USA, AZ: Grand Canyon Brewing Company announces $2.7 mln expansion

Once just a brewpub serving up craft beer to Arizona locals, Grand Canyon Brewing Co. announced plans on January 2 to invest $2.7 million to expand its production facility and push into a handful of new markets in 2014, according to Brewbound.

In a press release, the company said it is beginning construction on a new, 27,000 sq. ft. production facility that is located less than a mile from its current home in Williams, AZ.

“We’ve been making a lot of beer out of a small little space,” said Drew Carricato, the company’s director of brewery operations.

At just 6,000 sq. ft., Grand Canyon’s current facility is a fraction of what’s to be built. The brewery produced “just under 6,000 barrels in 2013,” according to the release and Carricato said the company is aiming for 50-percent growth this year.

The space, equipped with a 40-barrel brewing system that is capable of producing 40,000 barrels annually — the state production limit for craft brewers — is expected to be operational by May, added Drew Carricato, director of brewery operations.

“There’s plenty of room to grow in the state of Arizona,” he said. “[We] just got into Vegas.

While the press release outlines the brewery’s plans to tap into new markets including Colorado, New Mexico and California, Carricato said the company will also “push harder in the markets that we’re in currently.”

The brewery said it plans to hire more full-time employees including “at least one more full-time brewer, two cellar men and two deck mates to staff the production facility.”

“After that,” Carricato said, “the sky’s the limit.”

08 January, 2014