Daily Camera: Can spells expansion for Oskar Blues

08/23/2007

By Alicia Wallace (Contact)

Oskar Blues Brewery has a bit of a growth spurt planned during its 10th year of business.

The Lyons-based brewpub, known for its canned microbrewed beers, is building a larger production facility and tasting room in Longmont — a move that will double the company's output in one year.

"We've experienced this four years of exponential growth, and things grew much faster than we had ever dreamed," owner Dale Katechis said Wednesday.

Since it started hand-canning its beers back in 2002, Oskar Blues' beer production has grown 1,200 percent. During the first half of this year, the production grew 88 percent, but the company hit capacity at its 2,400-square-foot facility, which sits behind its brewpub and restaurant off Main Street.

That 88 percent growth is a great figure, Katechis said, but one soured by the amount of money left on the table because of backordered beer.

The new facility, which is expected to be operational by January, should help solve those woes and get more beer — and perhaps some new offerings — out to the distributors who ship to 17 states, Katechis said.

The 18,000-square-foot site at 1800 Pike Road, formerly occupied by Packaging Resources, will have the capacity to brew 100,000 barrels of beer — almost 7,300 cases — annually.

Oskar Blues won't hit that volume right away, Katechis said, adding that the expectation is to produce about 30,000 barrels, more than double the volume now.

The brewery also will have a 50-barrel brewhouse, supported by fermentation tanks and a new canning line that will shuttle cans at a rate of 300 to 500 cans per minute.

The current line runs at about 30 cans per minute.

The expansion not only should help solve the growing pains, but also should bolster the 10-year-old brewpub in Lyons, Katechis said. By having the packaged beers produced off-site, the Lyons brewery can put more of a focus on specialty and seasonal beers.

The growth "strangled the production of the brewery to suit the needs of the beers out in the marketplace," he said. "So the brewpub has had to pay the price for it."

Oskar Blues' success came not from just the novelty of canning a microbrewed beer, but bucking the idea that only light beers come in cans, said Paul Gatza, director of the Boulder-based Brewers Association, a nonprofit organization that promotes the $5.3 billion craft brewing industry.

"To have such a hoppy, flavorful beer come out of a can, that's what's different. ... That had a lot to do it ," Gatza said. "They also have the brewpub out in Lyons and that helps build a brand."

The industry's growth should continue, he said.

"We're not seeing fancy marketing campaigns and advertising; this is being pulled by the consumer," Gatza said. "Things just seem to be moving at this double-digit growth rate and I don't see anything that's going to stop it right now."