Breckenridge Brewery is riding the craft-beer wave and is soon to open another brewery, with a beer garden, in Littleton, CO.
The count is in and the results are awesome: Colorado is home to five of the fifty biggest craft breweries in the nation!
According to the Denver Post, Fort Collins’ New Belgium Brewing maintained its position as the state’s largest craft brewery and snagged itself 4th place in the nation-wide list. Coming in behind were Longmont’s Oskar Blues Brewery at 24th, Fort Collins’ Odell Brewing at 34th, Longmont’s Left Hand Brewing at 40th, and Denver’s own Breckenridge Brewery at 50th.
The craft brewery rules, defined by the Brewers Association, stipulate that a brewery must have relatively small production, be independently owned, and use traditional ingredients in its beer in order to qualify.
These rules don’t seem to be hindering the craft beer industry, however, as it is experiencing a huge boom in popularity and growth. Breckenridge is riding the wave and is soon to open another brewery, with beer garden, in Littleton. The project is valued at $36 million, but it should be paying for itself soon enough. According to spokeswoman Terry Usry, “Our (2014) growth was only 4 percent because we are so capacity constrained.” With the new location, production should jump from 64,000 barrels to 184,000 barrels. As such, Breckinridge will be doubling its sales and marketing staff this year. They’ll also be experimenting with some new malts and hops and increasing their barrel-aged program, meaning new and exciting beers are on the horizon!
If you want to keep up with all the Denver brewing happenings, contact us today and arrange a tour!