(Los Angeles, CA) – Golden Road Brewing appears to be poised to do what no other craft brewery has ever done (only one other brewery has done): produce 8,000 barrels of beer in its first calendar year.
Founder, Meg Gill, recently said at the Firestone Walker Brewers Invitational, “We’re looking at potentially being the top ‘by volume’ startup in craft beer history but we still have a few months before we talk about those numbers.”
Well, a few months came quick quickly.
The L.A. Times just reported…
Golden Road is already the biggest craft brewery in Los Angeles County and among the fastest-growing start-ups in craft beer history. It is on track to produce 8,000 barrels annually and has begun canning its beer (a rare accomplishment in the world of craft beer). In less than a year, Gill has secured 400 draft accounts in L.A. and more than 1,500 retail accounts including Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods.
The article is a bit vague as to whether those 8,000 barrels will come this year though one can probably put two and two together.
Mother’s Brewing, out of Missouri, claimed to have the biggest startup launch of 2011 when it produced 2,331 barrels, according to The Brewers Association. But was it really?
Baxter Brewing President, Luke Livingston, told BeerPulse in January that the company produced just over 5,000 barrels in 2011, its first year (not a full year but enough of one to qualify it as the company’s “rookie” year for all intents and purposes). It is worth noting that Baxter produced that volume out of the other “LA”, Lewiston/Auburn in Maine, with a combined population under 100,000 people. Baxter distributes its beers throughout the state of Maine and launched in Massachusetts this past September.
The Brewers Association, however, did not publish the production numbers for Baxter Brewing.
Meanwhile, Golden Road’s sales have come primarily in the Los Angeles market, with a population of 3.8 million people, though that shouldn’t take away from the historic feat that the company is in the midst of accomplishing.
Golden Road is slowly rolling out distribution outside of its local area, having just announced expanded distribution to North County San Diego.
400 accounts my ass. No way that’s an accurate statement. I count three handles on the west side of LA……tops.
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