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Cincinnati: Boston Beer Co. has just announced that it is curtailing a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week production schedule at its West End Samuel Adams Brewery in order to address issues that have forced the company, on occasion, to discard beer that didn't meet its quality standards.

The nonstop schedule has been prompted, in part, by double-digit increases in wholesale deliveries of Sam Adams beer for six straight quarters. The company reported a 16 percent increase in that key sales measure Tuesday in reporting its second-quarter results.

Chairman Jim Koch said during a conference call that the recent ramp-up of Sam Adams beer production at the former Rolling Rock brewery in Latrobe, Pa., has given it more flexibility to address issues in Cincinnati.

The West End brewery, which underwent a major expansion and upgrade several years ago, has been running nonstop all summer, company spokeswoman Michelle Sullivan notes.

Boston Beer had said this year that it would brew some of its beer in Latrobe. It's investing in upgrades there and possibly will take an equity stake in the brewery as part of that deal. The Latrobe brewery is now owned by LaCrosse, WI-based City Brewery. Boston Beer has produced limited amounts of Sam Adams in LaCrosse.

Boston Beer last week agreed to buy a former Stroh's brewery outside Allentown, Pa., from Diageo plc for $55 million, subject to satisfactory completion of due diligence.

The brewery made Sam Adams beer under contract in the 1990s. It has a potential capacity to make twice as much beer as its brewery in Cincinnati.

Sullivan notes that overdue shutdowns in Cincinnati for maintenance and upgrades, which at times might involve the entire plant, would "absolutely not" entail any layoffs of the brewery's 100 or so employees. “Adding brewing capacity in Latrobe and possibly Allentown is intended to temporarily supplement or complement capacity in Cincinnati and will not affect employment here,” she says.