Coralville lands brewery in Iowa River Landing District

Updated by Jim Malewitz 9:01 p.m.

A McGregor brewery has announced plans to expand a 25,000-barrel-per-year operation in Coralville's Iowa River Landing district, which would make it, by far, Iowa's largest brewery.

Backpocket Brewing will open the 15,000-square-foot facility featuring a large tap room and beer garden for the public in Coralville. Backpocket currently has a brewing operation at the four-year-old Old Man River Restaurant & Brewery in McGregor.

Brewmaster Jacob Simmons said the company had been operating at excess capacity for a year and a half, and had been shipping beer to Eastern and Central Iowa. But, in tiny McGregor, there was no room for expansion, he said.

The new $5.3 million facility is expected in Summer 2012 and will be located to the west of the north parking ramp near the Coralville Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.  Simmons said the company is aiming to begin construction by the end of July.

Backpocket - which focuses on German- inspired beers - is currently available as draft only, but the new facility will allow the company to expand their product line into bottles. Simmons said the new facility will initially serve five different beers - three purely German beers, and two "hybrids."

"Germans brew beer differently from the rest of the world, and we try to follow their lead," he said.

The  "Germanness" of Backpocket's beer, he said, comes from a longer brewing process that does not include additives or preservatives.

The city of Coralville changed zoning codes to allow a brewery or brew pub in the district in April. Simmons said that change, along with area demographics and proximity to major highways made the  site a good fit.

"The city kind of shared our vision that this building could be a destination," Simmons said.

The brewery announcement is the latest of several projects  under way in the district. Construction is ongoing for a new 96-suite Homewood Suites by Hilton, a $72 million University of Iowa Hospital and Clinic's outpatient clinic, and a new parking facility with additional announcements for the 180-acre redevelopment expected in the near future.