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USA: Boston Beer Co.'s plans for an expansion of its Samuel Adams Brewery in the West End has gotten the green light from company founder and Cincinnati native Jim Koch, the Cincinnati Post revealed on December 29, 2004. Koch, the company's chairman and self-styled "clerk," has scheduled a Jan. 6 public announcement about the project with Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken. The briefing will be held at the former Schoenling Brewing Co. facility, followed by a "reception and toast to the many people and organizations that have made our success here possible," Koch said.

Citing regulatory restrictions on the release of material financial information, spokeswoman Michelle Sullivan said no details would be available before the official announcement. The brewery's award-winning beer will be available at the reception, she said.

Officials said in early November that they were considering a $6 million capital investment, including a new brewhouse, that would increase brewing capacity by about a third to roughly 800,000 barrels a year. Construction would be confined to the brewery's existing property on Central Parkway and Central Avenue north of Liberty Street.

The 70-year-old brewery now makes almost half of Boston Beer's annual output of about 1.2 million barrels. A barrel is 31 gallons, or 55 six-packs of 12-ounce bottles.

Boston Beer exercised an option to buy the Cincinnati brewery from Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Co. in 1996 and has more than doubled its capacity since then, even as the number of jobs has been cut. Aside from a small microbrewery in Boston, it's the only brewery the company owns. Most of its Sam Adams beer is made under contract by other commercial brewers.

Sullivan had said in November that the impact on jobs in Cincinnati wasn't known yet. The quality of the brewery's workforce here was one of the reasons it was considering an expansion, she said.

Bill Fischer, a division manager in the city's department of community planning and development, said the company has not applied to the city for tax incentives and is concerned mainly with buying a small parcel of city-owned property adjacent to the north end of the brewery. The property has an appraised value of maybe $10,000, although the city is spending about $80,000 to demolish a small building on the site, Fischer said.


29 December, 2004