The Fate of Spotted Cow Hangs in the Balance

Driving home this evening, I noticed that the price of gas had skyrocketed while I was at work. At my local PDQ regular unleaded gasoline was $3.19 a gallon. A similar fate could befall the price of Spotted Cow, Fat Squirrel, Belgian Red, and the other tasty brews from New Glarus Brewing. This story from yesterday's State Urinal did not bode well. The New Glarus brewery is running at capacity and wants to expand:

Deb and husband Dan Carey had purchased a hilltop site on land south of the village in anticipation of building a $19 million facility that would triple production of their popular microbrews.

The thirst for the company's beers has outstripped capacity, and the brewery, founded in 1993, is maxed out at an annual production of 40,000 barrels at its current facility in the town.

The proposed 75,000-square-foot plant on Wisconsin 69 would resemble a European village in keeping with the local Swiss theme and brew up an additional 100,000 barrels of beer a year, in addition to boosting the local economy with an estimated 50 to 60 jobs.

But the Town of New Glarus is balking at TIF money:

The main bones of contention involve details of $2 million in tax incremental financing to cover infrastructure costs, including a sewage pretreatment plant at the brewery site, and an ongoing battle over who will provide the new facility's electricity.

Now, according to a story dated today, the New Glarus town elders have a meeting which starts in about an hour and fifteen minutes during which they'll try to settle the issue. I sure hope everything goes well because comments like the following from the brewery's CEO scare the living crap outta me:

"We've been discussing this developer's agreement since January," Deb Carey said. "I've got $2 million invested in equipment, architecture and engineering and I'm at a point where I have to do something or I'm going to go under entirely."

Can you imagine the price increases if NG goes out of business for a bit? Six-packs of Hearty Hop IPA would probably jump to over $10 and the same for bottles of Belgain Red. Things need not get that dire, however. At least I hope they don't. There are other avenues available:

And Carey says they are looking at other options, including moving the brewery out of New Glarus.

"We're good friends with the guys up at Capital and I think we'd be good neighbors," said Carey.

Personally, I think that, if they move out of New Glarus, they ought to move to the far east side of Madison, namely, just down the street from me. It would form a Maginot-like Line of microbreweries to keep Budweiser out of our state. Starting with Lake Louie in Arena and moving east, you first come to Capital in Middleton. Going further east, you'd run into the Ale Asylum followed by New Glarus. Continuing, there's Tyranena before you hit the Milwaukee area where you'd find Sprecher and finally Lakefront. Gray's and Huber would be our first line of defense with The Grumpy Troll Brewpub helping out on the western flank. The various incarnations of The Great Dane and J.T. Whitney's would further solidify the bulwark in Madison.

A tough defense is needed as Anheuser-Busch is growing in strength with their recent acquisition of Rolling Rock and a large share of Goose Island Beer in Chicago.