Beer times are busy up in Fort Collins

August 12, 12:46 PMNorthern Colorado Beer Examiner'Chipper' Dave Butler

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Think economic times are tough?  Well not so for a certain corner of the Colorado craft beer market.  A recession seems to have little effect on the local brewery business and for one Colorado beer town (Fort Collins) things are about to get very busy. 

While other industries are hurting, the US craft beer market actually grew 16% over the last year, according to the Brewer's Association of Boulder.  And business has been great for the local Fort Collins brewers as all three of the biggest craft brewers in town are making plans to either expand, move or partner up for more business.

Fort Collins Brewery to build new facility

The last year was good for the Fort Collins Brewery (FCB).  FCB produced over 5,000 barrels of craft beer in 2007, up 80 percent over the previous year.  Business has been so good that they are at risk of having to turn down requests for more business in other states.  So FCB owners Tom and Jan Peters decided it was best to move out of their small Lincoln Street facility and make plans for a bigger and better one just down the road.

If everything goes according to plan, FCB will build a new brewery just 800 feet east of Odell Brewing Company in a small vacant 2.5 acre property.  The new facility would give them the capacity to brew about 45,000 barrels of beer a year.  In addition to the brewery, the Peters would also build a 4,000 square foot upscale restaurant attached to the building that would allow patrons to watch brewing operations through large glass windows.

The whole deal, if it is finalized later this month, could possibly allow FCB to start brewing in their new facility as early as June 2009.  Looks like the more places across the country could soon be enjoying some great Fort Collins Brewery beers by late next year.

Odell Brewing expands selections and plans expansion

A popular trend with craft brewers these days are to age some of their beers in wooden casks and Odell Brewing Company in Fort Collins is making moves to expand big time into oak-aged beers.  Odell's recently finished up packaging over 120 cases of their new Woodcut series of beer and will begin selling these higher priced bottles on August 18th.  The first of this series is their Woodcut #1 and each hand corked 750ml bottle will sell for $24.99.

The second Woodcut brew is already in the making and is currently aging away in new oak barrels.  Woodcut #2 will be a strong Golden Ale.

To make room for this expanding line of oak-aged brew, Odell is planning an expansion of their own.  A proposed 16,000 square foot expansion directly on the west side of their existing buiding would allow for a bigger tank farm and have room enough for a larger office facility as well as bottling lines and storage.

Expansion wil allow Odell's to grow their small batch pilot brews and craft even more varieties of ales and lagers.  And based on recent studies, beer consumption is still on the rise and shows no signs of slowing down.

New Belgium to collaborate with Elysian Brewing

Another way to expand business is to form partnerships with other breweries in other parts of the country.  New Belgium Brewing of Fort Collins recently announced plans to cooperate with Seattle-based Elysian Brewing to allow each brewer to brew some of their beers in the other's facility.  In this case, this will allow New Belgium to brew some of it's beers in Seattle and for Elysian to expand their production using the New Belgium facility. 

It's a win-win for both breweries.  They both can use excess production capacity and expand business without having to invest in new construction.  Plus it allows each brewer to distribute in a remote area without having to ship beer across the country.

There must be something in the Fort Collins water that is helping to boost the beer business in Northern Colorado.  By late next year, this beer town is going to get much bigger on the old national beer map.