Fort George started its operation in March 2007 with “Sweet Virginia,” an 8 1/2-barrel brewing system so named after co-owners Chris Nemlowill and Jack Harris flew to Virginia Beach, Va., hired drivers to take the system back on a flatbed truck and followed them in a U-Haul back to Oregon.

On Friday, Nemlowill looked on while his employees and a moving crew lifted three more 120-barrel fermentation tanks and another 120-barrel brite tank and lowered them onto stands in front of a patio full of people.

This week, the tanks were moved into the Lovell Brewery that Fort George opened in 2010. They were custom-fabricated in Portland to fit that space.

With the new equipment, Fort George now has eight 120-barrel fermentation tanks and three 120-barrel brite tanks, a system Nemlowill said can create 20,000 barrels a year.

“Currently, we can’t keep up with demand,” Nemlowill said, noting one of the brewery’s more popular varieties, Quick Wit Belgian-style ale, is out of stock. “The goal is to not run out of beer.”

Since it opened, Fort George has experienced exponential growth, brewing 400 barrels its first year, compared to about 11,500 barrels in 2014. It has quickly climbed the ranks of Oregon-based brewers selling beer in Oregon, from 57th largest in 2007 to 12th in 2014, just ahead of Oakshire Brewing in Eugene and behind Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland.

The Oregon sales catch a majority but not all the sales of Fort George, which reaches throughout Washington and Idaho. Nemlowill said the brewery projects sales of upward of 15,000 barrels this year, and more than 18,000 in 2016.

“At one point, it works fine to grow a gazillion percent each year,” Harris said. “We’ve kind of decided (on) growing 15 to 20 percent a year. We’re trying to keep it in those parameters, because it seems manageable.”

Nemlowill and Harris said the brewery has been busy retrofitting its equipment. It recently had 800 new kegs delivered. It is upgrading its boiler system, in part to keep up with its brewing schedules and for the steam to power a new keg-washing and filling station it will add in the coming months.

“It will be a system much easier on people’s backs,” Harris said.Fort George is now one of the largest employers in Astoria, with about 85 people. Most work in the Astoria brewpub, which Harris said still consumes about 12 percent of Fort George’s beer. The company has nine brewing staff members and seven employees in distribution.

Sweet Virginia stands behind the main pub in the Fort George building, still a working girl.

“Anything we don’t package, we brew over there,” Harris said.

Fort George has a myriad of smaller-batch specialties. The 3-Way IPA collaborative beer with three other breweries — this year with Georgetown Brewing Company in Seattle and Pfriem Family Brewers in Hood River — releases Friday with a party at Cannon Beach Hardware and Public House. Fort George employees were recently seen in the woods collecting fresh spruce buds for its spring seasonal, Spruce Budd Ale, coming out in late May to early June.

Harris said he didn’t think more tanks could fit in the Lovell Building last time Fort George increased its capacity. Now, he added, tanks would probably have to be dropped in or put outside in the Fort Georgecourtyard. But for now, he said, Fort George is focusing on getting the recent arrivals leveled, pumped with glycol jackets for temperature control and brewing next week.