(Longmont, CO) – BeerPulse briefly caught up with Oskar Blues Brewery Marketing Director, Chad Melis, while out in San Diego. Yes, getting these interviews up on the site takes longer than it should…

On the addition of a new facility in Brevard, NC:

It didn’t come together as ‘strategic plan,’ says Melis, though he notes that the brewery is running out of space at its primary facility in Colorado. So what is the Brevard connection?

Owner, Dale Katechis, is good friends with John Felty of a Brevard-based band called Jupiter Coyote. He also runs a music festival. Katechis visits him in Brevard a lot and goes biking there as well. Says Melis, “It is also a craft-savvy area so between music, bikes and beer, it is pretty much in our sweet spot.” Brevard reminds them a lot of home.

On the Longmont facility:

Despite the addition of Brevard, Melis says the company is still looking for space in Colorado, even if it is just a warehouse for storage. They are running at full capacity right now and plan to add eight more fermenters in addition to the six 200-barrel fermenters that they installed within the past six months.

Deviant Dale’s sold a lot faster than they expected. Dale’s Pale Ale and Mama’s Little Yella Pils are seeing solid growth. No plans to launch any more new year-round beers at the moment. Note: Oskar Blues G’Knight Imperial Red IPA has been approved for 16 oz. cans since the interview took place.

On the possibility of new markets:

Once the new tanks and Brevard all come online, Melis says it “opens the door” for them to look at new markets for the first time in three years. Chicago is a market that reaches out to them a lot and makes sense for them where they distribute to Wisconsin already. Katechis also has connections to Alabama. Those are two they would potentially look at first though Melis says they don’t have the capacity to do so yet.

On the possibility of a Foo Fighters collaboration:

They did approach the Foo Fighters for a collaboration but nothing has come of it yet. The band played a concert at Oskar Blues’ brewpub in Lyons a while back and they were cool guys to hang out with. Chris Katechis will be at Hangout Fest in Alabama [ed. note: actually happened last weekend] and plans to get some beer down to them. Melis’ idea was to get Dave Grohl involved with the tenth anniversary of Dale’s Pale Ale. With the word, “Foo,” and Dale’s sense of humor, Melis thinks they could come up with some cool branding for it.