Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. could make a decision in early 2012 about opening an East Coast brewery, and Virginia remains in the running for the site, a spokesman for the company said this week.
The Chico, Calif.-based maker of craft beers confirmed this year that it was scouting sites for an East Coast brewery and was considering Virginia.
"We still have a handful of sites that we are looking at, some in Virginia and some in North Carolina and a couple of other places," said company spokesman Bill Manley, adding that he could not identify specific sites.
If Virginia is selected, the brewery most likely would be built in the western half of Virginia, Manley said. He said the company has been looking at sites of about 50 acres with nearby rail access.
"We wanted to find a spot for an additional brewery that would at least be reminiscent of the culture we have here in Chico, at the foothills of the mountains," Manley said. "The parts of Virginia we have been looking at are mostly in the western half of the state."
The company's only brewery in Chico will be at capacity within a few years, Manley said. Sierra Nevada makes about 850,000 barrels of beer a year now, and the company wants to open a brewery that would have the capacity to make about 300,000 barrels.
An operation that size could employ 100 to 125 people, including a shop and restaurant the company is considering opening along with the brewery.
"We sell beer in all 50 states," Manley said. "It is both expensive and rough on our carbon footprint to be shipping beer to the Eastern Seaboard."
Founded in 1980, Sierra Nevada is one of the largest craft beer makers but has less than 1 percent of the U.S. beer market, which is dominated by companies such as Anheuser Busch InBev, the maker of Budweiser, and MillerCoors LLC, the maker of Miller and Coors.
More than 1,700 craft breweries in the U.S. have seen rising sales in recent years. Craft beer sales rose 11 percent by volume and 12 percent by dollars in 2010, compared with growth in 2009 of 7.2 percent by volume and 10.3 percent by dollars, according to the Brewers Association, an industry trade group.
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