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Suds up: Craft brewers' sales strong
(Daily Camera (Boulder, CO) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Feb. 21--Four years ago, brew-pub owner Dale Katechis thought it would be fun to release a robust, hoppy, microbrewed pale ale in a can.
Turns out having some fun created a pretty good business.
Katechis' Oskar Blues Brewery in Lyons said Tuesday it experienced its fourth straight year of significant growth -- increasing revenues 121 percent and beer production 64 percent.
"I think people are tired of swill," Katechis said. "Beer is an experience. ... It should be like a fine meal. It should be something you can gather with friends and talk about. It shouldn't be something you slam and forget."
The increasing sophistication of consumers' palates and their urges to experiment are driving growth in the American craft-brewing industry, said Paul Gatza, director of the Boulder-based Brewers Association. That growth has helped lead to solid years for Oskar Blues and its local brewing brethren.
Sales of the nation's craft-brew industry grew 11.7 percent last year to hit the $4.2 billion mark, according to figures released Tuesday by the Brewers Association. The trade group defines a "craft brewer" as a company that produces fewer than 2 million barrels of beer a year; has less than 25 percent of its ownership made up by someone who is not a craft brewer; and has either an all-malt flagship beer or has at least half of its volume in all-malt beers.
Consumers finally are coming around to Avery Brewing Co.'s style of beer, said Adam Avery, president and brewmaster of the Boulder-based brewery.
That style: "super-aggressive ... big monster beers."
Eleven of Avery Brewing's 19 brews are 8 percent alcohol by volume or higher -- a heftiness that has gained regard overseas in Denmark and Sweden, where the beers are sold in addition to 27 U.S. states, Avery said. Sales grew 38 percent nationwide and 20 percent in Colorado last year, he said.
The Boulder Beer Co.'s brews, which are sold in about 25 markets across the country, will expand on the coasts this year, said Tess McFadden, the company's marketing director. The buzz about craft beers has helped in gaining new accounts, she said, as has being based in Colorado -- the home of a slew of microbreweries and the Great American Beer Festival.
"Colorado has always been looked at as a hot spot for great craft breweries; that is definitely to our advantage," she said.
Twisted Pine Brewing Co. sells its beer only in Colorado now, but so far, that's going just fine for the Boulder company. The volume doubled last year compared to the year before, said Bob Baile, Twisted Pine's president.
The brewery is looking to explore out-of-state distribution this year, he said.
"Smaller breweries are very, very hot," he said. "The established microbreweries to (some consumers) are looked at as the Goliaths. They look to the rest of us as the Davids. But that only gets you through the door. ... You have to be able to sell through."
The Longmont-based Left Hand Brewing Co. has a 20 percent volume growth rate budgeted for 2007, said Eric Wallace, president. The company has a fuller sales organization and is getting bigger tanks to help ensure that happens, he said.
"I think craft brewing in general is reaching some kind of a critical mass and awareness," he said. "It's becoming significant enough that the big guys are starting to get back into it."
Some examples include Molson Coors' increasing the marketing for its Blue Moon beer and Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc.'s newly released organic Wild Hop Lager.
This year, along with adding more states and releasing a new beer, Oskar Blues is doubling its capacity -- replacing its four 60-barrel fermenters with four 120-barrel fermenters.
Despite the growth, business shouldn't be all business, Katechis said.
"We really don't let (expansion) drive our mentality of how we want the company to operate," he said. "This time next year, I know we'll be saying the same thing: 'It's a fun business.'"
To see more of the Daily Camera, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.thedailycamera.com.
Copyright (c) 2007, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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