Region’s many beer makers are brewing profits, growth plans

If Colorado is to beer what California is to wine, then Northern Colorado is the heart of craft brewing country.

Why else do you think they call it the “Napa Valley” of beer?

Colorado was named the nation’s top beer-producing state by the Washington, D.C.-based beer institute in 2007, but the local brewers’ philosophy and imprint on the community extend far beyond production numbers.

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Local breweries routinely bring home medals from the Great American Beer Festival, held annually in Denver and heralded as the largest beer festival in the nation.

The region’s breweries and brew pubs range from giant Anheuser-Busch Inbev to startup Pateros Creek, with brews named after some of Northern Colorado’s most-recognized attributes, such as its Cache la Porter, named after the Cache la Poudre River.

The notoriety (and, it’s assumed, acclaim) of Northern Colorado brewers is only expected to grow, thanks in part to the expansion plans announced in the spring of 2012 by Fort Collins-based New Belgium Brewing.

The company said it was building a new brewery in Asheville, N.C., a $175 million facility that will be just the second brewery for the nation’s third-largest craft brewer.

The beer business is about more than imbibing, of course.

A study by Colorado State University showed that in 2010, local brewers contributed $263.1 million in total output to the economy, plus another $178.1 million in value-added activities, while supporting 2,488 jobs.

The average compensation for these jobs is $57,000.