USA: Boulevard Brewing Co. to inaugurate US$25 million state-of-the-art brewery expansion

Boulevard Brewing Co. is toasting its $25 million expansion on September 14, a sophisticated successor to its humble start in 1989 with $35,000 worth of used equipment from Bavaria, Kansas City Star posted September 07.

“I was much more nervous then than now,” John McDonald, Boulevard’s founder and president, said Wednesday.

“What’s important to me is that we stayed on the right course. We haven’t changed our business model — to make something people really like to drink.”

The expanded facility will allow the Kansas City company to increase its brewing capacity from 100,000 to more than 700,000 barrels annually, slaking the growing thirst for its products in an 11-state “Midwest domain” that stretches from Fargo, North Dakota, to Oklahoma City.

The additional space will also allow Boulevard to dramatically expand its personal approach to selling its beers. Like its predecessor, the new brewing equipment hails from Germany, but that’s where the similarity ends.

“We built this building not just for the next step, but for many years of growth,” said Bob Sullivan, director of marketing. “It will be the most state-of-the-art brewery in the world for at least the next few months.”

Back in 1988, McDonald bought the gear to start his company from a small brewery that had gone out of business in the small Bavarian town of Vierkierchen. The kettles had been producing about 5,000 barrels a year for its German brewmeisters.

Over the years, McDonald and his staff coaxed, modified and pushed that same old brewhouse to the point where Boulevard brewed 103,584 barrels last year. About 70 percent was Unfiltered Wheat, 23 percent Pale Ale and the rest divided among its Bully Porter, Dry Stout and seasonal beers.

The old equipment will continue producing beer, even though attention is shifting to the new facility.

The new brewhouse has an array of vats, brew kettles and a whirlpool connected by an intricate system of stainless steel pipes that would stretch 6.6 miles. The entire operation will be controlled by computers.

The expanded capacity will allow Boulevard to roll out a new year-round beer next year, the first new full-time product since Dry Stout was introduced eight years ago. Jeff Krum, chief operating officer, said Boulevard planned to expand into producing more esoteric products for beer connoisseurs as well.

“Now that we have the extra capacity, it’s allowing us to look at doing things we’re unable to now,” he said.

These are optimistic times for the brewers of “craft beer.” The microbrewery industry has been experiencing rapid growth the past few years and expects to see an 11 percent expansion in this year.

In the meantime, the makers of “industrial beer” have been experiencing flat sales, Krum said. To put it in perspective, though, craft beer will still represent only 4 percent of the overall beer market.

Boulevard currently employs 70 people and expects to expand up to 150 should the plant reach full production. Boulevard is pleased to be expanding at the site where it was founded, McDonald said.

“Thirty percent of our beer is sold here in Kansas City,” he said. “There’s hardly a brewery in the country that’s had the kind of local support we’ve had, and that makes me feel good.”

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