USA, NY: Brooklyn Brewery expands capacity

Brooklyn Brewery had grown six times the size it was just 18 months earlier. Brooklyn had to add 18,000 square feet of space to the facility to accommodate the addition of new brewing equipment, beerpulse.com reported on October, 10.

Beyond what the company has added already in recent months, another eight 200-barrel tanks were to “come in shortly.” Once those are in place, Brooklyn will be pushing up against 100,000 barrels annual working capacity. That doesn’t include capacity at Matt Brewing Co. in Utica where some beers like Brooklyn Lager are brewed under contract. The company is adding a warehouse in Utica which will facilitate an increase in production there.

Brooklyn is currently operating on a 50-barrel brewhouse where brewers are going through the brewing cycle at an average of four times a day. By the end of the year, after those fermenters have been installed, that will change to six-to-eight times a day.

Growth of the barrel program is part of the expansion plan and brewmaster, Garrett Oliver, said that the brewery would be laying down some beers in barrels for 2013 release. The company currently has a ‘Ghost bottle’ program in which bottles of limited edition barrel-aged beers are shared only at special events. Brooklyn also has a bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout commercially released on a limited basis called Black Ops.

12 October, 2012