Whitehorse's Winterlong Brewing beer now available by the bottle

Yukon's fledgling brewery has taken a big step, now offering its liquid gold by the bottle.

"We've been flat out making as much beer as we can," says Marko Marjanovic of Winterlong Brewing Co.

He and his wife Meghan opened shop six months ago, selling beer by the growler fromtheir nano-brewery in Mount Sima, a subdivision 15 minutes from downtown Whitehorse.

The refillable bottles sold so well, the couplehad to shut down for a couple of weeks at one pointso they could brew more beer.

Having overcome that hurdle, they're nowordering bottle caps by the pallet.

"I've never seen so many in my life," saidMarjanovic about receiving 100,000 bottle caps the minimum order.

The couplehave shipping containers to store all of their newly-acquiredbottles.

The move to bottling will allow the couple to get their beer out to a wider range of people, but in what is perhaps a mark of their passion, the Marjanovics chose not tobottle their most popular sellers.

Instead, they're "filling niches of styles that don't exist" and offering some oftheir personal favourites: two India Pale Ales, a pale ale and a smoked stout. The beer is available through the Yukon Liquor Corporation and at some restaurants and bars in Whitehorse.

"Reception was really quick," says Marjanovic.

The Whitehorse Liquor Store sold 300 of the650 mlbottles in the first two days.