The owners of Dust Bowl Brewing Co. broke ground on their 30,000 square-foot brewery expansion during a small ceremony Wednesday.
Owners — Brett and Karen Tate and Brett and Camy Honoré — hope the $12.5 million project, located on Fulkerth Road just off Highway 99, will be completed by the end of this year.
The project began in 2013, when Dust Bowl purchased the five-acre parcel at 3000 Fulkerth Rd., on the corner of Fulkerth Road and Dianne Drive.
“We bought the open land in 2013 and have been in the planning stages ever since,” Brett Tate said in November, when Turlock Planning Commission approved the expansion. “We’ve outgrown our current facility and are poised for expanded production and distribution. The craft industry is on the rise and we’re excited to be part of the upward movement.”
The expansion will allow for much greater beer production, with an initial capacity of 17,000 barrels annually — more than triple the 5,400 barrels max at the 3100 Spengler Way location. Dust Bowl estimates to sell approximately 10,000 barrels in the first year of the new facility.
Additionally, the footprint of the location allows for growth to allow Dust Bowl to produce up to 100,000 barrels annually.
The new production levels will allow Dust Bowl to expand to all areas of California, including new regions of Southern California, Central Coast, and the South San Francisco Bay Area.
The expansion won’t only bring more beer however, it’ll also come with jobs. Dust Bowl anticipates approximately 15 to 25 new positions ranging from management to production to sales; the company currently employs 50 people.
An exterior rendering of the $12.5 million 30,000 square-foot brewery expansion expected to be completed at the end of this year.
Courtesy of Dust Bowl Brewing Co.
C.B.C. Steel Buildings. We start fabrication pretty soon. Always cool to fab a building in Turlock, especially a brewery. .
Thank you Hilmar Cheese!!!! It’s easy to build a business when you don’t have to worry about failing due to money. If there is a problem, just throw more money at it.
[b]Salaries, raw ingredients, marketing, debt service on the loan, etc…..thats a lot of beer that needs to be sold to cover costs every month. Even if they have some family money as a safety net back up, gotta admire the ambition of taking on the project. They should have a drive thru window so you can pick up a growler on the way home.[/b]
Remember the $3 million the city spent on putting artificial turf at THS? Could that money have gone into a public/private partnership to build a bowling alley? I’m sure the minority on the council brought it up, but that would have been a true RDA project, worthy of the money.