Owners of Haines Brewing Co. planned a “soft opening” at their new Main Street location at noon Monday with just a few friends, as they weren’t sure refrigeration or hot water would be ready for a big event.

But word got out.

Longtime resident Nancy Nash heard about the opening from friend Andrea Nelson after they finished laps at the swimming pool’s noon swim.

A few minutes later, Nash and Nelson were at the brewery, sipping “Expansion Ale,” a brew crafted for the occasion.

“I felt like one of the ‘in’ crowd,” Nash said. She said her husband Dwight drinks the brewery’s Black Fang and daughter Amelia serves local brews at the Fireweed Restaurant she operates with husband Adam Richard.

“Everyone in our family is a customer,” Nash said.

Nash gave points to the building’s design, which includes a bar crafted by area woodworker Sean Bryant using redwood salvaged from a local water tank, and trim, sills and doors made by Haines carpenter Scott Carey.

“I like the handmade stuff, and the local touches are nice,” Nash said. “And the view of the mountains is wonderful.”

Last weekend, electricians and plumbers worked late and friends helped out to make the opening happen, scrubbing floors, cleaning windows and building racks for retail items, said brewery co-owner Jeanne Kitayama.

Randa Szymanski donated some tropical trees she’s been growing, including an offshoot from one she received when she opened a travel agency downtown in 1986. “I’m so excited,” Szymanski said. “What a great thing for Haines. It’s wonderful.”

Among helpers were friends who helped scrub butter out of dairy tanks used in the company’s first plant at Dalton City, which opened in June 1999. “We’ve had great community support, even from the very start. People have been great,” said Kitayama.

Kitayama’s husband, brewer Paul Wheeler, said the new plant will have the capacity to brew more than twice the beer he made at Dalton City.

The new building, which includes an upstairs apartment, is 3,000 square feet, compared to 750 square feet at the brewery’s former location, which included a separate freezer van and malt house.

“We can double the production or not have to brew as often, depending on demand,” Wheeler said. “We built it with room for growth.”

Wheeler said he expects to be brewing at the new location in about a month, and he will be adding new equipment in six months. Seventy percent of his production occurs in the five-month summer season, so the expanded plant will alleviate seasonal bottlenecks, he said.

The brewery includes a tasting room much bigger than the small “corral” where drinkers bumped elbows at the Dalton City plant. Under state law, the brewery can sell each patron 36 ounces of draft beer. Barstools are prohibited and no serving is permitted after 7 p.m.

Resident Lee Clayton showed up Tuesday afternoon with two “growler” jugs for Wheeler to fill. Clayton drinks the brewery’s spruce tip ale, and he and wife Margo pick spruce buds each spring they donate to the operation.

“This is amazing,” Clayton said, looking around the plant. “It’s a welcome addition. It shows that as businesses grow, so does the town. This is pretty great.”