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An Oskar, a Can, but No Grouches

Posted on: Sunday, 18 September 2005, 15:00 CDT

Sep. 19--LYONS -- When Oskar Blues wanted to put its microbrewed beer in a can, the brewpub did not gain much of a welcome reception.

"All of our peers said we were nuts to put a craft beer in a can," said Marty Jones, spokesman for Oskar Blues.

Three years later, the Lyons brewpub is boasting triple-digit growth, distribution to 10 states, an accolade from The New York Times and a piece featuring it in The Wall Street Journal.

And three years later, Jones and the Oskar Blues crew are still telling the skeptics, the critics and the competition the same thing: Can it.

Literally.

"We tell them, we want you to can your beer," Jones said. "We want to help you grow your business."

That's because the can is catching on, thanks to Oskar Blues' success, said Julie Bradford, editor of the Durham, N.C.-based All About Beer Magazine.

"There are enough quality beers in a can now that I think the public's perception is changing," Bradford said. "Years ago (can makers) solved the technology that gave canned-beer a tinny taste."

Oskar Blues' pioneering efforts is helping shake the can's image as well, said Thomas Dalldorf, editor and publisher of Celebrator Beer News in Hayward, Calif.

"To say that beer that comes out of cans is not very distinguished, well, consider what you put in the can," he said. "The can is actually a perfect container for beer because no light gets in.

"We're going to see an explosion of what we'll call good beer, not to be pejorative, in cans. But full-flavored, richly hopped, interesting beer in cans is going to continue to evolve exponentially."

Oskar Blues got its start in the basement of the Lyons restaurant, bar and music venue that was started by Dale Katechis and his wife in 1996.

To help garner business to the restaurant, Oskar Blues stared selling 22-ounce "bombers" of its full-bodied brews to the nearby retailers.

"Since we started packaging the beer, the byproduct was we created a new business," Katechis said.

But the new business was a unique one -- at least for a craft-brewer. That's because Oskar Blues used a popular beer vessel -- the can -- to house two beers: the frothy hoppy Dale's Pale Ale and the smokey, chocolatey Old Chub Scottish-Style Ale.

On a recent weekday, Jones gestured toward a pile of metal that sat on the backside of the restaurant. That used to be the canning operation, which lived in the basement of the Oskar Blues' restaurant.

Two men would spend hours at the Canadian hand-canning machine, putting together two cans at a time. They would work through the night to get the beer on the trucks in the morning.

The beer would be gone by noon.

"That just kept happening," Katechis said.

The brewpub scrapped the old for the new, gaining a $45,000 automated canning machine made by Cask Brewing Systems Inc., the same company that made the hand-canning machine.

"In an hour and a half, it can do what it took us 10 hours to do," Katechis said.

They can make about 70 cases an hour.

The machine gives a quick breath of carbon dioxide to five cans at a time, layering the beer on top of the air.

That automated machine now lives in a barn by the restaurant. Next to the barn sits a newly built building where the beer is brewed.

The facilities are tangible elements of the company's success.

Since launching the canned microbrew, Oskar Blues has grown about 700 percent, Jones said.

In 2004, Oskar Blues produced 2,600 barrels of beer, a 123 percent increase from the 1,168 barrels produced in 2003. By the end of this year, that number should be 5,200.

"Right now, the demand is far exceeding the supply," Katechis said.

The demand also will force a change in Oskar Blues' classification. To be called a brewpub, at least 25 percent of the beer sales need to be done on site. After this year, Oskar Blues will be reclassified as a microbrewery, said Paul Gatza, president of the Brewers Association.

When that occurs, Oskar Blues will be one of about 350 U.S. microbreweries, 18 of which are in Colorado, according to the Boulder-based Brewers Association. While the overall U.S. beer market is expected to decline this year, craft beer -- an all-malt or nearly all-malt beer made by the smaller brewers -- is growing at a 7 percent rate.

"Part of that, I think, is the craft brewers are capitalizing on people who are new to the drinking age, the 21 to 27 demographic who are interested more in buying locally and perhaps who have anti-corporate sentiments," Gatza said. "That's playing in perfectly to craft brewers."

And having a full-bodied, fun craft beer available in a can only helps, said Wayne Anderson, Oskar Blues' director of business development.

"Freshness is No. 1, and it keeps the beer cool," he said.

Then Katechis chimed in.

"Plus it's funny," Katechis said, laughing.

To name a beer Old Chub -- fun.

To name a beer at the restaurant One Nut Brown Ale -- fun.

To send out a press release saying the Boston Beer Co.'s founder has been kidnapped by aliens after he chided canned beer -- fun.

Getting people to recycle 3,501 Dale's Pale Ale cans for a chance to win a bicycle -- fun.

"We put the beer in cans because it was fun," Katechis said. "It keeps getting more fun."

Future rollout

What weren't jokes were recent write-ups in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Dale's Pale Ale topped the Times' review of the nation's pale ales. The Wall Street Journal included Oskar Blues' story in an article on the growth of canned craft beers.

"It's not a fad," Anderson said. "It's not a gimmick."

Dale's and Old Chub are in 10 states now and the brewery has plans to distribute to two more soon. Retailers and distributors embraced the canned beers from the beginning, Anderson said.

"I wish I could take credit, really," he said. "It's very unique. It more or less sold itself. I just had to make it available."

Now, it just boils down to keeping up with the demand. Anderson said Oskar Blues has been contacted by someone in almost every state of the country as well as some outside of the borders.

"They want to do it in Sweden," he said. "They're just begging."

Katechis said Oskar Blues might ramp up production by adding another canning machine to satisfy the increase in demand. But he said there are no immediate plans to start canning another line of beer.

For now, the focus is on continued success, Anderson said.

"We're onto something special, and we know it's special," Anderson said. "And we don't want to screw it up."

-----

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Copyright (c) 2005, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.

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NYT, DJ, SAM,

Source: Daily Camera

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