Over at Hingeline I showed that Traverse City has the highest density of craft breweries in the country: Drinker's Paradise
The Record-Eagle focused on the burgeoning beer scene in a couple of articles:
Area is brewing with bevy of beer tastes
Beer is booming business in area
And Northern Express' Rick Coates added some interesting details: Traverse City Beer Scene
I remember 20 years ago during my craftbrew consulting days I was representing a group wanting to establish a brewery in Traverse City. Some community and business leaders shot the idea down claiming it would have a negative image on the community, that group set up out of state and now employ over two hundred employees. More recently Joe Short was not welcomed with open arms in Bellaire when he was starting Short’s Brewing Company seven years ago. A year later, Joe was awarded Business Man of the Year by the Chamber. Now Short’s is having a positive economic impact in both Bellaire and Elk Rapids with 50 plus employees and more expansion planned in 2012.
Update from The Ticker
The original link is broken so I'll post the text from the RSS feed here:
One Microbrewery To Break Ground; Another Plans Opening
A year ago, John Niedermaier asked the Garfield Township Planning Board to do something they’d never done before: to find room in their township for a business unlike any in Michigan, or possibly the country.
And they did. Unanimously. In one meeting.
Now, he’s preparing to break ground in February on his combination farm-pub-brewery, with the intent of opening in July. The opening of Brewery Terra Firma, which spans 10 acres on Hartman and Dracka roads in Traverse City, is expected to create 10 new jobs.
Niedermaier’s plan is 20 years in the making and a business built something like a winery, but for beer.
“There is nothing in Michigan that compares to it – maybe not even on a national or global scale," says Niedermaier, formerly head brewer at Traverse Brewing Co. and brew master at Right Brain Brewery. “I was absolutely shocked when it was unanimously approved at the public hearing. It’s been amazing to put together something that works for the township and works for us. People will be watching this as a model.”
The biggest hitch is that a brewery can’t be built from the template of a winery. Because wineries farm grapes on-site, they fall under the “multi-use zoning” that allows for retail and agriculture production. However, barley used in beer can’t be grown in a Michigan climate. Brewery Terra Firma will get its barley from all over the world, including France, Germany and Belgium. While they will be able to farm other ingredients, such as hops, herbs, spices and beets (yes, they’ll have a beet beer!) on site, they can’t farm barley, the majority ingredient.
Brewery Terra Firma is also unique in that it’ll serve as both a brewery (with a 2,000 square-foot tasting room), an agricultural destination (with seven acres of crops), and a farm pushing for 100 percent efficiency. Everything will be used, reused and recycled when possible. For example, Niedermaier says the BTUs given off in the production process will be harnessed to heat the building. Also, the “spent” barley husks will not be sold to area farmers for filler feed, as most breweries do, but turned back into the fields for use as fertilizer.
“This is part of what we're doing differently,” he says. “By brewing here on the farm, we can use more sustainable production methods.”
Patrons can look forward to a rotating selection of Niedermaier’s approximately 1,000 beer recipes, including such ingredients as Dutch double chocolate, ancho chiles, honey roasted parsnip, sages and blueberries. The beer will be all-natural, with no extracts and will also be sold wholesale.
Another Garfield Township microbrewery has big plans for next month. The Filling Station Microbrewery at the former railroad depot off Eighth Street is starting to brew beer and is shooting for a Feb. 28 opening. Brewer David Cannizzaro, a former Vermont baker, is opening the business with Ray Klepper and his family.
The space is approximately 4,000 square feet, which includes the brewery space and pub. There will be 68 seats inside and nearly double that when the patio is open.
“We’re happy to say we’ll use the covered train platform as a patio with a lake view in the warm months,” says Amanda Klepper, Cannizzaro's sister-in-law. “We will have eight microbrews on tap when we open, and we hope to have 12 when all things are up and running.”
For more information on the microbreweries, click on the links:
http://thefillingstationmicrobrewery.com/
http://breweryterrafirma.com
