NEW GLARUS - New Glarus Brewing plans to hire at least 15 more people by the end of the year, as it embarks this spring on another expansion of its facilities on the north and south ends of the village.
The $9 million expansion will add 9,000 square feet for production and bring the brewery's total staff close to 100, said co-owner Deb Carey, who founded the business in 1993 with her husband, Dan. It comes on heels of a $7 million expansion that is just finishing up.
The coming expansion, planned to begin in April, is a family effort. The co-owners' daughter, Katherine Carey, is an architect intern at Madison firm Potter Lawson and is working on the project with lead architect Gene Post.
Deb Carey said she expects the expansion to wrap up in February 2014. It will enable the brewery to double production to 250,000 barrels and includes the creation of a fermentation cellar for aging fruit beers.
New Glarus Brewing sells its products only within Wisconsin and doesn't plan to change that. Carey said there's still room in the state's craft beer market for growth.
"People are just looking for good beer. We've seen incredible growth with our Spotted Cow," she said, adding that consumers are increasingly drawn to locally beer brewed with 100 percent barley malt and no fillers, like rice. "There's not a lot of beers that use 100 percent barley malt."
Besides permanent hiring within the brewery, the expansion is creating temporary contract jobs for construction - pipefitters, programmers, concrete layers and more.
"Last time I think we had more than 100 people on site," she said of the most recent expansion.
Carey was a runner-up in the 2011 National Small Business Person of the Year contest.
- Katjusa Cisar
The $9 million expansion will add 9,000 square feet for production and bring the brewery's total staff close to 100, said co-owner Deb Carey, who founded the business in 1993 with her husband, Dan. It comes on heels of a $7 million expansion that is just finishing up.
The coming expansion, planned to begin in April, is a family effort. The co-owners' daughter, Katherine Carey, is an architect intern at Madison firm Potter Lawson and is working on the project with lead architect Gene Post.
Deb Carey said she expects the expansion to wrap up in February 2014. It will enable the brewery to double production to 250,000 barrels and includes the creation of a fermentation cellar for aging fruit beers.
New Glarus Brewing sells its products only within Wisconsin and doesn't plan to change that. Carey said there's still room in the state's craft beer market for growth.
"People are just looking for good beer. We've seen incredible growth with our Spotted Cow," she said, adding that consumers are increasingly drawn to locally beer brewed with 100 percent barley malt and no fillers, like rice. "There's not a lot of beers that use 100 percent barley malt."
Besides permanent hiring within the brewery, the expansion is creating temporary contract jobs for construction - pipefitters, programmers, concrete layers and more.
"Last time I think we had more than 100 people on site," she said of the most recent expansion.
Carey was a runner-up in the 2011 National Small Business Person of the Year contest.
- Katjusa Cisar