– New Belgium Brewing Co. is planning a $21.5 million capital expansion after a 12% increase in sales last year. New Belgium will spend $11.5 million on the building and the remaining $10 million on new equipment, said Jim Spencer, director of engineering for New Belgium. “As we continue to grow, the only bottleneck we have for expansion is in our bottling capacity,” he said. New Belgium will brew about 400,000 barrels (comparable to more than 5 million cases) of beer in 2006, and with this expanson could grow to 800,000. [Rocky Mountain News]
– Pittsburgh brewery/restaurant Church Brew Works plans to quadruple its capacity. Church Brew Works first began offering its beers by the bottle last year. Sean Casey of CBW said he expects to grow production from around 6,000 cases last year to about 16,000 cases this year, eventually reaching 30,000 cases a year within the next few years. [Pittsburgh Businness Times]
Hey I thought Sean Casey was the Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman?!