E-Malt.com News article: USA, GA: Terrapin Beer Co.’s to install new brewhouse

Terrapin Beer Company received its new 100-barrel brewhouse last month, beerpulse.com reported on November, 24

The new brewhouse will come online around the end of December and the current brewhouse will be decommissioned at that time.

In order to increase capacity, the company has to bring in more fermentation capacity (new fermentors) which the company hadn’t ordered as of mid-October.

Marketing Director, Julia Weckback, said: “New fermentors won’t arrive early enough, if at all in 2013, to have any impact on production next year.”

Terrapin did give itself a short timeframe in which to grow production when it added eight 200-barrel fermentors this past summer. That allowed the company to go to a 24-hour brew schedule and increase annual capacity up by nearly 15,000 barrels.

Maximum theoretical (annual) capacity on the new system, given average Terrapin brew schedules, is 100,000 barrels.

The production constraints have been a buzzkill for Terrapin, which grew 39%, 19% and 35% from 2008-2010. Growth fell to only 5% in 2011 as the company operated at maximum capacity all-year.

The investments come, in part, thanks to funding from MillerCoors’ Tenth and Blake division last year.

Terrapin Co-Founder, John Cochran, said, “The loan conversion will allow Terrapin access to more capital from the banking market to fund a $4.5 mln expansion to double our brewing capacity.”

Cochran also said that the investment would help the brewery to begin a “full time barrel aging program.”



28 November, 2012