Recently named the Brewery Group and Brewmaster of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival, has achieved Melvin Brewing a level of success among regional beer companies. The company made a good showing at the Festival, winning awards for its flagship beer, the Hubert IPA.
Founder Jeremy Tofte has been involved in expanding the reach of the company through new breweries and brewpubs in a range of Western cities. Breweries have been proposed in Denver, San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles. The possible future locations join the existing brewpub and brewery in Bellingham, Washington.
The company is based in Alpine, Wyoming. They first started brewing on a 3-barrel system at a Thai restaurant in Jackson Hole called Thai Me Up. Outgrowing their shared space, the Alpine brewery and taproom enabled the company to surpass its original levels of production.
Currently, the brewery sends beer to Seattle, Boise, Denver, and Portland, Oregon as well as distributing widely in the state of Wyoming. They occasionally send beer to San Francisco, San Diego, New York, and Los Angeles, and they have begun looking into the regulatory issues needed to send product to Massachusetts.
Melvin’s most well-known beer is the Hubert IPA. This beer is a popular hops-forward offering. 2×4 is a double IPA which has also received a great deal of critical attention.
Melvin Brewery sets itself apart from the competition by adding hops to its beer in a special way. The company uses a “whirlpool hops” system which enables them to add hops later in the process, producing a strong flavor that does not turn to pine or grass notes.
Alpine’s production facility can handle 30 barrels at a time. This means that the company can produce plenty of beer to send to the Northwest and supply its local brewpubs.
Melvin bought its production system from British Columbia’s Newlands. The system is made especially to handle high-gravity beers. This system requires a higher cost of operations than competing breweries, but Melvin has put quality above cost in its calculations.
A new lab has been built at the Alpine facility. This enables brewmasters and quality control staff to make sure that their beer is produced at a high standard always.
In Bellingham, Washington, the company’s brewpub makes a different slate of beers. Their brewmaster spent many years in Europe, and his experience carries over to his work at Melvin.
The company plans to expand its reach to Denver with a new facility there. In Denver, they plan to start making sour beers. This category has been growing in popularity.
Each February, the brewery offers a special event called International 2×4 Day. For this celebration, the company ships beer to a wide variety of cities where it is not normally on the market. This includes international destinations like England, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Japan, and South Korea. This event has created a positive buzz among beer lovers. The wrestler Hacksaw Jim Duggan has attracted more attention to the festival.
Jeremy Tofte has a family background in the beer business. His family owned a craft beer distribution company, and he was working in distribution at the age of 16. His deep knowledge of the beer industry have helped him create a successful company with dedicated fans.
Starting small with a 3-barrel brewing system and growing to a 30-barrel system, Melvin Brewing has shown that it can compete in the increasingly crowded field of craft brewing. The company’s expansion plans mean that it will be able to spread its popularity throughout the West. Thanks to stringent quality standards, creative marketing, and a popular product, the brewery is poised for more success in the market.
