Local brewery Natty Greene’s plans to keep the beer flowing, and then some.

The Greensboro-based restaurant and brewery company is more than doubling its production and adding two new bottled beers to its retail offerings as part of a $500,000 investment, said Chris Lester, co-owner of the company, along with Kayne Fisher.

He said the company is in the process of bringing in several new tanks to its production facility on West Lee Street, which will allow Natty’s to go from 5,000 barrels of beer annually to 12,000 by the year’s end.

All of that extra beer is necessary to keep up with demand. In addition to a recent deal with the new downtown Winston-Salem baseball park to provide beer at games, Natty Greene’s is adding two new flavors to its line of bottled brews now found on store shelves.

“Right now, we’re maxxed out, and we have to add tanks just to keep up with demand,” Lester said.

By Christmas, the Cannonball Double IPA and Black Powder Imperial Stout should be available in four packs at local retailers, such as Harris Teeter, Lowes and Earth Fare.

It also will be offering a seasonal Red Nose Ale in bottles after Thanksgiving, he said.

Lester said the deal with the new Winston-Salem ballpark, of which Natty Greene’s is a founding sponsor, will help expand brewery’s presence in the Triad as well. “It gives us an opportunity to get the Natty Greene’s brand in front of them,” he said. “We think it’s going to help drives in the Winston-Salem market.”

The new tanks also mean crews will be producing beer 12 to 14 hours a day, versus the current 8 to 10 hours a day, he said. Some current part-time employees will move to full time, and he said they’ll hire a few more part-timers.

While slower economic times have meant relatively flat restaurant sales, the wholesale division has more than doubled since this time last year, he said, pushing sales past $1 million.

And Natty’s isn’t the only one having to expand to meet demand. Jamie Bartholomaus, brewmaster and co-owner of Winston-Salem-based Foothills Brewing Co., said his company will soon receive new tanks as part of a $200,000 expansion that will double capacity to 6,000 barrels annually.

Bartholomaus said he expects Foothills, which is available from Asheville to Raleigh, to be at full capacity by the end of 2009. Lack of capacity and growing North Carolina demand forced them to pull out of the South Carolina market temporarily.

“North Carolina is just exploding in the microbrew world,” he said. “It’s basically all the business you can handle. As much beer as you can make, it’s there to sell.”

That popularity comes as more people expand their beer tastes, and more are willing to try craft beers, said Chris Buckley, brewmaster for Red Oak Brewery, which last year moved into a new brewery in Whitsett.

And the Southeast, which long lagged, is catching up.

“It’s hard to convert someone who’s been drinking a mass-produced beer to even try something new ,” he said. “But most often, if you can get them to sample the product, you’ve converted them.”

Originally published in the Triad Business Journal.