Kern River Brewing Co.

Looking forward to the day Citra is distributed in OC again.

 

Thank you aquazr1.
Hopefully we will get regular updates on the brewery expansion. Including pictures of the expansion. Is this a brewery only expansion (behind the exististing brewpub)? Will they brew all beers at the new facility? Will the brewpub will remain open after the new brewery opens and continue to brew also? Or will they remove the existing tanks and expand the restaurant/tasting room? I heard they will be canning their beers also. 12oz or 16oz? Citra in cans. Can't wait.
Same water supply. New different equipment. Same great taste?

 

Can you provide any insight to these questions @KRBCEric ?

 

Really curious about that Triple IPA.

 

I'll do my best to answer any questions here...

The new facility will be focused on production for distribution, but will be open to the public with a tasting room and food service. Most of the flagship beers will be made at the new location, freeing up the pub for more experimental stuff, which should be fun. The existing pub will basically remain as is, except we will take out our largest fermenter and put it in the new location.

We are planning to move to 12 oz cans, but want to dial in the new brewing system before we take on another package format, so that will likely happen a few months after the new facility opens. If we can get the DO low enough (oxygen is deadly to citra hops) you might see Citra in cans...

As for the new triple IPA (Chinook and Amarillo - we are thinking of calling it Hop Nookie...), I think it is really tasty and drinkable for a triple IPA, but you should come to the brewery and find out for yourself

 

Eric, thanks for answering back so soon. Some great information here. Experimental? Sounds great! El Dorado single hop/dry hop? That triple sounds tempting. Road trip? Got a bottle of Shuttle Bunney waiting for me to pick up from a good buddy.
Maybe some picture updates on the new brewery progress would be good.

 

I thought the expansion was occurring directly behind/adjacent to the existing spot. New location?

 

I can't wait for KRBC to be readily available on the shelves again.

Do you have a can format, (4-16oz, 6-12oz, etc) and a price point for them in mind?
What beers are going to debut in cans?

 

Eric said above that they plan on having 12 oz cans. I would assume Just Outstanding, Class V, and Gravity Check in cans since those are the most popular current bottlings.

 

I'd love some Gravity Check in cans.

 

Thanks for shedding some light on all this Eric!

Are there any plans to increase your distribution area after the new facility opens, or are you just looking to increase availability in your current footprint? I'd love to see your beer travel up 99 to Fresno!

Following on that thought, with Citra going into distribution and the elimination of the lottery system, do you have any concerns about the return of Citra release-day craziness? Without any other way to buy the beer, I would expect people from north of Bakersfield to descend on the brewery en masse once again.

 

The "new location" is directly behind the existing one. There will still be an alleyway separating the two.

Catbirdofdoom, distribution is a fickle thing. We are considering expanding our footprint of distribution, but it will only work with a distributor and market that makes sense, otherwise you might get bad beer delivered to the wrong customers. Currently we have nothing to announce on that front.

As for Citra, I would expect that with increased production, we should be able to get rid of the lottery. We do hope that we can throw Citra parties from time to time at the pub, but I would not expect it to be out of hand. I could be wrong though...


Cheers,
Eric

 

I remember years ago having class five with vanilla beans and cacao on tap. This was amazing! Will you guys ever do this again or make it in bottles??? Please!

 

@KRBCEric is Kern River Distributed widely through southern california? The website doesn't have a beer finder utility, so its kind of hard to tell

 

How do you define "widely"? It's definitely distributed in the larger areas of Southern California (LA, OC, SD).

 

The only bad thing about Citra being more available is that its probably going to be a 1 bottle limit at every shop.

 

From SD through Eastern Ventura County.
Problem is that there's so little of it, that I haven't seen a bottle on shelves in 3 years.