John McDonald of Boulevard Brewing Co.

(Press Release)

KANSAS CITY—In an agreement signed earlier this week, principals of Boulevard Brewing Co. and Duvel Moortgat approved the combination of their US businesses. Boulevard, one of the largest craft brewers in the Midwest, and Duvel Moortgat, an independent craft brewer based in Belgium, will join forces to better promote the continued growth and success of their widely respected brands.

A family-owned business spanning four generations, Duvel Moortgat produces premium beers including Duvel, Chouffe, and Liefmans at several breweries in Belgium. Duvel Moortgat’s US activities include a specialty beer import company and Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, NY. The Moortgat family will maintain their existing ownership structure in Europe, while John McDonald, founder of Boulevard Brewing Company, will be an important partner in the new US-based company. By uniting with Duvel Moortgat, Boulevard secures the resources to embark on a significant expansion of its Kansas City facilities, and gains the depth and experience of the 142-year-old firm to help extend its strong regional presence throughout the U.S. and Europe.

“Since I started Boulevard in 1989, the company’s long-term future has always been top of mind,” said founder and president John McDonald. “I wanted to find a way to take the business to the next level while retaining its essence, its people, its personality—all the characteristics that make our beer and our brewery so important to Kansas City and the Midwest. Duvel Moortgat’s commitment to quality and independence, and their proven record helping breweries fulfill their potential, made this a perfect fit and an easy decision.”

Read a 2012 interview with Boulevard president John McDonald

“Our path for growth became abundantly clear as I got to know John and Boulevard,” said Michel Moortgat, CEO of Duvel Moortgat. “Our companies share the same values. We have great mutual respect for each other’s achievements and maintain a deeply-held belief in exceptional quality as the platform for long-term success.  Even as recently as this week I was happy to learn that both Boulevard and Brewery Ommegang won 3 medals at the prestigious Great American Beer Fest. Together, with our combined strengths and our mutual obsession for outstanding beers, I’m convinced that one plus one equals three.”

McDonald intends to remain closely involved with Boulevard in Kansas City, where the base of operations will remain. He will be intimately involved in Duvel Moortgat’s activities in the US,  with a stake in the combined company and a seat on its board. Boulevard will maintain its leading role on sustainability initiatives, including support for Ripple Glass, the glass recycling company founded by McDonald and other brewery principals in 2009.

The transaction between the two privately-held companies is expected to close by the end of the year; no financial details will be disclosed. First Beverage Group acted as advisor to Boulevard. Further information will be released as it becomes available.

Read a story about foreign-born brewers in America, including Boulevard Brewing Co.’s Steven Pauwels

ST. LOUIS—O’Fallon Brewery, brewers of 5-Day IPA and other award-winning craft beers, is celebrating National IPA Day today with the launch of 10-Day IPA, the craft brewer’s first Imperial IPA (India Pale Ale).

10-Day IPA is big, bold Imperial IPA brewed with a ridiculous amount of hops.  O’Fallon Brewmaster, Brian Owens started with two-row barley, caramel and honey malt and white wheat.  He then added Magnum, Centennial, Chinook, Cascade and Calypso hops – over three pounds of hops per barrel!

The result is a very hop forward beer, but 10-Day also has a sturdy malt backbone which balances the beer.  The malt also gives 10-Day IPA a subtle caramel sweetness and a hint of honey both which help balance hop bitterness.  Once the beer was finished Owens added even more Centennial, Chinook and Calypso hops (a process called “dry hopping”) to give the beer a huge citrusy, piney aroma which has become the signature of American Imperial IPAs.

“We’ve brewed many beers we’re proud of since I joined the O’Fallon Brewery 13 years ago, but 10-Day IPA is a true labor of love for me,” said Owens.  “Most brewmasters don’t admit to having a favorite style of beer, but I love huge Imperial IPAs, and I’ve wanted to create 10-Day for some time.  This is a limited run as part of our ‘Brewer’s Stash’ series, so I encourage anyone who’s a fan of big, hoppy beers to get their hands on some 10-Day IPA before it’s gone.”

10-Day IPA is 9.0 percent alcohol by volume, 75 IBUs and will be priced similarly to other specialty craft beers.  The beer will be available September through December when it will be replaced with the next beer in the “Brewer’s Stash” series.

10-Day IPA will be available at grocery stores and liquor stores throughout Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin and will be supported with sign-making and point-of-sale materials.

O’Fallon Brewery is also introducing its award-winning O’Fallon Pumpkin Beer in cans for the first time.  Beginning in August the beer will be available in six-packs of 12-oz. cans as well as six-packs and 12-packs (12 oz. bottles) and on draught.  O’Fallon Pumpkin was the first pumpkin beer available in St. Louis and one of the first pumpkin beers in the country when first introduced in 2003.

O’Fallon Brewery is a small craft brewery located in St. Charles County just northwest of St. Louis, Missouri.  The company began brewing and selling beer in 2000, beginning with its flagship, O’Fallon Gold.  Today O’Fallon brews O’Fallon Gold, 5-Day IPA, Hemp Hop Rye, Wheach and Smoked Porter which won a Gold Medal at the 2004 Great American Beer Festival.  The brewery also brews seasonal beers including Kite Tail Summer Ale; O’Fallon Pumpkin Beer, O’Fallon Cherry Chocolate and Cocoa Latte Stout.  O’Fallon occasionally brews specialty beers such as Belgian Dark Strong (BDS) which was aged in white oak Port barrels for more than a year and its “Brewer’s Stash” series.

Visit www.ofallonbrewery.com; www.facebook.com/ofallonbrewery or Twitter: @ofallonbrewery

On the island of Nantucket in Massachusetts, Cisco Brewers, Nantucket Vineyard and Triple Eight Distillery live in harmony and serve libations that can please any kind of drinker, any kind of taste.

Stand for just a moment with your back to the large white event tent and soak in the scene. Directly in front of you is the winery and its tasting room. To your left is the distillery, where aging barrels hold copper-colored liquid and other spirits. Across the stone plaza and to your right is the brewery itself and its pale ales, sour brews and one-off concoctions that delight the palate. All of this is in just one location on the island of Nantucket in Massachusetts, in what CEO Jay Harman calls “Boozney Land.”

It’s where Nantucket Vineyard, Triple Eight Distillery and Cisco Brewers live in harmony and serve libations that can please any kind of drinker, any kind of taste. It’s a triple threat, a hat trick, and becoming more common around the United States.

The wine boom of the 1970s and 1980s led into the craft beer revolution that began in the decades after and continues today. Now artisanal distilleries are  gaining momentum. Most beverage entrepreneurs have long been content with running one business, but there are a growing number of breweries—including Rogue Ales, Dogfish Head, Samuel Adams, New Holland and others—that are adding distilling to their operations. There are wineries linked to breweries, including Wagner Valley in New York, Old North State in North Carolina, Corcoran Vineyards in Virginia and Firestone Walker in California.

Only a handful of companies, however, try all three.

Pick Your Poison

“You have to be a little crazy,” says Bryan Siddle, director of operations at Missouri’s Crown Valley, when asked why he would chose to run a winery, brewery and distillery. All three play a part in a tourist destination crafted by Siddle, south of St. Louis in Ste. Genevieve. In addition to the libation-making facilities, there are  lodging, a restaurant, cattle and buffalo farms, a golf course, soda-making facilities and—wait for it—a tiger sanctuary.

“The hardest part is that is different. I have three bottling lines for three different products. Then there is the marketability, the production and making sure each is made consistently,” Siddle says. “It’s not easy.”

So why do it? “Well, wine is out of style, craft beer is hotter than Hades, and craft distillers are getting hot,” he says. Siddle is trying to have something that appeals to everyone, to entice people to visit Crown Valley and then stick around for a while afterward. He hits all the demographics with what he offers, but admits there are people who come to the brewery who don’t visit the winery and vice versa.

“You get so many types of personalities that for us, with agritourism, it makes sense to have many different beverage operations,” he says. The winery was conceived in 2000 and opened two years later. Three years after that, he opened a sparkling wine facility. Noticing the trend (and because of his own fondness for beer—his grandfather was a brewer at Stag in Illinois), in 2007 he converted an old schoolhouse into a brewery. Then, for good measure, “I said, Why not just do some spirits?”