KALAMAZOO, MI -- Tibbs Brewing Co. is two years old and is already expanding.

Tibbs Brewing President Cindee Tibbs and her husband, Tibbs Brewer Kevin Tibbs will unveil the basement bar expansion at Tibbs' downtown Kalamazoo location on Saturday, Dec. 5. The Tibbs will also celebrate their brewery's second anniversary that day with 16 beers on tap.

The expansion triples the square footage of Tibbs, which started in fall 2013 in an 800-square-foot space next to the Kalamazoo State Theatre. Tibbs' new space downstairs, in the former Keggers, adds a downstairs bar and capacity for an additional 62 guests on top of the 55 seats upstairs.

With the new space, Tibbs will start offering beer to go in 64-ounce growlers and 32-ounce howlers starting Saturday. Tibbs said more room to brew will allow him to keep up with demand enough to even offer growlers, since he was struggling to produce enough beer in his tiny kitchen setup.

Cindee and Kevin Tibbs said they are looking forward to unveiling the taproom expansion so they can relax and enjoy it. The two years of their business have seen them open their taproom on a shoestring, make repairs after burst water pipes damaged it, and build out the basement expansion.

"I'm really looking forward to being able to rest on our laurels," Cindee Tibbs said. "It will be nice to take a pause and breathe a little bit."

The downstairs bar and brewing area takes up about 2,000 square feet of the 7,000-square-foot basement. The former Keggers bar area and former State Theatre smoking lounge had a red concrete floor and beer memorabilia hanging on the walls when the Tibbs first started on the project. They even found bottles of beer behind the bar.

"It was as if they closed the doors one day and never came back," Cindee Tibbs said.

The Tibbs rebuilt the bar and added tables and chairs for seating. The former dance floor and the rest of the basement is used as storage. The Tibbs said Thursday as they assembled chairs for the downstairs bar that they have done a majority of the work themselves with the help of dedicated friends and family members.

"There's a lot of blood, sweat and tears down here," Cindee Tibbs said.

Kevin Tibbs moved the brewing operation to the basement from the upstairs kitchen a couple of months ago and has installed two four-gallon fermenters, giving him more capacity to ferment his beer. Tibbs said a new, custom-built, five-barrel system (155 gallons) will be delivered in January. For the last two years, Tibbs has brewed on a two-barrel system (62 gallons).

Tibbs said more room to brew will give him the capacity to brew up to 900 barrels a year in his current space. He brewed 150 barrels of beer in his first year and expects to close out his second year brewing 250 barrels a year.

Tibbs said he realistically expects to brew 350 to 400 barrels of beer once he gets the new system running.

Tibbs said moving the brewing operation downstairs has allowed him to keep 10 to 12 beers on tap, up from the 5 to 6 beers he regularly offered.

He has hired two more servers, so the staff is up to five. Kevin and Cindee Tibbs said assistant brewer Trevor Sandberg and bar manager Lauren Frost have been integral members of their team that have allowed them to complete the expansion so quickly.

The larger space gives them more room to produce beer like their Ben Jonesin' Chocolate Toffee Porter, their best-selling beer that was started as a tribute to Staff Sgt. Ben Jones, a friend of Cindee Tibbs who died from a severe stroke in 2012.

"It was so popular, we have a hard time keeping up with it," Kevin Tibbs said.

Kevin Tibbs said his business will likely install a pizza oven this winter, but that they likely will never add a full menu beyond the sandwich and appetizer fare they currently offer.

Emily Monacelli is a reporter for the Kalamazoo Gazette. Contact her at emonacel@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter.