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(Courtesy Molson Coors)
Going into the holidays, when many businesses were slowing down for a winter break, Blue Moon’s Denver brewery was working overtime to get new equipment in place to keep up with global demand.
And we’ve gotta admit with the beer industry slowing down that’s a sweet problem to have….
Although Blue Moon beer was born in a Denver basement bar called The Sandlot at Coors Field in 1995, the brand has never really had a place to call home. Sure given that the fact Blue Moon beers are now produced and widely distributed by Molson Coors, its products have never really had a place that celebrated its origins until 2016 when it opened 30,000-square-foot brewery and taproom in Denver’s uber-hip RiNo neighborhood.
“The brewery wanted to keep its roots in Denver. RiNo being an art district, and Blue Moon being an ‘artfully crafted’ brew,” General Manager Josh Luman told the Denver Post that “it was a natural fit.”
Now with four new fermentation tanks and two new brite tanks installed over the winter holidays, Blue Moon’s RiNo brewery has upped its brewing capacity over 50% to 4,500 barrels.
(Courtesy Molson Coors)
And although Blue Moon’s Denver taproom was originally conceived as a branding and experimental hub only, with nation sales rising it’s expanding it game and producing flagship beers for the whole country as well.
The additional capacity will allow the brewery to handle the increased demand for its core beers as well as for its other small-batch and experimental beers that are sold at Blue Moon’s eight U.S. and international taprooms.
As Blue Moon’s Denver brewmaster explained to Behind the Beer, it was a natural and necessary evolution…
“When we opened RiNo, we were working on (research and development), new product development and focused on making the best beers for our own taproom…Today, we’re still doing all those things — plus sending beer all over the place.”
The roughly $250,000 expansion in RiNo is the first of several planned capital improvement projects in Colorado for Molson Coors. The company pland to invest hundreds of millions to upgrade its giant brewery in Golden, Colorado in 2020.
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