(Lakewood, NY) – Southern Tier Brewing is planning to expand in a big way. Per the brewery blog:

We’ll soon break ground on a 110-barrel brewhouse which will increase our production capacity threefold. In anticipation, we have already expanded for a third time since moving to our current location by adding a second conditioning room. With the addition of six 660-barrel fermenters, the cellar will more than double in volume with the ultimate goal of producing 150,000 barrels per year. It is expected that the new brewhouse will be fully operational by Thanksgiving, 2012.

While the brewery intends to open a few small markets in 2013, the focus is to continue to service our existing distribution network. We also expect to add new brands to our already robust lineup, including a new variety pack and a 750mL Belgian series among other plans.

Expansion has been part of life for Southern Tier for quite a while now.

In 2009 a new 20,000 square foot building was built for the purpose of brewing innovative, high-quality beer to accommodate an expanding customer base. In this new facility, the small brewery was able to grow and offer the product both nationally and internationally, while still satisfying its loyal fans.

Steadily growing, throughout 2010 it became clear that more beer needed to be produced to satisfy a growing customer base. 800 barrels of fermentation vessels were added to the production area and a 7500 square foot addition was added for use as a conditioning room. The constantly running brew house has also been expanded and updated from 20 BBL to a 50BBL system. In keeping pace with the expanded brewing capacity, the company replaced its bottling line with the most high-tech, state of the art bottling line of its size in North America. It fills, caps and labels an impressive 10,000 bottles per hour at full speed. Our cellar has been expanded to allow for more than 3200 BBL of fermentation space as of late 2011.

Fellow Upstate New York-based brewery, Ithaca Beer Company, also recently announced that it is expanding with the intention of brewing north of 100,000 barrels annually.