Oskar Blues - Colorado Premium Beers in a Can.

We’re headin’ east to open up a second brewing operation in Brevard, North Carolina, a place that has the same down-home feeling as Lyons, but in the rolling hills of Pisgah National Forest.

In typical Oskar Blues fashion, we’re gunnin’ for a December 2012 open date. In addition to the brewery, we’ll open up a restaurant/music venue just off the bike path to Bracken Mountain in the small downtown of Brevard, N.C. As is the case with our Longmont restaurant, Home Made Liquids & Solids, this new grub-spot will have soul-savin’ live music, heart-healin’ food, and craft beers from all over the country.

Why Brevard, North Carolina? Dale has left a bike in Brevard for years as he’s traveled there to ride mountain bikes and to check out his buddy’s Mountain Song Music Festival. The town rings true with the same eclectic mountain charm that inspired us to put Dale’s Pale Ale in a can back in the day in Lyons, CO. Brevard & Lyons share a small town main street tone mingled with live music and an energy emerging from the surrounding hills.

Why East? Aside from the burgeoning craft beer scene east of the Rocky Mountains, we sell over 35 percent of our beer east of the big muddy river, making for a great opportunity to look into a location in that area. We secured a contract on a 30,000 square foot brewery space, along with a 6,000 square foot restaurant/music venue location. When we looked at our options for growing the brewery to the next level, the idea of opening another small, intimate restaurant and brewery on a grassroots level sounded like a lot more fun. With that much beer traveling east of the Mississippi it allows us to invest in another small town that shares our passion and recoup the investment as we contribute to the community and streamline our shipping costs.

We try our best to keep that hands-on feel with small Colorado projects like our Hops & Heifers Farm that provides homegrown beef, pork and vegetables to our restaurants, and handmade mountain bikes with REEB Cycles. Dale reminds us that it’s important to keep the trail-side camaraderie amongst each other and the community.