Great Divide Brewing Co. is experiencing a growth spurt.

The small Denver craft brewer, launched in 1994 by a husband-and- wife team, is undergoing a $610,000 expansion. When completed next month, the project will boost Great Divide's annual brewing capacity by 40 percent, to 8,500 barrels.

Also, Great Divide just opened a $150,000 tap room to allow visitors to quaff such beers as Denver Pale Ale and Titan IPA in a laid-back, barlike atmosphere.

Previously, visitors had to sip beer at a tiny bar in a corner of the brewery, surrounded by workers, a noisy bottling line and a forklift carrying pallets stacked with kegs and cases of beer.

"It was loud," Great Divide co- founder Brian Dunn said, seated at a chair in the new 1,500-square-foot tap room.

The tap room, fitted with a long bamboo countertop, is separated from the brewery operations by a wall and windows. The setup allows visitors to watch the action inside without all the clamor.

The expansion and tap room are the latest additions for the award- winning brewery, which employs 14 and operates in an old dairy barn that once produced ice cream and cartons of milk.

Great Divide is among 90 craft brewers in Colorado. The state boasts the second-highest number of craft breweries in the nation after California.

As part of its expansion, Great Divide added four 100-barrel fermentation tanks last fall, replacing four 34-barrel tanks. The brewer plans to install two more 100-barrel tanks in April.

Dunn says the four new tanks have allowed Great Divide to boost sales by nearly 25 percent this year. He declined to provide specific data.

Dunn had been a home-brewing hobbyist before rolling the dice and opening a commercial brewery. He and his wife, Tara, settled on the abandoned dairy in downtown, at the corner of 22nd and Arapahoe streets. The depressed neighborhood was a government "enterprise zone" targeted for revitalization and job creation.

The duo opened the brewery in 1994 after raising about $200,000 in private money and securing a loan of about $60,000 from Denver's Office of Economic Development.

"They were willing to go into an area that was depressed," said Bill -Lysaught, head of small-business lending at the Office of Economic Development.

Newly married, the Dunns skipped their honeymoon and used the money to buy equipment to brew their first batch of beer, an amber ale.

The brewery has undergone expansion since then, funded in part by the Office of Economic Development. More recently, the agency extended $130,000 to help cover the lion's share of the cost for new tap room.

The city encouraged the Dunns to open the tap room to increase the brewery's business and to nurture a retail business with evening hours.

"The traffic that will be generated will be good for the business," Lysaught said.

Great Divide Brewing Co.

• Location: Denver

• Employees: 14

• Beers: Titan IPA, Hercules Double IPA, Yeti Imperial Stout, Denver Pale Ale

• 2006 production: 6,100 barrels

• Established: 1994

fillionr@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2467

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