Mother's outpaces brewery startups nationwide

Last edited 1:23 p.m., May 30, 2012

With 2,331 barrels of beer sold last year, Springfield-based Mother's Brewing Co. outpaced other startup microbreweries that opened nationwide in 2011, according to the Brewers Association's annual industry review published in the May/June issue of its publication, The New Brewer.

The Brewers Association defines microbreweries as establishments that sell less than 15,000 barrels of beer per year with 75 percent or more of its beer sold off-site. The association also defines a barrel as 31 gallons, meaning Mother's Brewing sold about 72,261 gallons of beer last year.

Mother's was among roughly 250 craft breweries to open in 2011, and six others were in Missouri:

• St. Louis-based Urban Chestnut Brewing Co., 1,700 barrels sold;
• St. Louis-based Perennial Artisan Ales, 183 barrels sold;
• Bucyrus-based Piney River Brewing Co., 116 barrels sold;
• St. Louis-based Civil Life Brewing Co., 40 barrels sold;
• Cottleville-based Exit 6 Brewery, 35 barrels sold; and
• St. Louis-based 4 Hands Brewing Co., seven barrels sold.

First-year breweries in other states that rivaled Mother's were:

• Illinois-based Finch's Beer Co., 2,200 barrels sold;
• Washington-based American Brewing Co., 1,538 barrels sold;
• California-based Golden Road Brewing, 1,500 barrels sold;
• Washington-based Icicle Brewing Co., 1,059 barrels sold; and
• Texas-based Austin Beerworks, 1,051 barrels sold.

Mother's, 215 S. Grant Ave., started pouring beer on tap in May 2011 and began supplying beer at Wal-Mart stores through distributor Heart of America in August. Mother's sells its beers in Springfield, Joplin, Branson, Poplar Bluff, Cape Girardeau and Kansas City, according to a news release.

“We try to communicate love in everything we do and that has really resonated with the community. People want to root for their brewery like they want to root for their sports team," Mother's owner Jeff Schrag said in the release. He declined to disclose first-year revenues.