Growing Small: Emphasizing Pilot Scale and Experimentation as Craft Breweries Expand, Remodel and Redevelop
The concept of brewery expansion is being redefined. Growth, in this industry, isn't about capacity. Some notable breweries who chased volumes to financial ruin. Expansion has become more about access, and creative capability. To borrow some bland corporate buzz words, craft breweries are right sizing and diversifying. Craft beer drinkers are a promiscuous lot. The promise of something new, and tasty will draw more repeat business than a stable list of class leading beers. Nano breweries and tap room micros can't keep this secret. Bigger players are adjusting their strategies. Bell's Brewdeck in Comstock, MI Less than a year after completing a $50 million upgrade to their million barrel (bbl) a year Comstock, MI production brewery, Bell's Brewery committed another 7 million to add two "pilot" systems to their operations. A 3 bbl system in the brewery's original building, now pub, in Kalamazoo and a 20 bbl brewhouse in th...