E-Malt.com News article: USA, IN: Crown Point brewery to expand

The sluggish economy may be hurting some businesses, but for one local brewing company in Crown Point, IN, strong sales have it expanding, Post Tribune reported on October, 28.

“Beer isn’t recession proof, it’s recession resistant,” Steve Mazylewski, brew master at Crown Brewing Co., said the old saying goes.

For the Crown Point craft brewer, that saying is holding true. Crown this week is going through its first major brewing capacity expansion, one that will allow the company to almost double its production.

On October, 27, the owners and staff awaited the delivery of a new fermentation tank and brite (storage) tank that doubles the amount of beer it can ferment at a time and will allow brew master Steve Mazylewski of Lowell to make larger quantities of brewery favorites along with a wider selection of seasonal specialties.

“The customers that come in like the variety,” Mazylewski said.

The expansion will do more than allow the brewery to meet local demand. Chris Stanek, who co-owns the brewery with Dave and Jeri Bryan and Tim and Cyndi Walsh, said the expansion is a necessary step in the brewery’s growth.

“It will allow us to distribute further and add another full-time employee. It will allow us to continue to grow,” Stanek said.

Since opening three-and-a-half years ago the craft brewer has gone from one full-time employee to a staff of 11, including the newest addition, assistant brewer Tom Klekot. Stanek, too, joined the staff full-time this year, leaving his full-time job to help take on the growing responsibilities at the business.

“It is the dream job,” he said.

Stanek said the beers produced have been growing in popularity and the tiny brewery has been struggling to keep up. It has been difficult for the past year to keep up with demand from the 30 to 35 locations around the state in places like Indianapolis, Bloomington, South Bend and Muncie that carry the label while keeping the taps flowing locally. At any given time the brewery has nine brews on tap.

“We can’t run out of beer here,” he said.

The brewery is on pace to produce about 600 barrels, or 1,200 kegs, of beer in 2011. The new capacity will allow Mazylewski to increase capacity to close to 1,000 barrels and up production of the most popular variety, the Special Forces IPA — which makes up about a third of all beer made — while introducing unique blends like the Fall Pumpkin Ale and the Spiced Winter Warlock Brown.

One of the challenges of any expansion is the limited space at the site. The new tanks will join the existing tanks and max out the room for expansion there. Stanek said the next step will be a satellite production facility — still in Crown Point — that will ease some of the distribution pressures on the small downtown operation.

“We’re still a small local brewing company, but we drastically increased our output,” he said.

Stanek attributes some of the business’ growth to its partnership with the city on events like the recent Oktober Fest.

On October 25 the brewery presented a $1,500 donation to Board of Works and Public Safety for the Crown Point Police Department, Emergency Management Agency and Parks and Recreation Department.

“We’ve really had a lot of success partnering with the community,” he said.


28 October, 2011