Fat Head’s Brewery is ready to expand its empire.
The award-winning brewery says it will build and relocate to a new 125,000-square-foot production facility on eight acres along Interstate 71 in Middleburg Heights.
The new facility will feature a … take a deep breath here …
• 70-barrel custom-built BrauKon brewing system to keep up with distribution.
• Full-service, 250-seat restaurant serving the same menu as its brewpubs.
• 15-barrel brewing system to feed beer to the brewpub.
• 3,000-square-foot beer garden.
• Open fermentation room.
• Quality control laboratory.
• Gift shop.
• Yeast propagation room.
• Fermenters housed outdoors.
• Long corridor allowing visitors to take a self-guided tour of the brewing process.
And that’s not even counting the bottling and canning lines, and other equipment.
The centerpiece will be the brewing system, which will sit inside the dining hall.
“You’ll be eating and drinking and guys will be up there physically working in this brewery,” co-owner and brewmaster Matt Cole said. “It will be a pretty colossal setting.
“It gives us a lot more opportunity to do what we do: focus on world-class beer and serving value-oriented food to families,” he added.
The production brewery is now on Sheldon Road in Middleburg Heights, so the relocation amounts to a move around the corner. (The brewpub in North Olmsted is staying put.)
The plan is that the brewery will be producing beer before the end of next year. Fat Head’s also wants to see the restaurant operating next year, with the worst-case scenario being early 2018, Cole said.
He estimated the overall project at $20 million to $22 million.
The brewery — known for hop-forward brews such as Head Hunter and Hop JuJu — has no more room to grow at its current site inside an industrial park. It’s also hampered there by limited parking, and zoning prevents a full-service kitchen.
The new location is alongside I-71 near Bagley Road and Fat Head’s will take advantage of the high visibility with signage that highway motorists will be able to see.
The new facility also will allow Fat Head’s to double its production over the next five years. It currently produces less than 30,000 barrels a year, and Cole expects that to grow to 60,000.
“We’re just going to keep growing organically and strategically while we focus on quality,” Cole said.
He added that he has no ultimate goal to distribute nationwide.
“We don’t have to start blasting our beer and put it in every state,” Cole said. “We want to be a strong regional player and not a national player. I don’t see us as a national player. You need to be really strong in your backyard.”
Fat Head’s began as a restaurant in Pittsburgh. It opened a brewpub in 2009 in North Olmsted and later added a production brewery in Middleburg Heights and brewpub in Portland., Ore. It also recently announced plans to add brewpubs in suburban Canton and Charlotte, N.C.
Millersburg news
Millersburg Brewing Co. has added a canning line.
That’s good news for Millersburg fans because the brewery — which took home a gold medal at this year’s Great American Beer Festival for its barrel-aged Doc’s Scotch Ale — will start releasing more of its brands in cans.
First up is Panther Hollow Vanilla Porter, which should be in stores around Ohio next week.
Millersburg, located in the heart of Ohio’s Amish country, has been using a mobile canning company to can its French Ridge IPA and Lot 21 Blonde for more than two years.
“We just got to the point where we needed to can on our schedule and the volume was so large,” brewer Marty Lindon said.
The line turns out 84 cases an hour. It’s located in a building behind the brewery. Lindon declined to say how much the brewery invested.
Millersburg hopes to release a new brand in cans each quarter. It’s still up in the air what’s coming after Panther Hollow.
Monumental reminder
Hoppin’ Frog Brewery, 1680 E. Waterloo Road, Akron, will release Gavel Slammer Monumental Dark Ale, a 17.4 percent brew, starting at 10 a.m. Friday.
Gavel Slammer will be sold on draft and in 22-ounce bottles exclusively at the brewery, which will open at 10 a.m. Friday and Saturday and serve chicken and waffles to go along with the beer.
The beer pays tribute to House Bill 37, which was approved earlier this year and allowed Ohio brewers to start producing beer at more than 12 percent alcohol by volume. A 22-ounce bottle will sell for $15.99.
Only 1,500 bottles were made, and there is a three-bottle limit per person.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his beer blog at Ohio.com/beer. Follow him on Twitter at @armonrickABJ .