March is expansion month at North Portland's Widmer Brothers Brewing Co.

The public opening of its new brewpub and restaurant, Widmer Gasthaus at 929 N. Russell St., will be Friday at 5 p.m., just in time for St. Patrick's Day revelers. And late in the month, the company will break ground on a new brewhouse and bottling plant.

Together, the projects have an $18 million price tag, marking a major expansion for the 11-year-old craft brewery run by brothers Kurt and Rob Widmer.

With completion of the bottling plant in February 1996, the company said, it will begin distribution of Widmer Hefeweizen in bottles.

The company sold 50,000 barrels of beer last year - more draft beer than any other craft brewery, according to liquor control commission records in Oregon and Washington.