Food+Drink

Brewing Projekt Begins Negotiating for New Space

Tom Giffey |

Image: The Eau Claire Brewing Project LLC
Image: The Eau Claire Brewing Project LLC

In less than a year, booming demand for its creative craft beers has caused The Brewing Projekt to burst at the seams. The brewery, 2000 N. Oxford Ave., is looking for a new home, and the city of Eau Claire’s Redevelopment Authority recently granted it 90 days to negotiate to buy a historic brick industrial structure at 1807 Oxford Ave. (Most recently, the building housed Silvermine Stone.) “We really can’t make any more beer. We don’t have anywhere to put beer,” explained founder William Glass, noting the brewery has a capacity of about 1,000 barrels a year and produced 400 in the last four months of 2015 alone. “We really need to get into a bigger space regardless of where we end up,” he said. “This (site) is just the carrot that’s closest to us that we want to reach out and grab.” The Brewking Projekt has brewed more than 50 different beers in the past year and has six different brews going at any given time. The brewery will now try to agree upon a purchase price with the RDA. If an agreement is reached, the deal would require state and federal approval, so the earliest the brewery could move into the new space would be late this year. Until then, you’ll be able to buy the Projekt’s products at the brewery’s current taproom and from stores throughout western Wisconsin.