PHOENIX — The sign on the building says Helton. Inside, there's an empty restaurant. Through a back door, there are steel brewing tanks, a canning line and rows of kegs.
It may be an old building now, but it's about to find new life.
"This is the future," Jon Lane said, walking up to the door of his new brewery, which is actually an old brewery. "Make it a little bit more OHSO, but not necessarily OHSO," he said, unlocking the door.
Lane is the owner of OHSO Brewing and he bought everything; the equipment, the recipes and the building.
“I would say we're ok at everything and I'm not ok with that," Lane said, sitting at a table in the Arcadia location of OHSO Brewing.
"Ok" may be an understatement. OHSO has expanded to seven locations with a distillery and two more locations on the way. And now, "Ok" has brought Lane on track to become the third-largest independent brewery in Arizona with the purchase of Helton.
Adding the brewing capacity and space that Helton had will put OHSO right behind Huss and San Tan in terms of brewing capacity.
He'll change the name, do some renovations to the former Helton building and keep the rest. It won't be an OHSO location, but Lane said it will be "powered by OHSO."
"It'll help us control our packaging. It'll help us improve our quality. It'll help us grow," Lane said.
The Arizona Craft Brewers Guild said there may be more mergers in Arizona's beer future. The pandemic era was rough, even for a business that's traditionally thought of as recession-proof.
"We're gonna see some consolidation. We're gonna see some mergers," Rob Fullmer with the Guild said. "We're gonna see some people leave the industry, but right now we are still beating the averages for businesses staying afloat after seven years.”
Lane said there's still work to be done on the Helton location, as well as installing a second canning line there. Other OHSO locations in Gilbert and Surprise are planned for 2024. Another location in North Central Phoenix is set to open later this year.
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