OT: Four (MAKE THAT FIVE) new microbreweries set to open in Ann Arbor area by Summer's end
If you like craft beer AND variety, then you will have a busy summer if you live in the Ann Arbor area. Here is each one:
Salt Springs Brewery is opening in a former church building in Saline
http://www.heritage.com/articles/2015/05/16/saline_reporter/news/doc555…
Pointless Brewery & Theater After the wife gets a devastating lung cancer diagnosis, an Ann Arbor couple is opening a brewery/theater (cool idea. Sorry: Freep link)
http://www.freep.com/story/life/family/2015/05/25/brewery-theatre-comin…
Glasshouse Brewery will be opening on the west side of Ann Arbor off Liberty near Wagner road
http://www.concentratemedia.com/devnews/glasshousebrewingannarbor0327.a…
Ypsi Ale House is set to open in downtown Ypsilanti sometime this summer
http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2015/05/downtown_ypsilant…
Craft beer enthusiasts, we have our work cut out for us.
EDIT: Thanks to BJNavarre for pointing out that there is (at least) a 5th one opening, also in Saline: Stony Lake Brewing
http://www.stonylakebrewing.com/
I'm going to be honest, I really wish one-off restaurants didn't think they needed to make their own beer. I'll take a good restaurant with a great rotating tap list over a good restaurant trying to reinvent the wheel with small-batch beers that usually aren't very good.
somebody said it. . .
I'll never understand a person who sinks a ton of money into their restuarant's appearance then tries to save 10 cents when purchasing their food. You cannot save your way into prosperity in this business. You must make profit and the only way to do that is to put a good product on the table and charge.
How many people past the age 28 pick a restaurant to go to because "It's cheap". You don't. You pick a restauarnt to go to because it's good.
End of rant.
He didn't say that you couldn't cash in on Craft beers. He is saying why brew something novel when several restaurants/bars (Ashleys, Hopcat, etc.) have shown just providing a quality selection of name brand beers is sufficient for success. Microbrew beers can run the gammit from ugh to good...just serve all good with an extensive selection.
That's actually, generally, not true. With the exception of the breweries that become the big boys (Bell's, Stone, Founders, etc.), the small time breweries (and owners) don't take home a lot of money. They stay in the business because they love what they do and have a passion for it.
I know this for fact because I represent several breweries down in NC and have spoken with many others.
Foothills Brewing (local to W-S, NC, but a fantastic regional brewery that's fairly large for a microbrewery)'s main owner still has a day job, I believe, outside of the brewery.
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You do understand that Jolly Pumpkin makes North Peak's beers, right? They're all part of the same company, alongside Grizzly Peak. And as far as restaurants, all they have is their brew pub up in Traverse City, alongside the taproom the breweries share at their facility downstate. Grizzly Peak's beers, however, are pretty shitty.
For my money, North Peak is one of my favorite Michigan breweries. Always pick up a sixer when I'm back in the area.
I reminice about my decade living in Bamberg, Germany. A university town about the size of Ann Arbor with eight breweries; gasthauses, restaurants, and biergartens generally carried the beers from just one brewerie. Ask for a beer and you are asked what style, not, what brand. No rotating taps, very good beer nevertheless.
Maybe because there is so much bad beer in the US people become snobby about the relatively few good beers that there are.
How many? Three?
"Microbreweries?"
How are people supposed to drink beer if they can't even fit in the buildings?!
Yes, yes they do.
You missed one. Stony Lake Brewing should open in Saline this summer:
http://www.stonylakebrewing.com/
I know the owner of Stony Lake and one of the owners of Salt Springs. Good folks, and I suspect they'll both do quite well. Despite both being breweries, their businesses are going to be quite different, so they both should be able to survive in Saline.
Good. Lord.
My dad is the one who's opening Ypsi Alehouse.
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Nice.
I wish more of this would happen downriver where I am, but as someone who grew up in the maze of subdivisions that snake between Saline and Ann Arbor, I shall be increasing my number of visits to the old stomping grounds now. Always up for the opportunity to sample beer.
Silo Ridge?
Love me some beer, but I don't want more microbreweries. I want more breweries. Kuhnhenn, Griffen Claw, and Bell's offer this area an extensive beer choice. Importantly, there are quality varieties that microbrews generally can't duplicate.
Ashleys....hopcat...
While you're waiting for those to open, come on out to the Chelsea Alehouse. The candied bacon is delicious.
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was the first microbrewery in town, and its original owner (who sold out to the current owners before it really got off the ground) was instrumental in persuading the Michigan legislature to change the laws that had formerly made brewing on-site in a restaurant illegal.
This original owner was from the Bay area in CA, and he chose the name Grizzly Peak because a mountain (I'd call it a hill myself) by the same name is just north of Berkeley.
I think GP's own beers are fairly pedestrian, but they carry some really interesting stuff from other places on their rotating taps. I have regular summer business meetings with a colleague at their outdoor tables.
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Gotcha. I used to live in Lansing but my job was in Ann Arbor so I commuted every day and I would drive by and say "I need to stop in there sometime" and never did. Next thing I knew they were closed.
Never thought about putting stakes down in Howell or Brighton?
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