Colorado Microbreweries Reach Capacity

(NewsCore) - DENVER – Americans may be cutting back spending on some things, but apparently craft beer from Colorado isn't one of them, The Denver Post reported Saturday.

Several microbreweries have had to suspend out-of-state shipments because demand has outpaced their supplies.

Denver-based Great Divide Brewing Co. announced that, come May 1, it will stop distributing to Michigan, Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, southern Virginia and Washington, DC. At the end of 2010, it had stopped shipping to Alaska, New Mexico, Kentucky and parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, and Minnesota. It still sells in 15 other states.

Two Longmont brewers, Oskar Blues Brewery and Left Hand Brewing, have also both stopped shipping out of state. Oskar Blues has quadrupled its brewing capacity in the past four years but has not been able to keep up with demand out of state. The company said it is focusing on keeping its core market, Colorado.

Colorado's craft beer-makers have always expected growth, but the recent jump has exceeded expectations. According to the Boulder-based Brewers Association, craft brew sales jumped 12 percent while total US beer sales declined by one percent.

That demand is outpacing supply is bittersweet. On the one hand, scarce products sometimes carry extra cachet, on the other, it can frustrate customers

New Belgium, the largest of Colorado's craft brewers, has learned over the years how to match supply with demand. It hasn't withdrawn from any markets since 1996, when it had to suddenly suspend shipments to Minnesota after sales of the popular Fat Tire spiked in metro Denver.

Read more: Denver Post