New Glarus Brewing: Breaks ground on fifty-five million dollar hospitality addition

New Glarus, WI: Today, New Glarus Brewing Co. broke ground on what will be a Fifty-five million dollar, 65,000 square-foot brewing, distilling and hospitality addition at their “Hilltop” facility in Southern Wisconsin.

The planning and design of this addition took almost two years. The expanded facility will house a historic ten-hectoliter brew hall with coolship. The main brew hall will double with four additional copper kettles and a distillery for spirits. Parking at Hilltop will quadruple, allowing the brewery to be open and safely accommodate weekend guests.

Dan and Deb Carey’s daughter, Katherine May is a licensed architect in Wisconsin. Her vision led the design of this addition with an eye toward continuing the visual language of the brewery and increased sustainability. “My hand prints are in the concrete at our original brewery and my dad hand-sketched the design of that brewhouse,” said Katherine, “and now my son Teddy’s hand prints are in the concrete of our previous expansion, so it just really hits home for me how much history has already been created at this place and how this brewery reflects the involvement of our family over the years.”   

The new building will be four stories, two of which are below ground level, and feature an expansive grass roof. The building utilizes an environmentally friendly geothermal heating and cooling system, will use reclaimed production water that is treated on-site for cleaning, and will feature electric car charging stations. New Glarus Brewing will also repurpose its existing customer drive into a bike path that connects to the Sugar River Trail.

The brewery has chosen to partner with Keller Inc., another Wisconsin-based employee-owned company. Keller specializes in cutting-edge projects and is respected for their construction excellence. They are the general contractor overseeing construction.

“We remain astonished and appreciative at the amount of support we feel from Wisconsin,” said Brewery Founder Deb Carey, “We do not plan to expand our distribution outside of our state. But we need to keep up with demand. When we originally built our Hilltop brewery in 2007 I never imagined we’d outgrow it in my lifetime, but here we are doing our tenth addition after already quadrupling our original square footage. This addition will ensure that current and future employee-owners will be able to accommodate guests and keep up with beer demand for generations to come.”