Boston Beer, made in Pennsylvania

Samuel Adams beer, made in Pennsylvania.

It may sound unlikely, but The Boston Beer Co. has entered into an agreement with a subsidiary of City Brewing Co. to brew some of its beer in Latrobe, near Pittsburgh.

The companies, in a joint announcement, said they will "will immediately begin work to upgrade the brewery by purchasing equipment to allow for Samuel Adams' traditional brewing process, use of proprietary yeasts and extended aging time, and beer bottling and kegging. Brewing of Boston Beer products is expected to begin during the second quarter."

Boston Beer needed the additional manufacturing capacity to keep up with increasing demand for the Samuel Adams brand which grew by 17% last year.

"We chose the Latrobe site because it has a classic brewhouse and because of our solid partnership with City Brewing at their brewery in La Crosse, Wis., dating back to 2002," said Martin Roper, President & CEO of The Boston Beer Co.

"We continue to evaluate all our long-term brewing options," he said, "including building or buying capacity or entering further partnerships. We have retained engineering consultants to assess the feasibility, design and costs for a brewery on a site in Freetown, MA, and are in the process of obtaining preliminary bids. We remain in the due diligence phase to determine whether building a brewery on that site is feasible and will be the company's best long-term brewing option. We currently expect to complete this assessment this summer."

Samuel Adams is an independent brewery and has slightly more than 0.5% of the domestic beer market with its line of 21 flavors.

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