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Nano no more: West Chester brewery expanding

June 2, 2016  |  DogBerry Brewery
DogBerry Brewery

Journal News

A West Chester nanobrewery is ditching the "nano" prefix as it moves to a new facility that will allow it to increase production by tenfold.

DogBerry Brewery is moving from its original location at 7865 Cincinnati Dayton Road to a larger 4,740-square-foot facility at 9964 Crescent Park Drive. That will give it double the footprint it currently has and 10 times the capacity.

"We're on a one-barrel system now, so any jump is big," DogBerry co-founder Tony Meyer joked. "We couldn't keep up. Essentially, we're wiping out what we could produce during the week each weekend, and we don't do any advertising."

The expansion in capacity will allow DogBerry to extend its open hours – possibly from the current Thursday through Sunday to Tuesday through Sunday – and distribute kegs more widely around Cincinnati. The brewery has previously distributed kegs to the Growler House in Walnut Hills and a few different restaurants, but nothing on a consistent basis, Meyer said.

Co-founder Chris Frede told me the goal is to get off-site keg sales up to 20 percent of the brewery's business with the hope of that beer encouraging people to visit the brewery. With the new facility's proximity to Main Event and Top Golf in West Chester, he hopes people who consume their beer at places like that will make the trip out to the brewery.

Meyer and Frede looked at a number of locations before settling on the Crescent Park facility. They had a few criteria in mind: it had to be larger, but not too large, and it had to be in West Chester. Size was important because despite the increase in capacity DogBerry's owners want it to keep the nanobrewery feel.

DogBerry isn't designed to be a late-night party spot. It's more of a place to stop by after work or in the evening to have beers with friends and neighbors. There's no real marketing. They just take a photo of the blackboard that lists what's on tap each day they're open and post that to social media. The owners are trying to keep the same look and feel when they move into the new space.

"If we see a display or a piece of artwork or a souvenir we like, we put it in here," Frede said. "It's kind of like someone's basement or man cave where there's interesting things to talk about and it's got that DIY feel like you put your hands on something and made it yours."

The new brewery will have space to seat about 150 people. The owners hope to be open by Jan. 8, 2017 – the brewery's two-year anniversary.

 

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