New Belgium Brewing Expands Tank Farm

Beer in Colorado keeps on growing and local favorites with big national followings like New Belgium Brewing keep expanding. Sixteen new vessels will join the beer-making line-up of the popular Fort Collins craft brewery in the next six days, an addition that will bring the total capacity of New Belgium Brewing to 840,000 barrels.

These sixteen vessels that include twelve fermentation vessels and four bright beer tanks will be installed between December 17 and 22. The new tanks were custom-fabricated in Germany by the Ziemann Group of Burgstadt.

The increased volume will help bridge the production gap until New Belgium's second facility in Asheville, North Carolina comes online in 2015. The Asheville facility is slated for groundbreaking in spring of 2013 and will have an initial capacity of 400,000 barrels. "We needed additional tank space to address demand for the next couple years before Asheville is up and running," said New Belgium spokesperson, Bryan Simpson. "This will give us a little breathing room."

New Belgium Brewing, the third largest beer maker in the country and creator of popular brews like Fat Tire and Sunshine Wheat, will utilize some of the expanded capacity to add distribution to Alaska and Louisiana in spring of 2013.

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New Belgium Beers [Photo: BOA Beer Blog]