(Ellensburg, WA) – After 18 months of planning, expansion is underway at Iron Horse Brewery’s new facility.

1621 Vantage Highway is the company’s third location in Ellensburg and will be its primary production facility going forward. The tasting room will eventually move from the current location though the date is still a moving target. It will remain open along with the micropub throughout the expansion.

Why now?

General Manager, Greg Parker, tells BeerPulse that Iron Horse is on pace to produce around 6,000 barrels this year and only has a working capacity of 7,000 barrels. That will expand to 18,000 barrels with the help of the new 12,000 square-foot facility. The company is also spending $625k between new equipment and building improvements.

Says Parker, “We will be adding a dedicated kettle (instead of mash/kettle combination), a 5-barrel yeast brink, three 60-barrel fermenters and two 120-barrel bright tanks.”

Parker detailed how the transition will work in a blog post last November.

“Our timetable is a little rough, but with some good luck and timing we should be actually producing beer out of the new facility by the end of August.”

New markets for 2012 include Bellingham and Everett, both in-state, as well as Northern Idaho though they are still in the planning stages for 2013.

Future updates will be posted on Iron Horse’s dedicated expansion page.

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Below: Parker does a walkthrough of the new facility.