E-Malt.com News article: USA, MO: O'Fallon Brewery to expand

O'Fallon Brewery announced it will expand distribution of its beers and will open a tasting room soon, River Front Times reported.

O'Fallon Brewery became the latest local craft brewery to announce a massive expansion project, following similar news from Urban Chestnut and 4 Hands Brewing Co. O'Fallon owner Jim Gorczyca said he hopes the project will lead to a larger presence in the St. Louis community.

After leaving Anheuser-Busch, Gorczyca bought O'Fallon Brewery in 2011 from the husband-and-wife team who founded it in 2000. Since then, its business model has changed considerably, which Gorczyca says has put O'Fallon back on the map and doubled its sales since 2011. The draft is produced on-site, but currently O'Fallon partners with a brewery in Wisconsin for packaging. The expansion, Gorczyca says, will move all operations to St. Louis, reducing transportation costs and centralizing all operations locally.

Currently, the 8,000-square-foot brewery sits in the middle of an industrial park, therefore the owner plans on changing location. He wants to keep the brewery in O'Fallon if possible, but says the team is casting a pretty wide net as far as potential locations. O'Fallon wants to expand its ranks as well, from 10 employees to as many as 30 or 40 who will staff a tasting room and retail component.

Gorczyca says the O'Fallon brewers test among themselves and with their distributors, but having a bar would allow them to get feedback on how to tweak test batches of new brews. O'Fallon Brewery plans to secure a location and financing by the end of the year, build in 2014 and be open by early 2015.

Recently, O'Fallon Brewery released 10 Day IPA, which Gorczyca compares to Double Jack by Firestone Walker. There will be a limited amount of draft and packages of this beer which will be soon available in stores.


11 October, 2013