E-Malt.com News article: USA, CA: Dust Bowl Brewing Co. plans $10 mln expansion

Dust Bowl Brewing Co. is planning a major expansion that would more than quadruple its production capacity in a new Turlock facility, modbee.com reported on August, 26.

The locally owned craft beer maker expects to invest $10 mln on the project.

“We’re very excited about this,” said Brett Tate, 52, who founded Dust Bowl five years ago. “It will set us up to be a regional brewery.”

If all goes as planned, construction will start in November, and the 30,000-square-foot complex will open next summer. Before that can happen, Turlock’s Planning Commission must approve Dust Bowl’s permit application at its November 6 meeting.

What’s proposed is more than just a brewing and bottling facility. It would include a retail visitors center and tasting room, with a large open patio and business office.

Dust Bowl’s popular downtown Turlock restaurant on West Main Street, the Tap Room, will remain unchanged.
The brewery’s production now is packed into a 2,100-square-foot warehouse which Tate purchased in late 2008.

“We’re at capacity there now,” Tate said. That industrial-like location “is not a place for the public,” he said, so it’s not suited to meet his company’s expansion plans.

Dust Bowl produces about 4,000 barrels of beer annually, which is 124,000 gallons. The new brewery could produce 17,000 barrels (527,000 gallons) to start, and grow from there.

“As production increases, we definitely will have more jobs available,” assured Tate, noting that his company has eight to 10 people working in its brewery. “That amount could double, mostly in the sales and packaging areas.”

The tasting room would enable visitors to sample Dust Bowl’s many brews.

“We’ve made close to 50 beer varieties over the years, some of which are seasonal and others were one-offs,” said Tate, explaining that customers like that diversity of flavors.

Tate launched the company during the Great Recession.

“It definitely was a calculated risk,” Tate recalled. Besides the bad economy, he said, “craft beer hadn’t taken hold in the Valley yet, like it had elsewhere.”

That’s changed. Tate said his business is booming, with the Tap Room attracting more than 100,000 visitors per year.

“It’s been a huge success in downtown Turlock,” Tate said.


27 August, 2014