GALESBURG, Mich. (AP) - Dennis Bennett was recently brewing a Belgian-style dubbel amber ale, some of which he said would be going in a wine barrel to age.
It was the 42nd batch made by the head brewer at Gull Lake Distilling Co. since opening in downtown Galesburg in March, according the the Battle Creek Enquirer.
Since then, 17 types of beer have been brewed and sold, mostly through howler and growler fill-ups via a curbside delivery service prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beginning in June, the new distillery, brewery and winery at the former movie theater and bowling alley opened to the public with its large outdoor beer garden and a variety of unique beers, wines and spirits.
“Beer became our main focus because we couldn’t do liquor to go,” owner Ted Koch said. “So a lot of people expected beer or thought we were a brewery instead of a distillery. Good or bad, people loved it. We embraced that, and when we could finally open, it was a restructuring of the business model, scaling the beer back and going back to the spirits.”
Koch and his wife, Lindsey, established the business in 2017 and purchased the property in 2018. The name is intended to capitalize on the regional popularity of Gull Lake, located in nearby Richland. Gull Creek, the outlet for Gull Lake, flows near the property.
“I know it’s a tourist attraction,” Koch said of Gull Lake. “So I’ll keep the name and find something in the area that people can come to.”
Gull Lake Distilling was set for a “friends and family” opening in March when the pandemic and subsequent state-mandated shutdown occurred, forcing the delay of the official grand opening until June.
The former movie theater and bowling alley sits on nearly seven acres that include a rackhouse and access to the Kalamazoo River. It is also along the Great-Lake-to-Lake Trail No. 1, a 275-mile shared use trail that links Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
The distillery doesn’t sell food, but meals can be carried in and vendors from Avalon Farms in Climax are on site every Sunday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. for brunch to go with GLDC Bloody Mary’s. The building also shares frontage with Pizza King, a delivery and carryout chain in southwest Michigan that also sells ice cream.
Inside the distillery are tables Koch said are made from the former lanes of the Battle Creek Public Schools Field House bowling alley. There are art pieces throughout the building. Anthony Jackson’s 2018 ArtPrize entry “Godspeed” is on display behind the bar. Hung on the walls are photos of the building’s past. Koch said there are still four bowling lanes at the property, which he hopes to “rehab and bring it back to life.”
“Pretty much every person in this town has worked in this building at one time or another as a pin-setter over at the bowling alley,” Koch said. “There wasn’t much in the area that had this charm and this old-school kind of feel, and working with the city of Galesburg has been fantastic.”
The distillery is offering live music on Tuesdays, a Wednesday night corn hole league and trivia nights on Thursdays.
Four beers are offered on tap, as well as a handful of wines on a rotation that use Michigan-made products and produce, such as strawberry wine using strawberries from Schultz Farms in Mattawan.
“We have a small system comparatively to other breweries,” Bennett said. “That restricts us a little bit in terms of volume, but the nice thing is we have a constant turnaround and always have fresh beer. When we do IPA and pale ales and some of the lighter beers that don’t age well, we turn them around so fast that it’s like they are just coming off the assembly line, super fresh.”
Caleb Rose, manager at Gull Lake Distillery, said few places in the region can match the business’s diversity as a brewery, winery and distillery.
“The distilling is the heart and soul of the operation,” he said. “We do five spirits all the time: whiskey, vodka, rum, apple brandy and gin. The cocktails are all completely hand-crafted. We try to stay as local as we can with fresh ingredients. There’s really nothing in the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek area that’s like what we’re doing.”
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