Oskar Blues Brewery Expands North Carolina Facility
(Longmont, CO & Brevard, NC) –By the end of 2015, Oskar Blues Brewery in North Carolina will have sent out more than 40 million cans of fresh craft beer to 20 East Coast states–each CAN labeled Brevard, North Carolina. Fueling this growth is a pending expansion on the brewery’s property on Mountain Industrial Drive in Brevard.
Construction will commence this week and includes a 9,000 square-foot expanded waste water treatment system building and a 17,000 square-foot addition for fermentation tanks connected to the back of the existing 30,000 square-foot warehouse. Additionally, a second 50-barrel mash tun, plus a silo to hold spent grain before transport, more administrative offices, and a commissary kitchen for the CHUBwagon food truck will be added.
The North Carolina brewery opened on 12/12/12 as the East Coast craft beer manufacturing and distribution hub for the Colorado-based brewery. In the first two years of production, the NC brewery produced 110,000 barrels of beer and is on track to produce 85,000 just in 2015. The expansion will increase capacity to 210,000 barrels. Oskar Blues currently employs 45 staff at the NC brewery. As growth continues, more job opportunities will open up. A number of local businesses are involved in the planning, development and construction for the expansion.
“We’re excited to continue our exponential growth in our second home of Brevard,” says Oskar Blues NC general manager Noah Tuttle. “We appreciate the support of the community, city and county, and we love that so many of our friends and neighbors wander in for a pint or a brewery tour on a regular basis.”
The additional waste water treatment system is part one of a two-phase system that will remove the majority of remaining organic particulate from the waste water. All spent grain, trub and yeast from the brewing process is pumped into the silo and used as supplemental cattle feed. The spent grain program has been in place since shortly after the brewery opened for business.
“The City of Brevard is excited for Oskar Blues as it announces its expansion plans in Brevard,” says Brevard mayor Jimmy Harris. “Oskar Blues has made a substantial investment into our community and we wish them the very best.”
Also this week, the new City of Brevard greenway extension, running from Cherry Street next to the brewery to the main hike/bike trail, will be dedicated (Thursday, June 11, 4 p.m.). The Cherry Street Greenway was developed via a partnership with the City of Brevard, Transylvania County, Transylvania County Tourism Development Authority and Oskar Blues.The extension links the brewery and the Cherry Street neighborhood with walk/bike access to Pisgah Forest Elementary, Davidson River School, the Transylvania Activity Center, and the trails of Pisgah National Forest.
Oskar Blues will host the annual Burning CAN Beer, Music & Sports Fest on July 17 & 18 at the REEB Ranch, just 8 miles down the road from the brewery in Henderson County. For more information, visit burningcan.com.
About Oskar Blues Brewery
Founded as a funky little brewpub by Dale Katechis in 1997, Oskar Blues Brewery launched the craft beer-in-a-can apocalypse in 2002, using a tabletop machine that sealed one can at a time. In 2008, the makers of the top-selling pale ale in ColoRADo, Dale’s Pale Ale, added a brewery in Longmont, ColoRADo. The brewery has since experienced explosive growth-from packaging 59,000 barrels of beer in 2011 to 149,000 barrels in 2014. In December 2012, Oskar Blues opened the doors to an expansion brewery in Brevard, North Carolina. Oskar Blues has continued craft can innovation by releasing OLD CHUB NITRO as the first American NITRO craft beer-in-a-can and introducing the CROWLER as a canned off-premise growler alternative. The innovative, original canned craft brewery now distributes trail-blazing craft brews to 44 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., as well as parts of Canada, Sweden, Norway and the U.K. For more information and social media, visit http://www.oskarblues.com.
