(Albuquerque, NM) – With the co-founder of one of the largest craft brewers in the country on The Brewing Network Sunday Session you would think the big news of the night would have come from Ninkasi Brewing’s Jamie Floyd…but it did not.

It came from New Mexico-based La Cumbre Brewing Founder and Master Brewer, Jeff Erway. Erway announced that he has put a down payment on a canning line from Wild Goose Engineering, one that will allow La Cumbre to produce 32 16-oz. cans a minute.

And what will be going into the cans?

La Cumbre Elevated IPA. The beer that beat 175 others in the American IPA category to take a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival. Erway shared this tidbit in a RateBeer post on Sunday night but didn’t specify what other beers would go into cans, if any. Notably, La Cumbre also took a gold for its Pilsener and a silver for its foreign-style stout.

On a side note, the beer that came second to Elevated IPA is Oskar Blues Deviant Dale’s Pale Ale, which will be released in 16 oz. cans next month.

Erway offered some other interesting info on the broadcast…

– Has draft 34 accounts and 67 taps

– Just put a down payment on 2 60-barrel fermenters and a 60-barrel brite tank

– On that note, he wrote on his blog in late September, “We are now at a point where our capacity is in excess of 3,000 bbls./year and that feels pretty good. We are on track to brew over 1,600 bbls in our first year out […]”

– Is now selling ~30 barrels a week at its taproom (which translates to 1,500 barrels a year – brewery is at a 40/60 split in taproom/distribution sales respectively)

– The brewery is contracted for Simcoe hops through 2015

– Says you “need to have (Simcoe) in your dry hop or you ain’t gonna win s%^&”

– Cost of goods sold for that award-winning IPA is $98 per barrel (even with Erway using hop extract versus whole cone hops or pellets)