Bohemian announces its expansion, two new products, and awards
by Jacob Hodgen
Over the last few months, the industrious gentlemen at the Bohemian Brewery in Midvale have been very busy. You might think that coordinating a massive expansion that has helped allow them to nearly double their barrel per year output would be sufficient, but this family owned enterprise still has few tricks up its sleeve.
Though they have been brewing their award winning Cherny Bock for years now, thirsty Utahns have been discontent with only being able to find it on tap. Bohemian’s answer is to launch Cherny Bock in cans, and this month over 55,000 will ship from their Midvale brewery to locations around the region, and even as far as South Carolina.
Pete Petras is the son of Bohemian owner Joe Petras. He maintains an active role in the growing family business, and he is an evangelist of aluminum cans, which Bohemian has exclusively adopted instead of bottles.
“Cans are much more environmentally friendly,” Pete says. “People are much more likely to recycle them. They weigh a fraction of what bottles do empty, and so the carbon footprint of just getting the package to the brewery is significantly lower. Plus they chill quicker and block out 100% of all light. There really is no comparison.”
Pete took Utah Stories on a tour of their newly expanded facilities and showed us the canning process. He says that massive canning machines used to be impossible for smaller, craft breweries to be able to afford or find space for, but recent advances in technology have simplified the process
“Other breweries use bottles,” Pete tells us, “because they can buy up a bunch of bottles and then just slap on whatever label they want. They do it because it’s easy. Buying cans requires commitment, and that’s what we are all about.”
Pete tells us that they have also been promoting the use of refillable glass growlers. “There’s no better way to go green than to take your growler down to your local brewery for a refill of your favorite hand crafted beer.”
Bohemian has also just launched a new holiday beer entitled Pumpkin Patch. And before we could conjure up memories of the ghosts of bad pumpkin ales from our Christmas pasts, Pete reminds us that at Bohemian, it’s all lagers all the time.
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