5280: Not-So-Micro Breweries

“Once the startups of Colorado’s craft beer community, some of the state’s most successful brands are now putting their malted barley where their mouths are, embarking on a wave of expansions at home and across the nation as the movement toward handcrafted suds drives demand skyward. Julia Herz, craft beer program director at the Boulder-based Brewers Association, hopes new and expanding breweries will help her constituency claim 20 percent of the U.S. market by 2020. “We’re only at eight percent now,” she says. Colorado’s “entrebrewneurs” ranked third in the country for production in 2013, with 1.4 million barrels. But with most of these big-name breweries expanding in-state, Colorado will soon be tapping on the door of the number two spot: We’re coming for ya, California.” Read more from 5280.