Alaskan isn't the only brewery that'll spend lots of 2014 in construction-mode. Plans announced this week by O'Fallon Brewing in St. Louis will move the brewery closer to town while bringing the majority of production in-house and away from production at Stevens Point in Wisc. The current 15-bbl brewhouse can turn out a max of 3500 bbls, prexy/ceo Jim Gorczyca told CBN, but the new $7.5-mil brewery, equipped with a 50-bbl system in a 40K sq-ft facility, will initially be able to handle 25K bbls and is scalable to twice that. The expansion is made possible by about $2.5 mil in equity financing along with $5-mil in debt; Jim reports "a number of bank partners that are eager to participate in the process," with plans to have the brewery up and running by the end of 2014. Stevens Point, which currently handles 80% of O'Fallon's volume including all bottles and cans, worked to expand its own brewing capabilities last yr, resulting in "a number of production issues" and a "slight decrease in sales in 2013," Jim said, just around 10K bbls. St Louis represents about 40% of O'Fallon's biz, which Jim wants to keep largely regional. Though it has a Brewers Stash series of higher-alc brands, O'Fallon will remain focused on the "approachable" and "drinkable" brands head-brewer Brian Owens has created since the brewery's second yr, Jim said. For his part, Jim took over the brewery in May 2011 after many years with AB. Since he's been there, Jim has shifted away from smaller distributors with larger footprints to a network of largely Bud wholesalers with smaller footprints and more salespeople.

St. Louis cohorts, Schlafly and Urban Chestnut, are similarly expanding or preparing to. St. Louis Brewery (Schlafly) continues its search for a new nearby facility that could produce a million bbls/yr, according to a recent Post-Dispatch report. Urban Chestnut nearly doubled to 6500 bbls in 2013; its new $10-mil facility will bump capacity closer to 15K bbls. Elsewhere, East Coast Beer Co announced it has closed on property in Belmar, NJ to build its first facility and move from contracting to brewing its Beach Haus brands in-house.