Some major distribution changes are on the horizon as Coronado Brewing plans for its inaugural brew – this Friday – in the company’s shiny new 20,000 sq. ft. San Diego production facility.
Company President Rick Chapman confirmed with Brewbound plans to expand into Northern California and Nevada this year. Chapman tells us the Nevada rollout is scheduled to occur in September.
But that’s not all. Coronado is also currently in talks with Brown Distributing to expand their current Florida distribution throughout the southern part of the state. Chapman also tells us that wholesaler interviews in Washington, Idaho and Alaska are already scheduled for August and the company plans to launch in those state before the early part of 2013.
Coronado will also be changing wholesalers in New Mexico, leaving National Distributing Company for Premier Distributing Co. And as if that wasn’t enough of a shakeup, Chapman said he’s also eyeing Colorado and will look to re-launch in Virginia, Georgia and Washington D.C. markets soon.
In May, we paid a visit to the new space to catch up with Chapman. The new location features a 30-barrel brewhouse with six 60-barrel fermentation tanks. Chapman said four 120-barrel fermentation tanks are already on order.
“We can add about 15 more, 120-barrel tanks which would get us to about 50,000 barrels of capacity in this facility,” Chapman said.
The new facility will allow the brewery to crank out increased production of its core offerings — Coronado Golden, Orange Ave Wit, Mermaid’s Red, Islander Pale Ale and Idiot IPA. It will also allow for an expanded barrel-aging program which Chapman expects to rollout in the spring of 2013.
The expansion project is costing just over $2 million and was financed primarily through reinvested profits and traditional bank loans.
Coronado currently sells 80 percent of its beer in Southern California and grew 60 percent in San Diego each of the last two years.
Watch the full video interview with Chapman above for more on the new brewery and the company’s redesigned packaging.