If there was any doubt about the success of local beer in New York City, it can be put to rest with some of the news that emerged this week from two area breweries.

Eater was tipped off to the fact that Sixpoint Craft Ales is now brewing some of their beer at the Lion Brewery in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania - a rumor confirmed by the brewery’s registration of four beers - Bengali Tiger, Sweet Action, Righteous Rye, and Brownstone - in Pennsylvania. They have simply run out of room to meet the demand for their beer at their brewery in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Lion has a large facility, a long tradition of brewing, and a means of getting beer distributed quickly and efficiently. Sixpoint had very few options: disappoint consumers by not meeting demand, or sink a ton of money into a new space.

Other respected craft brewers have some of their beer brewed at Lion, including Lancaster Brewing Company and Penn Brewing Company. And if you’re worried about the "local beer" designation, remember this: Brooklyn Brewery brews most of their beer out of a facility in Utica, New York - 120 miles further from New York than Wilkes-Barre. In other words, this is no reason to panic. And as Eater quotes Sixpoint’s Shane Welch, it’s also no reason to celebrate the prospect of Sixpoint in bottles, because it’s not happening.

Meanwhile, in Westchester County, Captain Lawrence may be pulling their beer out of New Jersey. Why? Well, it’s certainly not because it’s not selling or because there are issues with the distributor. Again, the small brewery cannot keep up with the demand. You can already see how high demand is at Captain Lawrence when they sell out of their special releases within minutes. Until the brewery expands, Jersey beer geeks will have to cross the river to get their hands on the beer. Thankfully, expansion is expensive but possible - owner Scott Vaccaro hinted at it in an interview earlier this year.

It could be much worse: these breweries could be going out of business, or they could be alienating thousands more brand loyalists by pulling out of eight states like Oskar Blues did recently. These are “growing pains,” and all great breweries have them. The road to success is slow and bumpy.