Wynkoop Brewing Company hopes to expand next year when the Impulse moves out

Wynkoop brewers are looking forward to more space.

Last week, Impulse Theater, which has leased basement space from the Wynkoop Brewing Company for the past seventeen years, announced plans to move to a building at 55 South Broadway, next to the under-construction Punch Bowl bowling alley and diner.

Since then, says Wynkoop spokesman Marty Jones, he and the brewers have been "walking around and drooling," imagining what they could do with the space.

"We are very much in the brainstorming stages," he says. "We have looked at it as as a place to put office space, to put barrel storage so that we can expand our barrel-aged brewing efforts. And, you know, there's also a nice stage there."

In fact, the Wynkoop could use the stage for "low-volume music," says Jones, who is himself a musician and fronts the band Marty Jones and the Great Unknowns.

But the brewery may also use the space to increase production, which has been soaring this year, in part because of its canning efforts. During the first half of 2010, the Wynkoop brewed 1,602 barrels of beer, up more than 19 percent over the same period in 2009. As a result, the Wynkoop doubled its brewery staff from three to six employees.

There is no timeline set for the Wynkoop expansion right now, however, since the brewery plans to let Impulse stay put until its new digs are ready, assuming their plan stays on course. And that might not be until the middle of next year.