E-Malt.com News article: USA, WI: Bull Falls Brewery to expand and quadruple brewing capacity

Bull Falls Brewery released on October, 27 new details about a $1.5 mln expansion project that will transform the small brewery into a tourist destination and allow the owners to distribute their beer across the Midwest.

The expansion project is scheduled to begin in November pending final approval next month for a loan from the city of Wausau and the brewery’s bank. The expansion will allow Bull Falls, co-owned by Mike and Don Zamzow, to brew four times as much beer every day when operating at full capacity than it can now, improve its distribution of beer, and hold regular tours and sell merchandise at the brewery.

The microbrewery started about five years ago and quickly increased its brewing capacity.

The Zamzows plan to build an 8,000-square-foot addition onto the existing 5,000-square-foot brewery. The Zamzows will buy new brewing equipment, which is much larger than the current brewing system, along with storage barrels and other equipment that will use the entire new building.

The Zamzows will put a grain bin that can hold 58,000 pounds of grain for their beer in front of the expanded building.

“We’re not talking about building a tin shed for making beer in a back street,” Don Zamzow said. “This is going to be attractive, a facility for tours.”

The current brewing system allows the Zamzows to brew 10 barrel batches of beer once a day. The new system they plan to buy brews 30 barrels, four times a day.

Bull Falls plans to use its increased brewing capacity to can and keg its beer for distribution. Currently, the Zamzows use their own trucks to distribute their beer to a few dozen local stores, restaurants and taverns. The Zamzows said the popularity of the Bull Falls beers has led to distributors in Minnesota wanting to distribute Bulls Falls’ Nut Brown and Five Star ales to the “Land of 10,000 Lakes.”

“For us to grow, we need to be distributing,” Mike Zamzow said. “We need more brewing capacity.”

“It’s our time; we need to take the next step,” Mike Zamzow said.



31 October, 2012