Craft canned beer pioneers Oskar Blues Brewery led the aluminum revolution in 2002, so it’s no surprise that the Colorado-based brewery’s flagship release, Dale’s Pale Ale, finished 2016 as the nation’s top-selling craft can six-pack at U.S. supermarkets, according to market research firm IRI Worldwide.
That feat capped a year in which Oskar Blues shipped more than 200,000 barrels of beer, bolstered by the expansion of its production facility in Brevard, North Carolina, and the addition of a new brewery in Austin, Texas.
Across its three locations, Oskar Blues now has the ability to brew upwards of 500,000 barrels of beer annually, the company said in a year end review.
Collectively, Oskar Blues Holdings’ family of breweries — Cigar City, Perrin Brewing, Wasatch and Squatters — produced nearly 350,000 barrels of beer in 2016. Six-packs of Jai Alai IPA, made by Cigar City, was the second-best selling six-pack of canned craft beer in 2016, the company said.
Among other highlights noted in the release, Oskar Blues said it added new distribution in Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana as it filled out a 50-state distribution footprint in 2016.
Meanwhile, the company also started exporting its beer to Australia, the Netherlands and Belgium, and the brewery’s products are now being sold in nine international markets. The company expects to continue adding international markets in 2017 and will soon add distribution in Brazil and Japan.
The Colorado-born craft brewery also expanded its barrel-aging program last year, which led to national distribution of Barrel-aged Ten Fidy Imperial Stout in 19.2 oz. single-serve cans. For its taproom crowd, the brewery released rum barrel-aged versions of Death by Coconut and Ten Fidy as well as a Java Ten Fidy. Oskar Blues also released the first American craft beer 16-pack with Pinner Throwback IPA.
Two new year-round beers — Beerito Amber Mexican Lager and Priscilla White Wit Wheat — were also introduced, and the company launched limited-release cans of Passion Fruit Pinner IPA and Hotbox Coffee Porter.
Other highlights from Oskar Blues in 2016 included:
- Crowlers, the 32 oz. to-go cans, were made available in more than 1,000 locations.
- The company launched four new flavors of B. StiFF & Sons Old Fashioned Soda Pop as well as a brick-and-mortar location of Oskar Blues Fooderies’ CHUBurger/Hotbox Roasters Café in Denver’s River North District.
- And the company’s nonprofit charitable organization, CAN’d Aid Foundation, raised $768,000, built and donated about 600 bikes to underprivileged children, donated 330,000 cans of drinking water to places like Flint, Michigan, during its water crisis and other good deeds.