Iowa Brewing Company

[Matt F]

CR considers assistance for proposed downtown brewery

A startup company is proposing a $2.75 million craft brewery at 708 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids, that would employ 16 people in brewing, fermenting, packaging and marketing craft beer and other beverages.

Iowa Brewing Company LLC is being organized by Matthew Wolf, who brings experience from the Great Divide Brewing Company of Denver. The company is planning a production brewery, which would differ from a microbrewery in having no food service on site, and focusing primarily on focusing on wholesale distribution of its products in a broader territory than a microbrewery, the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance stated in a press release.

The alliance has prepared an application for State Investment Tax Credits which will go before the Cedar Rapids City Council for consideration of local sponsorship this month. Pending approval of the application and a final decision by Iowa Brewing Company on the project, construction would begin in early 2015 and be completed in June 2015 in an existing building on Third Street.

Management estimates the present site can support as much as 50,000 barrels of annual production, the alliance stated. The company will brew many different styles and sell as many as 16 different beers in its tap room, where it will collect customer feedback. In a practice called "Artisan R&D," Iowa Brewing plans to utilize crowdsourcing by establishing a dialogue with customers.

[tony b]

Sweet!

It DOES just keep getting better, doesn't it!

[Steven P]

Eh, this is a cash sink for state funds coordinated by Monica Vernon. If they make good beer more power to em.

[Steven P]

I met the brewer Troy at Lion Bridge last week. They're going to have a tap room and a food truck. No word on the beers though.