USA, CO: Odell Brewing expands in Fort Collins

Just two years after its last expansion, Odell Brewing Co. is about to embark on another yearlong expansion, this time building a new brewhouse and expanding its current taproom, The Coloradoan reported on December, 4.

While content with its distribution area and having no ambitions of taking its product to a national stage, Fort Collins-based Odell Brewing plans to add a new 100-barrel brewhouse.

The reason the brewery is expanding is that its current 50-barrel brewhouse, built in 1994, is running at capacity 24 hours a day, six days a week to keep up with demand.

Odell is not alone. Breweries across Fort Collins, the state and the country are adding capacity at a rapid rate.

Much like its last expansion from 2009 to 2010, which added office, cellar, warehouse and taproom space, the new addition will expand the brewery primarily to the east with a two-story brewhouse.

Prior to installing the current 50-barrel brewhouse, Odell was operating on a 8,000-barrel system.

The planned expansion includes a new cellar, brewhouse, beer garden, tasting room and employee parking lot. Scheduled to break ground within the next few weeks, the project is expected to take at least a year, Brendan McGivney, Odell’s head of production said.

For phase one of the expansion, the brewery will break ground on the west side of the facility with four new 400-barrel fermenters and room for four additional ones in the future.

From there, the work shifts to the east side of the brewery where Odell plans to expand the new brewhouse into the current employee parking lot.

To align with the new brewhouse, McGivney said they will also expand the current tasting room to the east with a new beer garden. The new beer garden and brewhouse will connect via a glass window providing customers a look at the beer-making process.

The expansion will enlarge the brewery to 64,000 square feet.

Doubling production capacity may sound like a big step, but McGivney noted fellow brewers think Odell is “crazy” for not going bigger. McGivney said they opted to stop at a 100-barrel system because they have a strict growth plan that does not include going national, but adding that Texas could be the next distribution area for Odell down the road.

While details are still in the works, McGivney said the new brewhouse will provide Odell the ability to run three 24-hour shifts as opposed to six.

With this expansion under its current growth model, McGivney said the new brewhouse should meet Odell’s needs for the next 20 years.

The new brewhouse equipment alone will cost about $2 mln, not including construction costs, which are still being determined.

07 December, 2012