US. Market expansion creates opportunities for craft brewers

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The expansion of the craft beer industry will mean not only more beer but more breweries.
Page Buchanan is spending $300,000 to transform a 4,800-square-foot space at 4539 Helgesen Drive on Madison’s East Side into the House of Brews, believed to be the first Community Supported Brewery in the country. He hopes to begin brewing this spring.
In Wisconsin Dells, Bruce McPhee and Tanner Brethorst, of Madison plan to open this spring a 7,000-square-foot brewery in an industrial park at 805 Business Park Road. Plans call for 500 barrels of beer in the first year and about 1,500 barrels by the third year. The brews would be distributed in kegs and bottles to area restaurants, bars and liquor stores and be available on tap in the brewery’s small tasting room.
The Ale Asylum on Madison’s East Side is also looking for new and bigger digs. The brewery and a small restaurant, located in an 8,000-square-foot space near Madison Area Technical College, has seen production grow from 850 barrels in 2006 to 7,200 barrels in 2010.
Co-owner Otto Dilba expects the brewery to make about 9,000 barrels this year but by 2012 he wants a larger facility capable of brewing 35,000 to 50,000 barrels. “Ideally, we want a location where we can start out smaller and grow into it,” Dilba said. “There’s so much room for growth.”