Wynkoop B3K Cans Available & Brewery Expands 20%

I brought you the first peek at the label back in early Dec, so it was exciting to see the press release come out from Wynkoop for the release of their 3rd Canned Beer B3K Black Lager.  It’s also exciting to see the press release indicating their capacity has just been increased by over 20%…

For the full press releases…

(Denver, Colorado) – Wynkoop Brewing Company is now releasing its third canned beer, B3K Black Lager.

A luxurious German-style schwarzbier, the beer has won two recent medals at the Great American Beer Festival.

In 2008 it won a gold medal in the German-Style Schwarzbier bracket. In last year’s GABF it won a 2011 bronze medal in the Kellerbier / Zwickelbier category.

A richly flavored but thirst-quenching version of dark beer, B3K is an unfiltered small-batch wonder with a creamy body, chocolate and coffee aromas, and a hint of smoke.

It is an immensely quaffable beer of just 5.5% ABV.

“B3K has been a staff favorite for years,” notes Wynkoop “Beer Pedaler” Clarke Boyer, “and has a cult following at Wynkoop and our other places. That following and its two GABF medals made it the obvious choice for our third canned beer.”

B3K is built with German base malts, Caramunich malt, debittered black malt, beechwood-smoked malt (from Bamberg, Germany) and a blend of noble hops.

Wynkoop’s first canned lager, it ages for a lengthy five weeks.

“It requires nearly three times as much tank time as our canned ales,” says head brewer Andy Brown. “But it’s worth it when you taste how smooth B3K is for a dark beer. And our new expansion of the brewery gave us the capacity to start putting it in cans.”

The beer pairs exceptionally well with an array of gourmet foods, from grilled and smoked meats to chocolate desserts.

B3K is packaged in a glorious black can (produced at the nearby Ball Corporation can-making plant in Golden, Colorado) and hand canned (on Cask System’s trailblazing two-head canner) at Wynkoop Brewing Company.

The beer is available in six-packs and 15.5 and 5.2 gallon kegs, and is now appearing at Wynkoop accounts in the Denver metro area.

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Since June of 2011, we’ve been at full brewing capacity and unable to pursue new accounts for our small-batch draft and hand-canned beers. Yes, a good "problem" to have in these tough times. And we’re not complaining.

But despite that scenario, our pioneering brewpub (founded by Colorado governor John Hickenlooper) boosted its annual sales for our self-distributed liquid art by 33% over 2010. We also produced 3870 barrels of beer in 2011, up from 3500 barrels in 2010.

Very exciting for us!

To help us increase the supply of Rail Yard Ale, Silverback Pale Ale and our other fine beers, we’re now wrapping up our first brewery expansion in 13 years.

What have we done? Our four classic “open” fermenters have been moved from the main-floor brewhouse to a newly built space downstairs in the Wynkoop beer cellar. That’s a good thing for our ale production efforts.

In place of those fermenters, we’ve installed two 20-barrel unitanks in the main floor brewhouse. Later this year we’ll squeeze two more 20-barrel tanks into the brewhouse.

The two new tanks increase our brewing capacity by 20% and allow us to give more aging time to our lagers and specialty beers. Including our mighty, critically acclaimed B3K Black Lager, that’s coming soon in cans.

“We’re making the best beer of our 23-year history,” says head brewer Andy Brown, whose brewing team landed a pair of medals at last year’s Great American Beer Festival. “The expansion helps us continue that improvement and gives us a better chance to meet demand for our liquid art.”

Brewers Brad Landman and Andy Brown in new fermentation room

This additional capacity means we can also produce a new line of extra-limited-release canned and kegged beers we had hoped to begin producing last year. We had to postpone those beers to meet growing demand for our two canned microbrews.

So stay tuned for details on these new beers headed for the Wynkoop Brewing Co. lineup.

And we extend a big "Thank you very much!" to our beloved customers and retailers who made this expansion and growth possible. We greatly appreciate you digging and supporting our liquid-art efforts.