E-Malt.com News article: USA, MA: Cape Ann Brewing Company to consolidate all its activities in Glocester

Cape Ann Brewing Company has led a bit of a divided existence since 2008, brewing and shipping its draft beer from its microbrewery on the Gloucester waterfront while contract brewing and packaging its bottled beer at a brewery in Saratoga, N.Y., Gloucester Times reported on May 30.

Soon, that will not be the case.

Cape Ann Brewing, which will retain its pub and brewing facilities on Rogers Street, is leasing another 5,000 square feet of space at the old Cape Ann Forge property, where Whittemore Street meets the Annisquam River, to consolidate all of its brewing, packaging and shipping operations in Gloucester.

“We’re very excited,” said Cape Ann Brewing co-owner Jeremy Goldberg. “It was tough to take the beer out of Gloucester and great to bring it back. By this summer, all Cape Ann Brewery beer will be made in Gloucester.”

The return of the brewery’s packaged beer line is part of a wider shift in the brewery’s business model. Working in concert with Boston advertising agency GYK Antler, Cape Ann Brewing has developed a new branding plan, which includes a reworked Fisherman logo that will help re-emphasize the Cape Ann in Cape Ann Brewing, according to Goldberg.

There also will be a major transition in packaging, as the company plans to move away from bottling toward using only cans as its sole method of packaging its non-draft offerings.

“Moving to cans will be cheaper, better for the environment and better for the beer,” Goldberg said.

The brewery produces between 30 and 40 year-round, seasonal and specialty beers each year, most under the Fisherman’s line.

Goldberg said he believes the return of the packaging line to Gloucester will result in a higher quality and more consistent product, partly because of the company’s enhanced on-site, quality-control measures and partly from using Gloucester water in the bottled beer as it does with its draft beer products.

“We’ve often been told by customers how much the draft product is better than the bottled product,” Goldberg said. “So, we’re confident the quality will improve.”

The company, he said, is investing about $500,000 in the new facility, with help from the city’s Community Development department and MassDevelopment Corp., which helped Cape Ann Brewery secure financing.

“This should allow us to grow exponentially,” Goldberg said.

Ultimately, Goldberg said, the company could add up to five new jobs in the next year. Cape Ann Brewing, which incorporated in 2002 and first produced beer in 2004, currently employs about 40 workers. Its market stretches across eight states, from Maryland to New Hampshire.

“We’re very content with the size of our distribution,” Goldberg said. “We’re just looking to fill in the map.”

The new Whittemore Street facility will serve several purposes, including much-needed storage space that will allow the brewer to take greater advantage of buying in bulk.

It also will include a canning line and fermenters and conditioning tanks for the brewing process.

Goldberg said he hopes to be all moved in by the end of June, with the new cans rolling off the line in late July or early August.


30 May, 2014