For the first time, Oskar Blues made the 2009 Top 50 Producing Craft Brewing Companies list in the US. They have achieved this level of production with a compounded annual sales growth rate of 61% since they first introduced their beer in aluminum cans! The list is compiled by the Brewers Association.
We’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Dale Katechis and the staff of Oskar Blues for their recent accomplishment.
“In 2002, Dale Katechis was flipping burgers at his restaurant in Lyons, schlepping 50-gallon tubs of grain and brewing six barrels of beer at a time. “
(Excerpt from www.coloradodaily.com)
They started with a used 6 barrel wooden mash tun producing 650 barrels per year. In 2002 they became the first US microbrewery to brew and can their own beer. They started out with our manual, low capital cost canning equipment – hand canning their beer two cans at a time. In 2004 they had increased production to 2600 barrels per year. As they built sales, they used the cash flow to increase their equipment capacity, and moved from the manual canning system to our automated canning system They created demand for heir canned beer and found the right distribution system to get their product to market.
“Eight years of exponential growth later, the 220-employee Oskar Blues has moved from brewing small batches for use in the restaurant to distributing canned brews to 29 states. Foregoing the bottle entirely, Oskar Blues produced 29,500 barrels — or nearly 900,000 gallons — of beer last year in its 35,000-square-foot Longmont brewhouse. It recently added a restaurant in Longmont and is considering a third in Fort Collins.” (Excerpt from www.coloradodaily.com)
We wish them continued success and look forward to following their ongoing growth story.
The full list of Top Brewers can be viewed at: http://beerpulse.com/2010/04/brewers-association-announces-top-50-breweries-for-2009/
