Oskar Blues Expands

Got the following press release today from Oskar Blues and thought I’d pass it along unadulterated.

Oskar Blues Brewery — the nation’s first microcanning craft brewery and makers of Dale’s Pale Ale — is expanding its brewhouse for the fourth time in four years.

This week the brewery is finishing the process of replacing four 60-barrel tanks with four 120-barrel tanks. The new tanks will allow Oskar Blues to double its brewing capacity. (A barrel equals 31 US gallons.)

“More and more are retailers and beer lovers are asking for our beer,” says Oskar Blues founder Dale Katechis. “So we’re doing all we can to give them what they want.”

Last year the microcanning craft brewery (and creator of the Canned Beer Apocalypse) enjoyed its fourth straight year of significant growth, increasing its revenues 121% and its beer production by 64%.

In 2006 Oskar Blues produced 8219 barrels of Dale’s Pale Ale, Old Chub Scottish-Style Ale, Gordon and its other canned and draft beers. In 2005 the company produced 5000 barrels. (A barrel of beer equals 31 gallons.)

Since it began hand-canning its beer (two cans at a time on a table-top machine) in November of 2002, Oskar Blues’ production has grown by about 1200%.

Now that’s a tight fit. New tanks being installed at Oskar Blues in Lyons, Colorado.

More from the press release:

The company’s flagship, Dale’s Pale Ale, is the nation’s first hand-canned craft beer. A robust American pale ale (with 6.5% abv and 65 International Bittering Units) its honors include Top American Pale Ale from the New York Times, Top Colorado-Brewed Beer from the Rocky Mountain News, World’s Best Canned Beer from Details magazine, three “Top-Five American Pale/Amber Ale from Ratebeer.com, and gold and silver medals in the Stockholm Beer & Whiskey Festival.

About two dozen US microbreweries now brew and can their own beer. Oskar Blues’ beers are now canned five cans at a time on equipment from Cask Brewing Systems in Alberta, Canada.

Oskar Blues Brewery is located in Lyons, Colorado (pop.1500), a small mountain town 18 miles northwest of Boulder, Colorado. The brewpub and music venue was opened in 1997 by Katechis and his wife, Christi Katechis. Dave Chichura is the head brewer for Oskar Blues Brewery.

One of the new tanks upright in the brewery.