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Prost Brewing will begin packaging its three core beers in twelve-ounce bottles next month as part of a renewed effort at distribution.
The German-style brewery, which opened in August 2012, had previously only packaged its beers in 64-ounce growlers, which it sealed and sold to liquor stores. But the growlers had trouble fitting in at some locations, and the beer sometime lost its freshness.
See also: Award-winning brewer Bill Eye has left Prost Brewing
“They are unique, and we will still sell our three big seasonals in growlers, but the market has been asking for bottles for a while, and the timing is right,” says Prost co-owner Troy Johnston. “Packaging in six-packs will give them a little longer of a shelf-life.”
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The three beers are Dunkel, a 5.2 percent ABV smooth amber lager; Weissbier, a wheat beer with flavors of banana and clove; and Pils, a 4.6 percent ABV light lager.
“We liked the package and the way it presents. A lot of people are rushing to the cans, but this presents the beers more the way we envisioned them,” Johnston says. Eventually, Prost will package its Kolsch and Altbier in twelve-ounce bottles as well.
Prost has purchased a bottling line from Meheen Manufacturing; in a case of fortuitous timing, Meheen will bring the line to Denver for the Craft Brewers Conference national trade show, which runs April 8 through April 11, as a display model — and then install it at Prost the next day.
Once it is up and running, Johnston hopes to expand distribution in Colorado; the brewery could make as much as 7,000 barrels of beer in 2014, up from 5,000 last year.
Prost has recently undergone other changes as well. Award-winning head brewer and co-owner Bill Eye stepped down in January and was replaced by Larry Leinhart (the brother of Ommegang brewmaster Phil Leinhart), who worked for 26 years for Anheuser-Busch and owns his own hops farm near Fort Collins.
“We’ve been very fortunate,” Johnston says. “We were fortunate to have Bill to help us get this off the ground, and we are fortunate to get Larry, who also has a passion for these kind of beers and who will continue that vision of making this style of German beers.”
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