Surly, the brewery that started the craft-beer boom in Minnesota, finally opens the doors to its “destination brewery” Friday.

The $30 million, 50,000-square-foot facility, which straddles Minneapolis and St. Paul in the Prospect Park neighborhood, includes one (eventually two) full-service restaurants, one of which is in a giant beer hall, and an acre-and-a-half outdoor beer garden that will eventually accommodate up to 1,000 beer drinkers.

The story behind the brewery, the first of its breadth and scope in Minnesota, is a lengthy one.

In 2010, Omar Ansari’s Surly Brewing Co. had outgrown his family’s former abrasives factory in Brooklyn Park, and he wanted to build a replacement.

But Ansari wanted fans of the beer — affectionately known as Surly Nation — to have something special. He called it a destination brewery and envisioned an outdoor beer garden with plenty of indoor space in which customers could buy pints and meals at a full-service restaurant.

Breweries in other states, including neighboring Wisconsin, had that option, but Minnesota law wouldn’t allow it.

So Ansari set out to change the law, a challenge many had undertaken, but none had accomplished. A local politician once told him to relocate to Wisconsin, because it had proved impossible to surmount a powerful liquor lobby that wanted the status quo.

But no one counted on the level of support Surly’s die-hard fans would provide. They called and wrote state legislators. They testified. They tweeted. They signed petitions. And in May 2011, Minnesota’s so-called “Surly Bill” was signed into law, allowing craft breweries to open taprooms in which customers could buy pints of their beer and drink them on-site.

In the 3 1/2 years since the law was passed, dozens of craft breweries have popped up — from Tin Whiskers in downtown St. Paul to Indeed in Northeast Minneapolis to Steel Toe in St. Louis Park — almost all of them taking advantage of the bill that Surly built.

And now, that brewery opens just a few minutes’ walk from the Green Line light-rail that connects St. Paul and Minneapolis.

“It’s a relief that we’ll finally be open,” Ansari said Thursday. “We’ve been talking about this for more than four years. But there’s also the terrifying reality that we’re about to get crushed. We figure there will be a lot of people here.”

He’s not the only one. Metro Transit, which runs the Green Line, is offering free rides to brewery visitors all weekend long. (Go to metrotransit.org for a link to a survey you’ll need to take to print a free pass.)

Ansari, who took two years to choose the site for the brewery, said that light-rail line was a huge factor in his decision.

“I’ve always been a big believer in the train,” he said. “You don’t become a world-class city unless you have that kind of transportation. Plus, we’re in the alcohol business. We’d rather have people take the bus or light rail than drive.”

The site also had to be in the Twin Cities themselves, Ansari said, and the 4 to 5 acres the brewery would require was not easy to find.

The gleaming new brew house, outfitted with stainless steel equipment built in Bavaria and carried across the ocean by ship, will increase Surly’s production capacity to 80,000 to 90,000 barrels a year. That is nearly triple the amount of beer the company made last year.

That switch doesn’t come without growing pains, though. Todd Haug, head of brewing operations, the guy who has been brewing Surly beer since it began in 2004, said it’s been a learning curve trying to make sure the beer tastes the same as it did when the company was brewing out of its much smaller and less technologically advanced brewery in Brooklyn Park.

That facility will continue to operate as a brewery. Haug said it’s the place where brewers will be able to make experimental beers, something that’s been difficult as the brewery strained to meet demand for its most popular flagship beers — Furious, Bender and Cynic.

In addition, there’s plenty of room to grow at the new brew house. The company has ambitions of circulating its beer, which is currently available only in Minnesota and Chicago, to the larger Midwest.

As for the restaurant portion of the brewery, Surly is the second to add a kitchen to their taproom. Urban Growler, just across Minnesota 280 in St. Paul, beat them to that punch, with sandwiches, tacos and appetizers.

But the scope of Surly’s food ambition is much larger. There are about 220 seats in the main taproom where a full menu will be available. Surly hired Jorge Guzman, who worked for Corner Table and Tejas, and was the head chef at Solera in Minneapolis when he was hired to run Surly’s restaurants.

Yes, restaurants. Come April, an upstairs, fine-dining, “more white tablecloth” restaurant will open.

“We’re trying to appeal to people who want a burger or brisket, but then those who want bone marrow or scallops,” he said of the beer hall offerings. “It’s chef-driven menu. It’s really good food. We think we’re going to have a lot of people who come just for the food.”

Guzman said the food is meant to go with beer, but there wouldn’t be specific pairings.

“It’s meant to be a place where you eat and drink as a community,” Guzman said, gesturing to long communal tables in the beer hall.

He said he’s hyper aware of the high profile of the project.

“Being chosen to lead this project is very humbling,” Guzman said. “We’re scared as hell. We know it’s going to be very scrutinized. But if a job’s too easy, why do it?”

One thing the team is not worried about is all those other craft breweries that beat Surly to the taproom punch. In fact, they’re practically giddy about it.

“I knew when we made that change, you know, we made it not just for us, but because it’s what the beer community needed to move forward,” Ansari said. “But I didn’t know that it would happen so fast. There will be more, too. Just wait, every community will have a brewery. I think we’ve officially put a stamp on the Twin Cities as a great beer spot.”

When people ask him if there’s a point at which the market is saturated, he points to Portland, Ore.

“You go to Portland, and 50 percent of the beer consumed there is craft beer. There’s so much room to grow, and we (Surly) can only brew so much beer.”

Jess Fleming can be reached at 651-228-5435. Follow her at twitter.com/jessflem.