Sam Adams Beer Expanding Brewery In Cincinnati: Ohio Asked For $3 Million Grant To Clean City Site

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The Boston Beer Co. (NYSE:SAM) is planning an expansion at its inner city brewery in Cincinnati, the hometown of company founder Jim Koch. With Anheuser-Busch's merger into Europe's InBev, Boston Beer is the largest remaining American-owned brewer. About two-thirds of the company's beer production reportedly is in Cincinnati. City officials now are moving to seek financial aid from the state's Clean Ohio Fund, a voter-approved money pot that is used for brownfield redevelopment, demolition of buildings, and the clean up of environmental contamination. Boston Brewing makes Sam Adams beer, and it purchased the old Hudepohl-Schoenling brewery in 2005. Koch's grandfather apprenticed as a brew master there, and his company has been bottling and growing at the site over the past three years.

City officials said property near the brewery was slated for a $750,000 clean up, but that the remediation costs have turned out to be far more expensive than original estimates:

"This emergency ordinance authorizes the City Manager to apply for and accept a CORF (Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund) grant from the State of Ohio for up to $3 million to pay for environmental remediation to the groundwater at 1654 Central Avenue and 1660 Central Avenue. This remediation would facilitate the acquisition of these properties by the Boston Beer Company for the expansion of the Sam Adams Brewery operation in the West End."

Documents about Cincinnati's plan to seek the brewery expansion grant are available here.