USA, CO: Black Shirt Brewing expands, adds beer canning line

When Black Shirt Brewing opened just over a year ago, it had limited hours, a glorified homebrewing system and three owners with fulltime jobs elsewhere. One year later, the RiNo brewery, which only makes red ales, has become an integral part of Denver's ever-expanding craft-beer scene and just completed a major expansion that will give it an even bigger presence, according to Westword blog.

Part of that expansion is physical. Black Shirt now has a fifteen-barrel brewing system (its second expansion in 2013) and six thirty-barrel fermenters. It purchased a canning line that will allow it to begin selling four flagship beers to liquor stores - and allow customers to take those beers with them wherever they go.

Their new canning line was manufactured by Wild Goose Engineering in Boulder and is an expandable system. In its current configuration, if everything is optimal, it can fill forty cans per minute. The company will be packaging in six-packs, twelve-ounce cans, release is planned for the first part of 2014.

The company will be canning Colorado Red Ale, Red Saison, India Red Ale and Red Porter.

The brewery is currently supporting seven employees and will be adding to both the tap room and the production area in the next few months.