Anheuser-Busch announces expansion at Merrimack brewery
$11.3 million expansion will allow production of specialty beers
$11.3 million expansion will allow production of specialty beers
$11.3 million expansion will allow production of specialty beers
Anheuser-Busch has announced a significant expansion at its brewery in Merrimack.
The $11.3 million expansion is being made with an eye to what officials said is the growth area of the beer business.
"The market's only gotten more complex, and so I was just talking to one of our employees who's here at the very beginning, and we used to make two brands, Budweiser and Michelob, and there's a lot more down the beer aisle than Budweiser and Michelob these days," general manager Tom Jokerst said.
The focus of the expansion is the construction of new fermentation tanks. Six giant containers will be built in the first phase of construction, and six more will be built in the second phase. They will be used to brew specialty or craft beers.
"What this project is going to do is it's going to build a new fermentation cellar to allow us to make about 400,000 additional barrels of craft and ale brands that we don't currently produce here in Merrimack," Jokerst said.
Jokerst said the Merrimack plant employs more than 200 people, and although the new project won't mean more jobs, it shows that the company is committed to the facility.
"The expansion is really important to the Merrimack brewery," Jokerst said. "It really means that we're here to stay, and we're here for the long haul. We just recently celebrated our 46 years here in the state of New Hampshire, and we kind of talk about this internally. Here's what we're going to be doing for the next 46."
The project is expected to be finished in March 2019.