Amana brewery keeps up with the upstarts

The craft beer industry is in the midst of an upstart brewery boom across the country. But Iowa's oldest operational craft brewery is not standing still.

“We are just planning on every couple of years needing to put in more tanks and keep capacity growing,” said Teresa Albert, part owner with her husband, Tom, and brewer Chris Priebe of Millstream Brewing Co., which opened in 1985 in Amana.

“It has been pretty exciting. We thought we would have a couple tanks put in, but the next year, we are going, ‘Oh, my gosh, we need to put even more tanks in.' ”

The brewery installed two additional tanks in 2011, two more in 2012 and three more so far this year.

More tanks allows the company to grow the brewery's storage and fermentation capacity.

The state has seen an increase in breweries, with 33 craft breweries currently open across the state, according to the national Brewers Association.

However, Albert doesn't see the influx in the craft world as competition but believes it can be helpful.

“All of these little nanobreweries have gotten people excited about beer again,” she said. “The culture is ‘buy local' again, so people are finding us again.”

And while the industry has enjoyed national and statewide growth for the past few years, some local beer experts are not fearful that interest will cease.

“I am bullish with the idea that there is room for more,” said Dave Coy, president of the Iowa Brewers Guild. “The one thing I always say to people is that breweries are tailored to a market, and there is such variety and size.

"It is like saying, can another restaurant open? There is usually room for another restaurant, so there is usually room for a brewery in any community.”