From flickr user urbanfeel

Opening a brewery has been a dream for many homebrewers for decades.  With the drastically shifting marketplace away from macrobrewers and toward craft brewers, many have been able to open breweries and we’ve all benefited from greater variety in the marketplace.

But as we’ve argued before, the friendliness and openness of the craft beer world is coming under more pressure as more and more people decide to open breweries.  As one Chicago media outlet writes up, there are at least twelve new breweries coming to the Windy City.  How can they possibly all survive?

Of course, with every business boom, some will fail for things completely unrelated to their products — mismanagement, poor planning, cost pressures.  Some still will fall away for bad beer, as they should.  But with such a crowded market, some may just fall away because the market isn’t big enough.  Chicago is one of the largest cities in the United States, but it already has its share of breweries.  Are all twelve good ideas?

Lexington, Kentucky recently saw its newest craft brewery open, and it came with a social conscious.  West Sixth Brewing has opened in a space once occupied by a bread factory.  The new facility was too big for their needs, so they’ve opened the rest to local artists and community groups.  And best of all, it’s on a bike trail, so no car needed.

West Sixth Brewing is located in a space that is as unique as its beers. The brewery, tap room, and beer garden are in The Bread Box, a recent re-development of the century-old Rainbo Bread Factory located in the historic Northside Neighborhood. Being at the corner of West Sixth and the hopping Jefferson Street corridor, our brewery will be near Transylvania University and the future Bluegrass Community and Technical College campus and borders the next proposed leg of the Legacy Bike Trail.

Being a 90,000 square foot monster of a building, The Bread Box will host not only the brewery but also other companies and community organizations that share our values, beliefs, and commitment to the community. While the building needs a lot of work, we’re confident that the renewed energy the brewery will bring to the area, along with the addition of the Legacy Trail and BCTC, will ensure that the Bread Box will be a key part of its neighborhood for many years to come.

From West Sixth’s founders Ben, Brady, Joe, and Robin:

Though we all got to this point in our lives in different ways, we strongly agree on West Sixth’s goals. We will provide a taproom and beer garden where the beer list is never the same but that is always local. We will be a brewery that measures its success not only by making great craft beer but also by how it helps our community. We will always strive to protect our environment even if it costs us more to do so. And last, but not least, we all share a desire to create the best beer possible and to be an integral part of building a great beer culture for our great town.

If you’re in Lexington, or can make the trip, West Sixth is open and waiting.  They’ve had a string of local food trucks dropping by, but you’re also free to bring your own.  They’re canning beers and filling growlers, though cans have been going quick.

From flickr user ant217

Oskar Blues Brewery, famous beer cannery and brewer of such geniusly-named beers like “Momma’s Little Yellow Pils”, has decided to expand into other forms of alcohol. Coming soon: Oskar Blues craft liquor.

From the Times Call:

The stills have been ordered and the federal licensing agreements are in process for Lyons Soul Distilling LLC, the latest venture for Oskar Blues Brewery. Plans are for the distillery to be up and running by this summer, according to spokesman Chad Melis.

“We’re going to can some spirits,” he said Friday at the company’s Longmont brewery.

The barn, next to Oskar Blues Grill & Brew, is where owner Dale Katechis first started canning Dale’s Pale Ale, the brewery’s flagship beer, two cans at a time by hand, 10 years ago.

From Slow Boat Brewing

Beijing, China has two craft breweries, but demand far outpaces supply. Between the already-established Great Leap Brewing, and the upstart Slow Boat Brewery, Beijing residents can’t get enough.

From the Wall Street Journal:

With the recent opening of Slow Boat Brewery in Beijing, the city’s number of American-style microbreweries officially doubled — to two. But according to both brewers, there’s a growing and largely untapped market in China’s capital as disposable income rises and beer-swilling residents clamor for more variety at the pub.

Late last year, Slow Boat held an evening tasting of its beers, whose flavor resembles brews of the U.S. Pacific Northwest such as Sierra Nevada. The beer ran out in just 45 minutes, despite the brewery quadrupling its offerings to four kegs from a prior event.

“It was a little embarrassing,” said the brewery’s chief executive Chandler Jurinka, though he added that it was also an encouraging sign of demand.

The debate about ingredients between the two is fascinating, given that I’m personally working on a tea-based Pale Ale recipe myself:

Great Leap and Slow Boat take differing approaches when it comes to ingredients. Slow Boat uses nearly all imports, including malt, hops and yeast, because it’s “comforting for local Chinese to know the ingredients aren’t Chinese, because of all the food scandals,” Mr. Jurinka said.

By contrast, Great Leap uses local hops and highlights a range of Chinese ingredients, from Sichuan peppercorns and Yunnan coffee beans to organic honey from Shandong province and a variety of teas. ”You don’t have to import quality,” Mr. Setzer said. “You can have good-quality things that are made in China, using existing ingredients.”

From Flickr user Minnesota Historical Society

Legislation allowing a Brooklyn Center brewery and other Minnesota beer-makers to serve their brews directly to customers at their establishments cleared a state Senate panel Wednesday, after a concerted social media lobbying effort by Surly Brewing Co. helped soften opposition from the powerful liquor lobby.

…

Brooklyn Center-based Surly is seeking the change as it plans a $20 million brewery, restaurant and entertainment center. Owner Omar Ansari told lawmakers the expansion would boost state tax revenues by allowing his company to employ 85 construction workers and 150 permanent workers at its new complex. He also pointed out that Wisconsin and other states allow brewers to serve beer where it’s made.

This is the type of thing that makes sense, helps local business grow, provides more jobs, and supports good beer.

Last summer Tröegs in Pennsylvania announced a new brewery, moving from Harrisburg, PA to Hershey, PA.  Since then, construction has been moving along, and a couple of new videos are online that show how things are progressing.

Why should you be excited?  For starters, they make what I think is probably the best beer I’ve ever had (though I’ve been told that this year’s batch isn’t their best).  As of now, their distribution has been limited to around 3 hours driving around the brewery, but they have pushed beyond that into parts of Ohio.  With a bigger brewery, you should see more of it on the shelves in your favorite beer stores.

According to Troegs, who have always offered brewery tours led by the Tröegs brothers themselves and call the expansion “T2″, you’ll still be able to experience their brewing process up-close.

At three times the size of Tröegs current location, the new 90,000 square foot facility will give guests a glimpse at the fermentation process, packaging room and oak barrel-aging room, and lab. The addition of a pilot brewing room offers insight to Tröegs experimentation—where its famous Scratch brews are dreamt-up and made.

From flickr user iandavid

Yesterday, brewery president Steve Hindy and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg opened a long-planned expansion of Brooklyn Brewery.  The expansion is absolutely huge, going from 12,000 barrels of beer per year to 120,000.

Less newsworthy was something Bloomberg said while he cutting the ribbon — he puts ice in his beer.

Standing inside the just-expanded Brooklyn Brewery yesterday, the mayor revealed that his unorthodox approach to drinking beer requires ice.

“I actually put ice in my beer,” the mayor said. “Most people don’t.”

Hearing a gasp from the crowd, he explained: “I know. I’ve always done it. I don’t think it comes from Boston.”

Brewery President Steve Hindy was too polite to set the mayor straight on the correct way to savor his popular suds.

From flickr user Thomas Hawk

It’s obvious that the folks at the Brewers Association have an enviable job when one of the organization’s biggest “problems” is that craft breweries are outgrowing the definition of what it means to be a craft brewer.

Last week the Association announced that it was tripling the size of breweries that were considered “small” by craft brewery standards.  The previous limit, 2 million barrels per year, was sure to be eclipsed by the makers of Sam Adams and because of its ongoing success.

The industry’s largest craft brewer, The Boston Beer Company, is poised to become the first craft brewer to surpass 2 million barrels of traditional beer within the next few years. Loss of The Boston Beer Company’s production in craft brewing industry statistics would inaccurately reflect on the craft brewing industry’s market share.

In addition to Boston Beer, the current growth trajectory of other sizable BA member breweries places them on a course approaching the 2 million barrel threshold in the coming years.

Nick Matt, chair of the Brewers Association board of directors correctly summarized: “Rather than removing members due to their success, the craft brewing industry should be celebrating our growth.”

Great news, and a wonderful problem to have to solve.

From flickr user zizzybalobah

We’ve written about Yuengling’s imminent growth before, but NPR’s Morning Edition picks up the story with a feature about Yuengling, its history, and where it’s headed in the future.

When you think American beer, you might think Budweiser, or Miller. But neither of those is American-owned anymore. Like many big-name brews, they’ve been bought up by overseas companies.

One of the biggest American beer makers is a lesser-known regional beer company, D.G. Yuengling and Son — the country’s oldest beer maker. Founded by a German immigrant in Pennsylvania 181 years ago, it’s still run by the Yuengling family, and it’s still growing.

Be sure to listen to the full story — it’s well worth the time.

From flickr user Bernt Rostad

The Atlantic has a write up about the one of the more unique brewery innovations — brewers without permanent homes.  Referred to as gypsy brewing, “brewery” teams float around and take advantage of excess capacity and down time at micro and craft breweries.  For a homebrewer looking to take a step up, this could be exactly what you need.

But the real advantage for Pretty Things is the creative flexibility that comes with having few sunk costs. Conventional breweries need to make a regular income to cover loans, pay investors, and meet insurance premiums—which, at least until the upfront costs are covered, means brewing beers that will sell widely. That’s partly why new breweries start with crowd-pleasers like IPAs and brown ales, and only later venture into palate-challengers like sour ales and imperial stouts.

“We’re able to be crazy creative,” Martha said. “We brew for our own entertainment.” Indeed, few breweries are as proudly idiosyncratic as Pretty Things. They draw their own labels and promote their new beers with home videos posted to YouTube. Like other gypsy brewers, they eschew standard styles in favor of deeply personal tastes; Babayaga, which Dann described as a “woodland stout” and is brewed with malts roasted with rosemary, “was meant to taste like an old lady made it in a shack in Eastern Europe.”

Creativity wins on this, which is always a good thing.  And the idea that many breweries would let a competitor just come in and set up shop also speaks to just how strong the craft beer community is.