AWARD-winning Burnley brewer Moorhouse's is set for a massive £1million expansion in its business and a doubling of the amount of beer it produces.

Over the next three years bosses at the firm, based in the town for more than 140 years, want to build a new brew house, visitor centre and training centre.

The scheme, subject to planning permission from the council, will mean the brewer famous for its Pendle Witches brew will be able to churn out 700 barrels of its award-winning ales every week, twice the amount it makes now.

The expansion will see the brewery, off Accrington Road, build on the site of terrace houses set to be demolished as part of the Elevate housing market renewal plans.

Managing director David Grant said the plans represented an exciting time for the business.

He said: "These are major plans for us which will see the brew house quadruple in size and our capacity double.

"Even more exciting are the plans for a proper visitor centre, which will house a bar, cafe and shop as well as working models of the brewing process and the training centre, which we hope will become a centre of excellence for licensees in how to keep and serve ale.

"Hopefully once the plans come to fruition this brewery will be an attraction for the whole family."

Mr Grant said he hoped the land, between Accrington Road and Villiers Street, could be cleared later this year, paving the way for negotiation to start on the purchase of the land by the brewery.

The whole scheme is likely to take around three years with the new brew house being built over the existing facility so that production is not affected.

Over the past ten years Moorhouse's famous Black Cat Ale and the celebrated Pendle Witches Brew have both taken medals at beer industry awards. Black Cat was a Double Gold Medal winner in 1998 while Pendle Witches Brew took a Silver Medal in 1996.

Moorhouse's, which was founded in 1865, supplies outlets in the North West and Yorkshire as well as its own pubs around Bolton, Bury and Burnley.