USA, OH: Collision Bend Brewing Co. to open 25,000-square-foot-production facility, taproom in Euclid

Collision Bend Brewing Co. has plans to expand from its restaurant along the Cuyahoga River on the east bank of the Flats with a brewing facility and taproom in an industrial building in Euclid, Cleveland.com reported on February 15.

The brewery plans to lease 25,000 square feet of warehouse space at 1261 Babbitt Road, next to Amazon’s facility in the eastern suburb. Collision Bend brewer and part owner Luke Purcell said the lease with the building’s owner should be signed soon.

But Purcell has already placed orders for some pieces of large equipment needed to start brewing there, in a sign that it would be very hard to turn back, he said. The brewery’s owners hope to start production there by summer, with the taproom “up and running by late summer, early fall,” General Manager Michael Grano said.

Collision Bend opened in 2017 in the old Hausheer Building on Old River Road in Cleveland, the former home of the Watermark Restaurant. Purcell, who worked at Great Lakes Brewing Co. before making beer for Collision Bend, said the restaurant had a busy summer and that he knew he was headed toward ramping up production to sell more of its beer in stores.

“I don’t know that we always were 100% sure that we would have a production facility, but it kind of pushed us in that direction during that time,” he said.

The space will hold a 30-barrel brewhouse along with 30- and 60-barrel fermenters. The brewery will make its flagship IPA and Kolsch beers in Euclid. It also plans to move larger tanks from the Flats and replace them with smaller-sized vessels for smaller batches and one-offs.

The brewery also plans to build a larger canning operation at some point. For now, though, it will stick to using a mobile setup, which involves bringing in a unit to roll off a certain number of cans, Purcell said.

The move is expected to let the footprint of the company significantly grow in an area that does not have many locally brewed beers.

Euclid is in a part of Northeast Ohio not dotted by a handful of breweries. The Cleveland Brewery on East 185th St. is the closest. Cleveland Heights, with its enclave of breweries – Voodoo, The BottleHouse and Boss Dog – is about 7 miles to the south.

Those factors, and close access to Interstate 90, made the warehouse an attractive choice, Grano said. The taproom will cater to the hundreds of employees of Amazon and nearby welding products manufacturer Lincoln Electric, as well as other workers and neighbors in the area, he said.

“That was part of looking at the space. We knew we were smack dab between Amazon and Lincoln Electric,” Grano said.

And while work has yet to begin, Purcell said he already had big plans to tie the new space to its riverfront restaurant.

“We’re going to dig out and put in a little river down there so we can emulate the brewpub here,” he joked.

16 February, 2022