A Michigan brewery soon will be able to make more product thanks to the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor.

The bulk carrier M/V Federal Mackinac recently docked at the port, carrying 12 brewery tanks destined for Michigan.

Each cylindrical 40-foot long brewery tank is 14 feet in diameter and weighs 25,353 pounds. Each tank holds about 800 barrels of beer, or the equivalent of 198,400 pints of beer.

The total weight for this cargo is 304,235 pounds or 138 metric tons, according to the Port of Indiana. The stainless-steel tanks arrived from an international manufacturer and were discharged from the M/V Federal Mackinac by Federal Marine Terminal's shore crane into a storage area.

The brewery tanks will eventually be loaded onto heavy-haul semi-trucks for final delivery.

Shipments of brewery tanks are not as common at the port as coal, limestone, steel and agricultural products, but they are an example of the specialized type of shipment and growing trend of project cargo the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor can handle.

In the last three years, the port has handled dozens of brewery tanks in five separate shipments. The port has become an international hub for “heavy lift” and “project cargo” because of its ocean access and proximity to the U.S. Heartland.