Posted 09.01.2010

Colorado craft beer’s ever-growing map

Brands favored 
by locals are growing by reaching converts from California 
to Florida

By Jay Dedrick

Anyone with an eye trained on the restaurant bar or liquor store refrigerator case knows that Colorado craft beer blankets the state.

Six-packs of Breckenridge bottles sit on 3.2 shelves in grocery stores. Empty Oskar Blues cans fill recycling bins near campgrounds. New Belgium tap handles ... well, where are there not New Belgium tap handles?

Production volume has long kept Colorado at or near the top of the list of beer-producing states for years. And Colorado consumers are certainly the proudest fans of local brews. But increasingly, they're becoming outnumbered by beer drinkers beyond the Rockies.

"It was a bittersweet day when California eclipsed Colorado as our highest-volume state," said Bryan Simpson, New Belgium's media relations director.

Yes, residents of the country's wine capital now drink more Fat Tire than do Coloradans. And ours is the state that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper (and founder of the state's first brew pub) has long referred to as the Napa Valley of Beer.

Fat Tire's tracks now criss-cross the country from coast to coast, with New Belgium beer sold in 24 other states beyond its top two (no state besides California has eclipsed Colorado - yet). The brews have gotten so popular that a second facility - outside of Colorado - is being considered.

"We are nearing capacity at our Linden Street facility, so eventually we will be looking at another facility," Simpson said. "We had been looking at northern California, but that is a pricey endeavor. So we are currently evaluating our options, looking to maximize our Fort Collins capacity in the short term with an eye on another facility down the road."

The Fort Collins brewer has plenty of company in bringing Centennial State craft brews to the rest of the nation - and the world.

Colorado's biggest producers of craft beer all sell product in multiple states. Some, like Durango's Ska Brewing, are most reliant on in-state business; the brewery sells 70 percent of its volume here. Others, like Boulder's Avery Brewing Co., turn that percentage upside-down.

Both strategies are paying dividends. After New Belgium, far and away the state's top craft brewer, Fort Collins' Odell Brewing Co. and Longmont's Oskar Blues Brewery rank 2 and 3. Both expanded their production facilities this year. Odell beer is distributed in eight states besides Colorado, but 80 percent of the company's business remains in Colorado. Oskar Blues, on the other hand, sells its canned beers in 25 states; only 30 percent of it stays in Colorado.

"We have added three sales reps outside of Colorado in the past year," said Chad Melis, marketing head at Oskar Blues. "We're looking to add two more before the end of 2010."

The brewery's speedy growth this year included three expansions over three months. Oskar Blues expects its year-end production to reach 44,000 barrels - about a 50 percent jump over its 2009 production of 29,500 barrels. That's with two fewer states on the roster than last year, too.

"We removed products from two states because demand has exceeded supply, despite constant capacity increases," Melis said.

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