Former Crooked Ladder partner takes the helm at Greenport Harbor Brewing Co.

It’s not even 7 years old, but Greenport Harbor Brewing Co. is still the grand-daddy of North Fork breweries. Its explosive brand growth has owners Rich Vandenburgh and John Liegey “running as hard as we can” to keep up with demand.

With the expansion of their second location in Peconic now underway, Vandenburgh and Liegey knew they needed someone to oversee their expanding operation.

They didn’t have to look far.

Duffy Griffiths, former partner in Crooked Ladder, stepped in to help them out “in a pinch” last year, Vandenburgh said. When they decided they needed someone experienced and mature to come on board to oversee brewing operations, Griffiths was the perfect fit.

“Not to say he’s old,” he added quickly.

Griffiths, 44, who started as director of brewing operations at Greenport Harbor Brewery last Monday, has years of experience as a brewer. Most recently, he was a founder and partner in Crooked Ladder Brewery in Riverhead. He was the original brewer at John Harvard’s in Lake Grove, then brewed in Florida and Colorado.

“Somewhere in between I started a deli business,” Griffiths said with a laugh. He owns Duffy’s Deli in Jamesport.

Greenport Harbor Brewing Co. is a “pretty big operation” on the local craft brewery scene, Griffiths said. It’s got four 90-barrel fermenters in its Peconic location and is adding four more, he said. “That’s 180 kegs per fermenter, to understand the size of it.” There are also five 30-barrel fermenters in Peconic and a bottling plant. The original location in Greenport is a much smaller, 15-barrel system, Griffiths said.

The expansion is taking place in Peconic, where the brewery is doubling the size of its tasting room. “We’re putting in a brew pub and also an open kitchen,” Vandenburgh said. The expanded facility will allow the brewery to handle private parties without closing the tasting room to the public, he said.

Greenport Harbor’s original location on Carpenter Street in Greenport will continue to “cultivate what we’re doing in terms of the limiteds,” Vandenburgh said, with “unique esoteric beers that are interesting.”

The brewery has three year-round beers and a seasonal brew “at a minimum,” he said. “But right now, for example, we have 10 different beers on tap in our tasting room — the four usuals and six are limiteds and one-offs, experimentals.”

Griffiths will be overseeing operations with a team of five brewers, headed up by lead brewers Ian Graham in Peconic and Pat Alfred in Greenport.

“We’re looking to add more,” Vandenburgh said.

The brewing company is making “probably 15 times more beer than when it first started,” he said. It hasn’t been easy to meet demand.

Last April, they added a bottling operation. “We thought we’d do 400,000 bottles by the end of the year. Instead we were just shy of a million,” he said.

Expectations for 2016 are high. The brewery is servicing all of New York now and some locations in Connecticut— as well as the Cross Sound Ferry, the company that connects the two states. “We’re the fastest selling beer craft beer they’ve ever had,” Vandenburgh said.

“We’re trying to move and grow in a measured fashion, but it’s been a snowball rolling downhill so far,” he said. “It’s exciting and terrifying at the same time.”

Vandenburgh and Liegey met in college at Ohio Wesleyan University. They used to talk about opening a brewery someday. Liegey, from Manhasset and Vandenburgh, from Boston, would drive home together. Vandenburgh would drive east to take the ferry to New England.

“I always felt Greenport was a diamond in the rough,” he said.

The friends’ paths diverged. Liegey went into marketing and advertising, while Vandenburgh went to law school. He met his wife Ann and settled on the North Fork. When he saw the old firehouse for sale on Carpenter Street, he called his old friend and asked him if he remembered how they used to dream about opening a brewery together. The rest is history.

After practicing law for more than 20 years, Vandenburgh’s time is now consumed by the brewery, which, he allows, is a lot more fun.

Griffiths appreciates the brewery owners enthusiasm. “I’ve known Rich and John since they started and it wasn’t a tough decision. They’re great,” he said.

“At the end of the day, they’re people you want to sit down and have a beer with. It’s a nice feeling.”