LEWISTON — Let there be brew.

An enormous, stainless steel brew house finished the trek from Eugene, Ore., Thursday afternoon and was swiftly loaded into Bates Mill No. 1 by crane before it was to be bricked up inside, centerpiece of the unique, can-only Baxter Brewing Co.

Founder and President Luke Livingston said tours begin next week at the still-under-construction brewery. He expects cans to start coming off the line, and lining store shelves, in January.

“When I first walked through this space a year ago I said, ‘There’s no way in hell we’re going to put a brewery here,’” said Livingston, 26, an Auburn native. A $1 million-plus renovation later, “Thank God I was wrong.”

He’s taking up 7,000 square feet that used to serve as an electrical supply shop. Livingston, who said he likes the idea of reusing the old, said it would have been easier to settle into a new office park, but, “where’s the fun in that?”

His will be the first brewery in New England to opt for a line of aluminum cans instead of glass bottles. The brew process starts in a shiny, new 48,000-pound grain silo built on-site outside the mill and ends 22 days later with an overnight stay in a brite tank for carbonation.

Livingston plans to offer 6 oz. samples of his two year-round lines, Stowaway IPA and Pamola Xtra Pale Ale, at the beginning and end of brewery tours once production is running. A tasting room will double as a retail shop, selling a line of merchandise as well as six-packs.

“I think education will be a big part of what we do here in the process of making better beer,” he said.

Tours will cover the company’s image, a look at the process and Baxter’s green efforts. Operations manager Steff Deschenes said she plans to lead several a day. Deschenes, a former alcohol spokesmodel from Lewiston, said she got in touch with Livingston last spring after hearing about his big plans for the mill.

“It’s a good thing for Lewiston. So much of this happens in Portland,” she said.

Livingston said statewide distribution deals will get his beer around Maine, and he’s fielded calls from local restaurants looking to have it on tap. He’s interested in pursing distribution in Massachusetts in 2011, Vermont and New Hampshire in 2012, “and down the East Coast from there.”

Between 50 and 60 subcontractors have worked on different phases of the renovation. He hopes to employ between seven and nine once production starts.

The 14-foot-tall brew tanks and two fermenters that arrived Thursday left Ninkasi Brewing Co. in Oregon about a week earlier.

“Ninkasi just outgrew them,” Livingston said. “If they can outgrow (the tanks) in two years, there’s got to be some good mojo. We’re hoping that traveled across the country with it.”

For more information on tours, check baxterbrewing.com next week.

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