(Brooklyn, NY) – Brooklyn Brewery christens its new brewing system.

On Wednesday, Brewmaster, Garrett Oliver, and his team brewed the first full beer, Main Engine Start, on the new system, the first phase of an expansion plan announced last year:

The Brooklyn Brewery has been awarded a grant of up to $800,000 to be used toward the cost of the purchase and installation of new machinery. The Brewery, limited in its operations due to the size of its facility, leased a building adjacent to its current building in early 2010. This 10,500 square foot former distribution center requires extensive renovations to become a functional brewery. Architecture and engineering improvements, a new concrete slab, new electrical, plumbing and solar panels, and the installation of tanks, silos and other equipment will increase the company’s production from 8,000 barrels to 20,000 barrels a year. The Brooklyn Brewery will retain 27 existing jobs and create nine new jobs. Total project cost is $4,660,000. – ESDC (pdf I – release) (pdf II – full plan details)

8,000 is only a fraction of the brewery’s production, representing the beer brewed at the Brooklyn-based facility. The vast majority of the company’s beer is brewed under contract at the FX Matt Brewing facility in upstate New York, approximately 80,000 barrels annually. The second phase of the Brooklyn facility expansion will take the new capacity of 20,000 barrels in 2011 to 50,000 barrels by mid-late 2012. Between the two locations, enough Brooklyn beer will be produced to move the company into the top 20 regional breweries in the U.S..

The beginning of the new era will be celebrated next month according to the Brooklyn Brewery Marketing Manager, Ben Hudson, “We’re having a ribbon cutting for the new space on Valentine’s Day. Bloomberg is scheduled to preside.”

The christening beer brewed on Wednesday should roll out to bars around that time or shortly thereafter. The beer which will be a draft-only release as part of the Brewmaster’s Reserve Series. Hudson notes that Brooklyn is essentially tripling the production of these limited beers. On a side note, the brewery is making Sorachi Ace a year-round beer according to MetroWest Daily columnist, Norman Miller. Expect to see more of the brewery’s high-end and limited offerings this year.

Main Engine Start description:

We know what you’re thinking. You think we’ve lost our minds. “Main Engine Start”? That’s okay – no worries – but actually we haven’t lost anything at all. We just gained a new brewery here in Brooklyn. A few months ago, we busted through the brewhouse wall into another building and expanded our fermentation cellars. Now we’ve just finished installing a big shiny new set of German brewhouse equipment. Over the coming years, we’re going to brew you a lot of fun new beers on this baby.

We know it’s winter and you might have been expecting something heavy and dark, but right now we’re just not in a heavy and dark mood. In fact, we’re feeling pretty cheerful, and we want to celebrate with a bunch of our friends and a few pints of beer. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by during our tour hours and see the new brewery. If you’ve seen the brewery before, you’ll be amazed what we’ve done with the place. It’s cold outside – stay a while. We’re going for Main Engine Start.

Main Engine Start stats:

MALTS: British two–row, British Crystal Malt, Belgian Aromatic Malt, American “Honey” Malt.
HOPS: German Perle, British East Kent Golding, Slovenian Aurora
YEAST: Our special Belgian strain
ABV: 6.2%