Since opening in April, Jailbreak Brewing Co., of Laurel, has expanded its distribution statewide. The 200-barrel operation refreshes its offerings frequently and produces a variety of culinary inspired beer styles. Past offerings have included a black cherry porter, a basil-infused Wit beer, an India Pale Ale (IPA) with a hint of lime, carrot cake ale and even a rye-flavored ale, with cardamom and black pepper.
“Most of our product is intended to pair with food,” said co-founder Kasey Turner, explaining the brewery’s innovative interpretations.
Although Jailbreak doesn’t have its own kitchen, a rotating fleet of food trucks gives customers a continually changing choice of food.
The brewery lacks a flagship beer, but its Infinity Amber Ale, Welcome to Scoville IPA, which is flavored with jalapeno peppers and cilantro, and the crowd-pleasing Big Punisher IPA, are available on a regular basis.
Jailbreak contracts the River City Cannery from the District of Columbia to provide a mobile canning line, which the owners hope will help with expansion into local and regional markets.
“It’s hard to compete for limited tap space with kegs,” Turner said. “At the same time, demand for good quality canned beer is growing.”
Currently at maximum capacity, the brewery works with four distributors, maintains northward of 260 accounts and employs 19, including 11 full-time workers.
“Our goal is to expand our territory and keep the taproom supplied with the standard varieties and four different rotating beers each week,” Turner said, while continuing to experiment.
“We just got eight new research and development fermenters,” Turner said, which are scaled-down tanks that reduce risk by producing only a few gallons of experimental product at a time.
Jailbreak expects to add two new, full-sized fermenters and a brite tank by March, increasing capacity by 50% and putting it on track to produce 2,400 barrels per year.