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CASTLE MALTING NEWS in partnership with www.e-malt.com Italian
31 May, 2006



Brewing news USA: BarrelHouse begins bottling beer for retail sale

For the first time since Hudepohl-Schoenling moved its production out of town in 2001, a true hometown beer - created and brewed in Greater Cincinnati - will be sold for off-premise consumption in something other than kegs.

BarrelHouse Brewing Co. has installed a small bottling line at its Cincinnati brewery and will begin bottling several of its ales and lagers next month, including RedLegg Ale and Duveneck's Dortmunder-style Lager. The 22-ounce bottles will be available at local beer outlets, probably for between $2.50 and $3 a bottle.

Boston Beer Co. bottles huge amounts of Sam Adams beer at its Central Parkway brewery just up the street from BarrelHouse. But its beers are developed in Boston, its flagship brand is called "Boston Lager," and it's made from an old St. Louis recipe.

BarrelHouse's move to bottles comes years after the brewery's original owners pulled the plug on a planned public stock offering, part of the proceeds of which were to have been used to bottle its beer. The current owner, Jeff Ciesco of Indiana, bought the BarrelHouse brands last year and moved production to a new facility on Liberty Street in Cincinnati's West End neighbourhood.

Its new $40,000 bottling line fills, caps and labels six beers at a time and is capable of cranking out about 120 12-bottle cases an hour, according to brewmaster Rick DeBar.

DeBar was test driving the equipment earlier this month - with water - to work the bugs out before hooking it up to the beer tanks for live runs.

"We don't want to bottle anything we can't sell," he said.

Federal regulators have approved labels for two of the beers, and two others were in process. Once they're all OK'd, labels will be printed and the bottles will start filling. "We'd like to see 8,000 to 10,000 cases in the first year," DeBar said.

While most microbreweries sell three times as much beer in bottles as in kegs, until now BarrelHouse has been limited to kegs, mostly sold to area bars and restaurants. Before closing its brewpub on 12th Street in Over-the-Rhine last year, it also sold it by the glass.

"If we increased production by 75 percent, that would put us at capacity quickly," DeBar said. "Two months from now, we may be beating our heads against the wall trying to figure out how we're going to make enough beer."

George Fisher, owner of Cavalier Distributing in Blue Ash, which handles BarrelHouse in Hamilton County, said he's expecting a good market reception for BarrelHouse products because it's local, it's good beer; and it's part of the craft beer category that's the fastest-growing segment in the alcoholic beverage industry.

"Craft beer as a whole is doing incredibly well," Fisher said, noting that his company's microbrewery and craft beer sales in Ohio are up 40 percent this year.

There are a lot of new craft beers on the market, but sales are growing faster, he said. It's not like it was with malt-based beverages a few years ago when every bar in town seemed to have models passing out samples of Bacardi and Seagram's coolers. With craft beers, the demand is consumer driven, Fisher said.

The 22-oz. package will also help, he said, because it's the perfect serving size for many craft-beer drinkers (who tend to drink less volume than Bud Light drinkers), and it takes up less of retailers' limited shelf space than six-packs.

One of its most popular brands is Southern California-based craft brewer Stone Brewing Co., and 90 percent of its beer that Cavalier sells is in 22-oz. bottles, Fisher said.

BarrelHouse Brewing Co. was founded in 1995 by David Rich and Mike Cromer. It was sold in 2005 to Jeff Ciesco. It presently has two employees and manufactures beer under 5 brands: RedLegg Ale, Boss Cox Double Dark IPA, Cumberland Pale Ale, Duveneck's Dortmunder Style Lager and Hocking Hills Hefeweizen. Its annual beer production capacity is up to 8,000 half barrels (15.5 gallons each).





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