FRANKFORT, Mich. (AP) - Stormcloud Brewing Company plans to rain more beer across Michigan after its new brewing facility begins operations later this year.
The 4-year-old brewery will move its brewing operations from Frankfort’s main downtown street a few blocks east to a 12,700-square-foot facility being built in the community’s industrial park. Stormcloud’s thriving pub won’t change, but the adjacent downtown brewhouse will shrink to become a test-brew facility.
“We’re going to continue to some very small brewing here,” head brewer and co-owner Brian Confer told the Traverse City Record-Eagle (https://bit.ly/2sfmUWg ).
The new facility is at the base of the hill just west of Frankfort’s car ferry welcome arch. Portions of the structure will, beginning next year, be open to the public.
“There will be a tasting room,” said Keirsun Scott, marketing and communications manager. “There will be brewery tours.”
The tasting room will feature eight taps to dispense some of the 4,500 barrels of beer the new 20-barrel brewhouse will produce each year. Stormcloud’s current downtown brewhouse can churn out 1,200 barrels each year.
In just four years since its creation, the pub has developed into a popular gathering spot for both locals and visitors.
“It’s busy,” Confer said. “It’s going to be jam packed in a couple of weeks. The week before July 4 it really ramps up.”
He and co-owners Rick Schmitt and Jim Kunz had closed the pub on winter Mondays and Tuesdays for the first year of Stormcloud operation. But as Confer and his crew were brewing inside, they noticed a trickle of people on the sidewalk outside stopping to peer in the windows. Beginning in their second winter, they have kept the pub open seven days a week, all year long.
Now on winter weekends, “there’s a line at the door,” Confer said.
Winter Mondays are relatively quiet, he said, but the pub still get customers, and it therefore makes sense to remain open every day.
“It’s worthwhile that someone who drove here doesn’t find a locked door,” he said.
Stormcloud employment peaks at 75 full-time and part-time workers in summer. The year-round roster is smaller, but includes five full-time brewhouse workers. The new facility, Scott said, will support the hiring of an additional brewer, a cellar manager and a full-time sales position.
The larger brewing facility will enable Stormcloud to create enough product to quench the thirst of both locals and consumers across the state. Some of Stormcloud’s brews now are distributed in kegs to 33 counties in Michigan, where it is dispensed by tap. The new facility will add an automated canning line and a bottling line, which will allow Stormcloud to sell beer in stores.
The new brewing equipment is set to be delivered July 10. The canning line will be installed in August. Stormcloud expects to produce its first brew at the new facility in September.
The first shipment of canned Stormcloud beer will go to H. Cox and Sons, Stormcloud’s Grand Traverse Area distributor - and will end up in the hands and mouths of drinkers in the Traverse City area. Stormcloud then plans to target the Grand Rapids market region before spreading throughout the state, Scott said.
“We’ll be doing mainly cans,” he said.
Stormcloud’s flagship brews will be distributed in cans rather than bottles for two reasons, Scott said. Display space can be tight in retail stores packed with products, and six-packs of cans can be stacked to conserve space. And Stormcloud’s owners see the can as the appropriate container for summer outdoor use - it is easily transported and can’t end up as broken glass on sand or trail.
“We’re a beach town,” Scott said. “We don’t want to see any bottles on the beach.”
The hand-bottling line will be used mainly for small quantities of Belgian ales.
Sales in the downtown Frankfort pub will continue to help drive Stormcloud.
“This building (the new brewery) would not be here except for the pub,” said Scott.
The 6-acre lot is ideal for the new brewery, said Scott. It is very visible from the main road into Frankfort; it offers easy commercial truck access; and there’s room for possible future expansion. It also includes one of Frankfort’s popular winter sledding hills, which Scott said shouldn’t provide any conflict with brewery operation.
Stormcloud’s owners originally hoped for an early summer opening, said Confer, but a variety of factors pushed that back to fall. He and the other owners began talking about a larger brewhouse early on.
“If I could change one thing about our initial planning, it would be to include this as part of the original business plan,” Confer said of the new brewing facility.
They designed the building to accommodate more brewing equipment than they will install this summer. But this probably isn’t the last word in Stormcloud expansion.
“Our projections show that building will accommodate five years of growth,” said Confer.
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Information from: Traverse City Record-Eagle, https://www.record-eagle.com
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