about 400 to 800 cases a month.

He attributed his success to a combination of using distributors to sell his beer and making a product that people want.

”I’ve always been known for making flavorful beers,” said Karm, 44, a decorated brewer who has won numerous honors at brewing competitions. ”I didn’t want to tone my beers down for mass sales.

”I’m making these beers that are not filtered, not skimping on any ingredients. I’m using an approach like a home-brewer, where you make it for your family and for your friends. If I continue on that path, I’ll continue to make great beer. And people don’t mind paying for it.”

About 10 percent of sales are now made right at the brewery, with people stopping by to purchase their beer direct, something Karm didn’t expect.

The facility, at 1680 E. Waterloo Road, is a brewing operation and not a store. But Karm keeps a refrigerated cooler up front for drop-in customers. (There are no regular business hours, although Karm said he’s there most afternoons.)

Scott Vaughn, 43, of North Canton, stopped by last week to pick up some beer.

Asked to explain why he thinks Hoppin’ Frog beers are selling well, he replied: ”Because they are good. They are fresh . . . [Karm is] doing some things others aren’t doing.”

For details about Hoppin’ Frog, including a list of where the beer is available, go to http://www.hoppinfrog.com/ .

Link to article.