E-Malt.com News article: USA, OH: North High Brewing to expand in the coming months

North High Brewing is making the leap from one of Columbus’ most micro of microbreweries to one of the biggest in the coming months, Columbus Business First reported on May 2.

What does expansion mean for North High as it gets ready to jump from a two-barrel brewing system to a 20-barrel operation? Co-owners Gavin Meyers and Tim Ward said first and foremost, it’ll be able to keep its own pub stocked. The goal is to carry 10 North High beers at all times, Meyers said. At times in the first 15 months of business, it has been down to as few as six. The plan is to bring some more consistency to its lineup too.

Every brewer has had a different approach to market. Four String Brewing Co., as one example, started with just two beers and has gradually added from there to build a lineup of four year-round beers with several seasonals. North High has been at the other end of that spectrum, having produced more than 90 beers since opening.

“We have 30 recipes we feel are ready to take to a mass level,” Meyers said.

They will keep the two-barrel system at the brewpub operating and it still will be used for experiments and one-offs. The new system being installed just around the corner on Cleveland Avenue will be producing about eight beers – six staples and two seasonals – on a larger scale both to stock their bar and to take out to the market.

The brewery has 40 active accounts and has put that growth on hold as it gets the new production up and running.

“We think we can easily double accounts now if we opened the floodgates,” Ward said.

He said they still are settling on what the year-round beers will be, but the likely contenders are its ESB (Extra Special Bitter), Milk Stout and different versions of its IPA. They’re piloting a lager that could join that lineup too.

It also has tapped an experienced brewmaster to oversee the operation. Jason McKibben joins the brewery May 19 after serving as production manager for California’s Anchor Brewing Co., one of the true forefathers of the craft in the U.S. and, at more than 100,000 barrels of annual production, the 21st-largest craft brewer in the country last year.

Once those operations are running, the brewery will turn its attention toward canning beers too, joining the likes of Elevator Brewing Co. and Four String Brewing.

There is another part of the business. Unique among its local micro brethren, North High has a brew-your-own operation, where groups come in, pick out a recipe and work together to brew and bottle about 15 gallons (nearly a keg’s worth) of their own beer. Meyers said that business has done well, but the success of its own brewpub, and the need to expand to catch up with the rabid demand, hasn’t allowed them to grow and market the brew-on-premise as much as they’d like.

Moving the vast majority of production off site and bringing on more staff to run the new brewery brings them the freedom to better promote that business.

“Our goal is to make the customer brewing and the bar equal parts of the business,” Meyers said.


07 May, 2014