The beer business is booming in Montana, and for Great Northern Brewing Co. the growing demand for microbrews means has prompted the Whitefish brewery’s first expansion project in 19 years.

Today crews are bringing in three new fermentation tanks that will increase Great Northern’s beer production capacity by 50 percent. The existing tanks were removed Monday to be shipped to a North Carolina brewery. 

“Three 40-barrel tanks are being replaced with three 100-barrel tanks,” Great Northern General Manager Marcus Duffey said. “We’re very excited for the expansion. The installation will be about like fitting a square peg in a round hole. The tanks will have less than one foot of ceiling clearance.”

Great Northern received the financing through Montana West Economic Development’s loan program to meet the brewery’s growing demand and distribution needs.

“We’re now distributing throughout every market in the state of Montana, and we simply can’t produce enough beer with our current fermentation capacity,” Duffey said.

Business has been so good that at the peak of last summer’s tourist season the brewery’s Draught House was down to just three beers on tap. It put the brewery in a bind to keep orders filled.

“That left our distributors dry and caused us to lose ground,” Duffey said in an interview last year.

Great Northern expects to brew about 6,500 barrels this year. An additional brewer and another packaging employee are among the staff additions spurred by the expansion.

Great Northern brewed nearly 4,500 barrels of beer in 2013.

This likely is the first round of more expansion to follow as the brewery taps into new markets. Great Northern expanded its reach to the Billings area last year to strengthen its presence in Eastern Montana. The company has considered expanding outside Montana, too.

Started by Minott Wessinger, the great-great grandson of famous brewer Henry Weinhard, the Great Northern brewery was built in 1994 to brew Black Star Double Hopped Golden Lager as its flagship beer. 

Black Star beer quickly became a local and regional favorite.

While the draft Black Star was brewed onsite in Whitefish, cans and bottles of Black Star were outsourced to a facility in Milwaukee during the brewery’s earlier years to meet demand, Duffey said. In 2002 the brewery discontinued its production of Black Star when Wessinger sold the brewery but retained the right to brew Black Star.

Black Star was added back into Great Northern Brewing Co.’s lineup in February 2010 when the brewery entered a partnership with Wessinger to brew Black Star once again. But in early 2013 Great Northern discontinued its production of Black Star when the national roll-out underperformed.

Losing Black Star has had little impact on Great Northern, Duffey said. If anything, the brewery is able to focus more on marketing and producing its most popular beers, including Going to the Sun IPA, Wheatfish and Wild Huckleberry wheat lagers and Good Medicine imperial red ale.