Founders Brewing announces next steps in facility expansion

Founders Brewing Co. ranks among the top 30 largest craft breweries in the United States, and it’s also one of the fastest growing. For further proof, we point you to Founders recently announcing plans to expand its brewery production facility at its current site, 235 Grandville Ave SW. Pending approvals, the brewery expects to break ground on this expansion in late October.

The expansion will take place in two phases: The first phase will involve the addition of approximately 37,000 square feet comprised of space for new production equipment, including a new 300-barrel (bbl) brewhouse and new fermentation tanks, as well as additional offices. The second phase will add approximately 20,000 square feet of space for more fermenting and packaging equipment.

“The focus of this expansion is to increase the capacity of our production facility — to brew more beer right here in Grand Rapids, Michigan,” said Mike Stevens, co-founder and CEO of Founders Brewing. “Because of increasing demand from the growing beer enthusiast community, we aren’t able to fill orders right now. We’re expanding because we’re committed to this city, this state and the craft beer community.”

After both phases of the expansion, the Founders production facility will have the footprint for 900,000 bbls of capacity, which will be achieved incrementally through the addition of more fermenters and updated packaging equipment. Founders expects to end 2014 having shipped 200,000 bbls of beer, and expects to ship 300,000 bbls in 2015.

The brewery plans to add 72 jobs over three years, ranging from managerial to operations to sales positions, generated by this expansion. We have little doubt that there’s more growth to come from these Michigan-based beer innovators.