Boulevard Brewing Company will open a new visitor center this summer to accommodate high demand for tours and tastings.
Boulevard’s Jeff Krum says that while some 60,000 people toured the brewery last year, thousands more were turned away, especially on busy Saturdays in the summer.
“If you are not here and in line by 10 o’clock when we open the doors and begin to give away passes for that day’s tours, you’re out of luck because once we get to the end of that long line, all the tour passes for that day are gone,” Krum says.
Krum says the company jumped on the opportunity to buy a 1920s building at 2534 Madison that’s adjacent to the Boulevard campus. They’re renovating the first floor into a welcome center and the second floor into a 10,000 square foot beer garden.
“The tour itself will not change dramatically,” he says. “The problem that we have had is a lack of space to accommodate people at the front and back end of the tour while they’re waiting for the tour to start and then while they’re enjoying their samples at the end of the tour.”
People who want to drink more after the tour will be able to go upstairs and to order Boulevard beers by the glass as well as food, Krum says.
A grand opening is tentatively scheduled for June.
Elle Moxley is a reporter for KCUR. You can reach her on Twitter @ellemoxley.
