and Greenwood Village keg management provider MicroStar are teaming up to create Iron Monkey Kegging, which will provide wine kegging for wineries and distributors.
The new company, based out of Infinite Monkey Theorem’s winery in the River North Arts District, will keg wines under . The new law eliminates the need to ship heavy kegs or cases of wine across the country for distribution.
The law was spurred by Infinite Monkey Theorem founder Ben Parsons and his new company, , which aims to become a national leader in wine kegging. Parsons hopes wineries around the country will begin sending him bulk containers of their wine for kegging and local distribution.
MicroStar, the world’s largest keg distribution company, is providing a fleet of new kegs built specifically for wine and will handle distribution.
“Consumers and retailers are looking for innovation from the wine industry and wineries are looking for high quality, eco-friendly, and economical ways to deliver their wine to the market,” Parsons said. “Wine in kegs is the perfect way to meet these needs. By partnering with MicroStar, we and our wine customers will benefit from the keg logistics expertise MicroStar has developed over 20 years.”
MicroStar chief Michael Hranicka called the launch of the wine kegging operation a “milestone for both of our companies.”
“Ben and the team at IMT are pioneers focused on what’s important to wine consumers today,” Hranicka said.
Napa, Calif.-based Free Flow Wines kegs and distributes 450 wines and says since its inception in 2009 it has saved more than 2.6 million wine bottles from U.S. landfills.
Parsons pushed the kegging law by elevating that environmental friendliness, arguing that shipping bulk containers of wine is an affordable, cleaner alternative to shipping cases of wine or empty kegs back to wineries. And kegged wine stays fresh glass after glass, Parsons said.
“We are super excited about the whole concept and right now wine on tap is a massive growth market. We are really bullish on the whole idea,” Parsons said. “We could end up needing a new facility and we definitely will need to hire new people. We will see where this goes. Hopefully the sky is the limit.”
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374, jblevins@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jasonblevins
