Stevens Point Brewery planning $2 million expansion - WAOW - Newsline 9, Wausau News, Weather, Sports

Eric Gundersen has been brewing beer at Stevens Point Brewery for 15 years. He says he's excited about the brewery's latest growth.

"As long as we keep filling the tanks up and keep the customers happy, we're going to just keep getting farther and farther," said Gundersen.

This is the brewery's fourth expansion since 2010. The $2 million project is scheduled to be completed in May. It will increase the annual production of the brewery by 25 percent to 150,000 barrels.

"We're tremendously excited about this expansion, as we are with all our expansions, but this is a really big one. This is more money spent on expanding our brewery this year than we've spent in any other year," said Stevens Point Brewery Co-Owner Joe Martino.

Martino said when he took over the brewery, the company started looking for opportunities in more markets. He said the business has spent about $7 million in expansions since 2009, and it's paid off.

"Ten years ago, we sold Point beer in three states. Now, we're in 30 states. We're now in, again, two countries, England and Scotland, and we're worked hard to increase our distribution," said Martino.

Martino said increased capacity from the expansion means more new products in the future, which will keep the brewers hard at work. Gundersen said that's just the way he wants it.

"That's probably the best reward there is, knowing that you're expanding, and we made the product for them," said Gundersen.

Business leaders at Stevens Point said they're hopeful the company will continue to grow in the future, and they expect this expansion to add up to six new jobs.