E-Malt.com News article: USA, FL: Yuengling to build new brew house in Tampa

Yuengling announced on May, 17, that construction has begun on a new brew house in Tampa, Florida.

The brew house is being built in hopes of keeping up with the company's current demand.

Jim Helmke, director of operations at Yuengling Beer Company of Tampa, said the brew house where Yuengling has been running its operations in Florida is about 60 years old and a larger facility was badly needed.

"It was really coming to the end of its viable life, so it's better to build a new brew house than add an addition to the current one," Helmke said. "We're struggling to keep up with current demand in areas in which we're currently in."

With Yuengling's growth at about 10 to 15 percent per year, according to Helmke, and a significant increase in market share in Ohio in just a few months since October, the larger brew house will enable Yuengling to keep up with this growth.

There are no current plans yet to expand geographically.

Helmke said that while the current factory in Florida is a 450- to 475-barrel system, the new brew house will bring a larger capacity to brew 675 barrels.

"We're close to what our capacity is right now as a company in the southeast division," Helmke said. "Yuengling has owned the Tampa brewery for a dozen years now, which very much supports the southeast portion of the Yuengling territory."

He said that the announcement of the new brew house represents a significant commitment by Yuengling President Richard "Dick" Yuengling Jr. to continue to see through company growth and add to modernization.

While Helmke said the new brew house is one of the commitments, there is also a state-of-the-art keg line going in as well as boilers and air compressors being upgraded concurrently among other things.

Although no exact numbers were available, he estimated the brew house is at least a $5 to 10 mln project.

"This project represents Dick's commitment to grow and to the Tampa company as a whole," Helmke said.

Trial brewing at the new brew house scheduled to begin later this year.


23 May, 2012