Oskar Blues – 2013 State of the Beer Address

To recap, we celebrated our 10 Year CANniversary, a 52% increase in sales, a new brewery in Brevard, NC, and our revenue grew by 49%, outpacing industry growth by almost 40%. Hot damn.

In early 2012, we wrapped up the $4+ million improvement project in our Longmont facility – the expansion included 14 additional 200-bbl fermenters and two 400-bbl bright beer tanks (seriously, you could set up shop in there and have more room than a standard studio apartment. I was tempted to try, but the production crew wasn’t sold on it.), which allowed the brewery to grow from 59,000 barrels in 2011 to 85,750 barrels in 2012. We also brought on board our new canning line. This is a magic making machine, with the ability to can 300 cans per minute. The Magic-Maker also allowed us to introduce 16oz cans of Deviant Dale’s IPA & G’Knight Imperial Red IPA, after which we asked ourselves, “Does size matter?” And we decided that in some cases it does, and so then came along 19.2oz Imperial Pint cans of Dale’s Pale Ale, the first American brewery to use ever use the package.

And that’s not the only new package we released last year. In May, we unveiled Chaka Belgian Ale, a CANlaboration with our friends from Sun King Brewing Company, in a 16oz Aluma-Tek resealable can from Ball Corporation. Since that debut, we also used the can for our second CANlaboration with Sun King, The Deuce, a hoppy brown ale. Our rootbeer, B. Stiff & Sons, has also found itself in these cans – perfect for many outdoor activities!

Our Longmont brewery taproom, The Tasty Weasel, which won Best Taproom from both 5280 Magazine & Denver Westword, got a facelift as well, resulting in a new patio and additional production space.

With the fast growth, we landed a spot on the Brewers Association’s annual Top 50 Craft Breweries List, as well as on Denver Business Journal’s “Fastest Growing Private Companies” list. Dale also accepted his award for Entrepreneur of the Year – Mountain Region. Just a good ol’ boy with big dream!

The growth allowed us to expand distribution into new markets for the first time in four years – Chicago, Ohio, Northern Kentucky, and Dale’s homestate of Alabama. In each state we opened last year, we established the largest craft beer launches in the territory’s history, with Ohio taking the lead with 14,000+ case equivalents during the first week!

And that’s not all we’re celebrating. 2012 marked our 10 Year CANniversary of Dale’s Pale Ale! We partied in Lyons with the White Buffalo and a couple hundred friends. Woooooeeee!

To keep us all balanced around here, Dale helps keep us healthy by offering an “In the Core” workout program three times a week with a personal trainer, massages, and yoga. Since we dig on the outdoors big time, we have an employee run club & group bike rides throughout the year. Employees also receive a 6% matching 401K program and 100% health care coverage, offerings that earned us the Denver Post “Top Workplaces” award.

Time to crack open another brew, as this post is rather long winded…

Our accomplishments of 2012 were a springboard for 2013 when, in December, we started brewing at our new brewery in Brevard, North Carolina. We plan to add another restaurant and live music venue in Brevard in the next year. The addition of the 30,000 sq. foot Brevard brewery will increase our overall brewing capacity to 130,000 barrels in 2013, and allow us to enter additional markets (yeeeeehaw, we’re comin’ for ya’ll!).

And now a word from the big guy himself: “We continue to have as much fun as we CAN to enjoy this ride… I am proud of our team as we celebrated the 10th CANniversary of Dale’s Pale Ale and we look to include Pisgah, NC singletrack as part of the Oskar Blues backyard.” – Dale

We owe a huge thanks to all of our employees, for making what we do every day possible, and a ginormous thanks to all of YOU, who help keep the dream alive!
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