COMSTOCK, MI -- Bell's Brewery Inc. is readying for a $50 million, 200,000-square-foot expansion of its brewhouse in Comstock.

The expansion will add a bottling line, a warehouse logistics center, offices and employee areas, said Bell's Founder Larry Bell. He said the expansion will allow the brewery the capacity to brew a 1 million barrels of beer a year, up from the current capacity of 800,000 barrels.

"We need the additional bottling capacity," Bell said. "We're going to need the additional fermentation capacity. Business is good, so we're going to get all of this going."

Bell said the additional bottling line is three times as fast as the brewery's current bottling line, and will allow the brewery to fill 750 bottles a minute.

"We're breaking ground right now," Bell said. "For the next Oberon season this bottling line will be up and running and the new warehouse will be up and running."

It's the first big expansion since May 2012, when Bell's unveiled a 200-barrel brewhouse and expanded production facility.

When construction is done, the brewery will have a new 27,000-square-foot bottling hall on the west of Bell's canning building, a 13,000-square-foot keg storage building, a 100,000-square-foot warehouse and logistics center and new site work, according to Walbridge, a Detroit-based construction firm.

Bell said he has a dozen more 800-barrel tanks also on order. He said the expansion is a "rolling phase project" and does not have a concrete deadline because not every aspect is bid out yet.

Meanwhile, work continues to expand Bell's Eccentric Cafe in downtown Kalamazoo into a full-service restaurant. The renovated space will add about 130 seats and will occupy more than 6,600 square feet of space that has been used as storage and warehouse space to the east of the original cafe.

Bell said the downtown project is on track for a July opening. He said the Eccentric Cafe will have an additional parking lot northeast of the brewery on the other side of the railroad tracks.

Emily Monacelli covers higher education and craft beer for the Kalamazoo Gazette. Contact her at emonacel@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter.