TrimTab Brewing Company has had an enviable problem the last year or so: It can't keep its beers on shelves.

"But it's still a problem," Owner Harris Stewart is quick to point out.

The Birmingham brewery has only been selling its beers in cans for two years, starting with its IPA and eventually bringing in the Paradise Now Raspberry Berliner Weisse, which quickly became the brewery's largest seller. Demand outpaced the brewery's limited capacity.

The brewery's limited capacity led it to something of a crossroads: how does this company want to grow? Adding on to the current facility was feasible, but they don't have enough land to really grow to accommodate their production goals. They considered building a new facility, but that would be much more expensive, and Stewart said it could be premature.

Instead, TrimTab recently entered into a partnership with Abita Brewing Company out of Abita Springs, Louisiana, where they will be brewing some of their core beers, especially the IPA and Paradise Now. These cans are now being sold in new, cardboard packaging, but the beer is the same.

The partnership has taken their current capacity from brewing 30 barrels at a time to 300.

"We were at a point where we were literally sending out thousands of cases of beer in a single shipment, and that wouldn't last a single day," Stewart said. "We now have the ability to really grow our company."

Stewart is quick to point out that this isn't contract brewing – TrimTab isn't hiring Abita's staff to brew their beers. They have an "alternate proprietorship," which means TrimTab is just using their facility – the same staff will be brewing the beer in Birmingham as in Abita Springs. But because much of Abita's equipment is automated, it won't require TrimTab to staff up in the short term.

"Another kind of concern about this whole process is consistency and quality brewing at another facility," Stewart said. "(Abita) has extremely advanced lab facilities for quality assurance. We have rigorously piloted this as we scaled it up. We literally have an exact match, and we've put it through focus panels, triangulated blind tests to ensure we have the same aroma, flavor, color and finish."

The problem with demand outpacing production is that it make consistent availability difficult, which can make retailers or bars less likely to stock your beer. It's also made it harder for the markets outside of Birmingham where TrimTab distributes – Montgomery, the Florida Panhandle, and North Alabama – to get product.

"We're focusing on the Birmingham market first," Stewart said. "It's been a regular occurrence that people haven't been able to get our beer, and we don't take that lightly. We know retailers and consumers are not without options, and we're extremely grateful and honored that our retailers and supporters have maintained those taps and space on the shelf."

TrimTab's first goal will be to stabilize supply and saturate its existing markets, starting with Birmingham. But Stewart said he's in talks with suppliers in pretty much every state that borders Alabama.

But the other big problem, Stewart said, is the race to keep shelves stocked takes away time and resources that would otherwise be spent on creating new recipes. To celebrate this partnership and expansion, TrimTab is releasing two new beers on Friday. The Affirmation Noir and the Affirmation Blanc are its first beers to ever be released in bottles rather than cans.

The Affirmation Noir is a dark sour aged on cherries with complex notes of dark chocolate. The Affirmation Blanc is a dry hopped golden. Both will be released in 22 ounce bomber-style bottles.

"These are beers meant to be shared. These are beers that are more, special occasion beers. They're a little bit more extreme in terms of what you can expect in acidity and complexity," Stewart said. We would really gear these more toward pairing with food, or sharing with a friend – the fact that it's in a larger format gears this beer toward that."

And that second facility? It's still a maybe, Stewart said.

"This gives us flexibility. We're able to now put our focus purely on growing sales out in the market and develop new brands in the Birmingham home facility," Stewart said. "All options are on the table right now, and for us, that's a key one, but we want to make sure when we're building something new we're not building an annex or a marginal add-on. We love our location, and we can never imagine not having our facility in Birmingham."