Ag, industry
expansions brewing in southwest Turlock

Southwest Turlock seeing much construction

By Nan Austin, naustin@modbee.com

 TURLOCK  —

The giant metal skeleton rising
next to an orchard on Fulkerth Road should be brewing local beer by March.
Behind the $12.5 million Dust Bowl Brewing Co. plant and tasting center, a tall
crane points to progress on the Hilmar Cheese Co. construction project, planned
since 2009, on a new strip of West Canal Drive.  Down the street on Dianne Drive, a massive
meatpacking facility has been proposed. Plans were submitted in August for a
100,000-square-foot plant and 17,000-square-foot livestock pen. The Capital
Cultivators LLC project is slated for discussion by the Turlock Planning
Commission in November. The project will need City Council approval.

Foster Farms was issued permits in
July to expand an existing hatchery on South Walnut Road and in April to build
two 7,000-ton soy silos on West Main Street near North Clinton Road.  Eight projects, large and small, are in some
phase of the planning and building pipeline within Turlock’s Turlock Regional
Industrial Park adopted in 2006. Its black-and-white vision of “an Agri-Science
Cluster” is coming to life nearly a decade later in the swath bounded by West
Fulkerth, Highway 99, West Linwood Avenue and Washington Road. “The cluster is
a center for research and development, manufacture, processing, and celebration
of agriculture and food products in the San Joaquin Valley,” summarizes the
Westside plan.

Celebratory food products are Dust
Bowl’s bread and butter. The company started in 2009 and now produces 5,500
barrels a year, many with Dust Bowl-themed names such as Hobo pilsner, Hops of
Wrath IPA and The Great Impression stock ale.  “It’s getting exciting now that you can
actually see the new brewery taking shape,” brewery founder Brett Tate said
Wednesday. “There’s so much going on behind the scenes.” The new site will have
a tasting room, restaurant and events venue. “We’ll be able to handle large
groups, unlike our downtown taproom, which will remain a more intimate
setting,” Tate said via email. “We’re all really excited about what we’ll be
offering the local community and craft beer enthusiasts.  Brett Tate, Dust Bowl Brewing Co. co-owner “The
design aesthetic is very cool and plays on our Dust Bowl heritage, and we’ll
have lots of space for indoor and outdoor dining. The interior layout will allow
our patrons to view the brewing process and packaging line,” he said, adding
the brewery will offer tours.

The 30,000-square-foot brewery
under construction will more than triple current production, brewed at the
firm’s 2,100-square-foot facility on Spengler Way.  Helping sell all that additional beer will be
a fifth distributor, Bay Area Distributing, under a contract announced in
August. The deal will extend the reach of Dust Bowl beers through Northern
California. Sales to the south will be possible with the opening of the new
facility, notes a company news release. The company is owned by Brett and Karen
Tate, and Brett and Camy Honoré.

Nan Austin: 209-578-2339,
@NanAustin

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