A little over three months ago, highly celebrated, IPA driven and high gravity specialists, Scofflaw Brewing, celebrated their one year anniversary. From their inception up until that celebration, they tripled their production capacity and here we are again with plans to expand. Prior to their second expansion, it was rare to find cans in the market and once they upgraded the canning line was back up and running, but here we are again, expanding. I wonder what great things are coming this time.

I recently spoke with Jonathan Ingram, Media Relations at Scofflaw. He share some great news concerning some upcoming projects as well as what might make its way into cans this time around.

Why is Scofflaw expanding again?

Ingram: “We tripled our original capacity in July and we can already sense that the demand is sufficient that we need to expand again. So it requires some fundamentals which are a new brew house and an eight 100 BBL fermentation tanks. We believe that the demand is sufficient enough for us to sell 30,000 BBL to the Georgia market for the year.”

Where is the growing demand for your beer coming? Draft or cans?

Ingram: “It’s coming primarily from the Atlanta market and draft. We have constantly focused on draft sales because we think if you establish the draft sales, can sales will follow. So that’s been one of our problems with meeting can demands; it’s that the draft demand keeps going up.”

Did Scofflaw start off fairly small in comparison to other breweries? Is that the reason you’re expanding a third time in a little over a year? The growth sounds good, but how much is the growth compared to other breweries?

Ingram: “The big picture is we think we’re in the top five in terms of rate of growth of craft brewers since 2000. It is an unusual story. Matt did a chart where the original capacity was 6500 barrels per year. It says a lot about the beer he and Travis are making but also a lot about the demand for IPAs that are done in the North East or the West Coast Style.”

Where does Scofflaw see themselves in 6-months to a year?

Ingram: “We just need to execute at the current capacity that I think we’ll have in place on March 1st. It’s going to require some construction at the brewery against the far wall where the new 50 BBL brewhouse will go. And the row of fermentation tanks the current 20 BBL brew house will be sold to another craft brewery in Georgia.”

Will you do more cans or drafts? What will you be making?

Ingram: “We are going to expand our foot print, but a lot of it will go to Atlanta. It will not incrementally grow in terms of cans, the ratio of cans to draft will probably stay the same initially. The cans disappearing from the shelves isn’t a matter of marketing strategy, but a matter of the strategy of trying to build out draft first, while not neglecting the cans.”

Are there any seasonal or one-off beers that Scofflaw plans to make year round?

Ingram: “Well here’s a good piece of news, we think we figured out how to can P.O.G. Basement. So that’s the newbie. You gotta pay attention with fruit in cans and we’ve that figured out.”

 

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