Free State bottling line up and running

At 8 a.m. yesterday, the Free State Brewing Company had trucks coming and going from three loading docks at its new bottling facility, as the Lawrence brewery moves closer to bringing bottles to the market.

“It’s enough of us looking at it. We’re ready to have somebody else see it,” says Free State owner Chuck Magerl. 

Free State has been at this moment. Bottles were ready to ship in October of 2008, before a massive fire ripped through the original bottling line causing more than $1 million in damage and 18 months of delay.

Now, Magerl says, “We’re excited about a boring day on the bottling line.”

He still doesn’t have an exact timeline for when bottled beer will be on store shelves, although he’s confident the product will be in Kansas City by this summer.