Pigeon Hill as seen from Muskegon Lake. Date unknown.
“From the Collection of the Lakeshore Museum Center.”
The majestic sand dune known as Pigeon Hill was located across the street from Lake Michigan Park. Legend has it that the dune soared some 300 feet into the air and covered some 40 acres at its base. The property once played host to thousands of passenger pigeons during the 1800s, thus earning its name. The landmark was sold by the D.D. Erwin estate to Nugent Sand Company who mined the hill from about 1925 to 1967. On the site now is Harbour Towne. Located on 71 acres, it is now considered one of Michigan's finest condominium communities.
merry band of misfits A PERFECT FIT IN Muskegon
BY Jon Becker FOR mibrew trail
meshed their personalities and skills to find a perfect fit as co-owners of Muskegon’s Pigeon Hill Brewing Company.
Joel Kamp, Michael Brower and Chad Doane, three Muskegon natives with a deep reverence for the community and its history, have led the company through an explosive period of growth since its inception in 2014.
Pigeon Hill Brewing Company did so well out of the gate that the three had to fast-track their plans to give up their careers to devote all of their work life to an establishment that has become one of Muskegon’s more popular community gathering spots.
“The growth has surprised us,” Brower, a onetime attorney now the flourishing company’s director of sales and marketing, said. “It’s exceeded our wildest expectations.”
hree self-described “merry band of misfits,”—a CPA, an attorney and an educational furniture designer—have
T
Two college buddies turned-entrepreneurs, Dane Bosel (left) and Andy Clouse, began their quest to produce quality homebrews as students at Northern Michigan University, first brewing in Clouse's apartment and post-college in Bosel's garage.
Brower is the attorney, while his two Pigeon Hill co-founders were successful in their own right in previous professions, Kamp as an accontant and Doane as a furniture designer for Holland-based Fleetwood, a furniture and electronics manufacturer.
“It’s mind-boggling how well we all get along,” Brower said. “We’re all local boys and our Pigeon Hill ‘family’ is all either local or adopted by the local community, a community that has rallied around us from day one.”
The trio didn’t let a lack of capital or experience step on their dream to own and operate their own brewery.
“When we opened our doors in downtown Muskegon we did it with more elbow grease than capital, and more determination than experience,” Brower said. “Certainly the community support-- in the beginning especially-- fueled our success.”
For the first two years, its taproom served as the brewery’s sole production facility. Its small 3.5 barrel system (110) gallon ran at capacity to serve thirsty patrons and provide limited kegs to local bars.
“We opened our doors with what we could afford,” Brower said. “It’s a 3.5bbl brew house and we originally only had four 3.5bbl fermenters/four 3.5bbl brite tanks. We made it about 3 months before we realized we had created a monster and started having issues keeping a full tap. At that point, we added four 7bbl fermenters.”
One of their beers, Oatmeal Cream Pie, a light brown ale with flaked oats and flavored cinnamon and vanilla, proved to be immensely popular.
Shortly after opening in June of 2014, they ran out of the brown ale. It was intended to be a seasonal offering anyway. That didn’t sit well with customers.
“We tried to take it off the menu but the patrons revolted,” recounted Brower. “I say jokingly that the beer paid for our first production facility, but there really is a lot of truth to that. It’s still one of our most popular beers.”
This kind of demand for Pigeon Hill brews spurred expansion. In what they call a leap of faith, the craft beer enthusiasts purchased a vacant building one block away from their original site, a former Brunswick test facility. This began the company’s meteoric rise from a small local brewer to a production powerhouse whose Muskegon beer is distributed to some 1,600 locations in Florida and nearly 100 grocery stores, gas stations and party stores as well in Florida.
“We opened a new production facility in downtown Muskegon in May of 2019,” Brower said. “The facility houses our 20 bbl brew house, our 3.5bbl system, our offices and The Brewers Lounge. This will become our main taproom after undergoing renovations this summer.”
The ability to consolidate operations at the new facility has made a world of difference.
“It’s incredible to have our production team under one roof,” he said. “With our old production facility, our main system and pilot system were in different buildings—and our offices were a half mile away for a bit.”
Brower then breaks into a grin before adding: “It’s also really nice to have an office that’s not in a windowless basement and doesn’t require constantly moving a 5-gallon bucket to keep water from dripping all over my stuff.”
Today all Pigeon Hill beer is brewed in its new production facility, located one block off Western Avenue in downtown Muskegon. The popular brewery celebrated its 7th anniversary on March 21, where the eclectic trio of Brower, Kamp and Doane undoubtedly hoisted one of their finely crafted brews. Salted Carmel Porter, Oatmeal Cream Pie, Donut Stop Believin’ and Beach, Please are among some of their more popular offerings. The company, Brower said, was founded on the ideals of community, tradition, and great beer.
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“We have a saying about Muskegon: We take care of our own, and that’s really defined our vision since the early days, when we set out to create space that was, more than anything, a community gathering space. As we’ve grown, we’ve been lucky to have more and more opportunities to collaborate and help out other businesses and community members.”
Pigeon Hill began with one full-time employee, 1 part-timer and a number of part-time bartenders. Now it employs 19 people, 12 of whom are full-timers. It’s truly become a shining example of what’s right about Michigan’s burgeoning craft beer industry.
Muskegon is one of the state’s local municipalities that have approved social districts that allows patrons to purchase alcoholic beverages at licensed participating businesses and consume them within the designated “commons area.”
The state enacted this legislation in September of 2020 to help restaurants and bars that have been put on life support due to the COVID-19 crisis. Count Pigeon Hill among its fans.
“It’s something our local Chamber of Commerce worked on years ago and we supported it then,” Brower said. “Despite all the woes that come with COVID, the resurfacing of this idea is a high spot. The community has rallied behind it, and the local businesses are all working together…”
As difficult as the pandemic-ravaged 2020 was, it did give the “Merry Band of Misfits” time to reflect on Pigeon Hill’s future.
“We had a fairly aggressive 5-year plan in place going into 2020,” Brower said. ‘We had been on a crazy growth trajectory for 7 years. At what point do we want to rein it in. We looked at being a lot more tempered in our growth. We’re focusing on doing what we want to do not what we should do.”
Photo Credit: Brady McDonough
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L to R: Michael Brower, Joel Kamp, Chad Doane
MIBREW TRAIL MAGAZINE
ISSUE 2, SPRING 2021
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hicago native Katie Lynn may not sport a cape or possess
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superpowers, but as far as a Traverse City brewery owner is
CHICAGO NATIVE KATIE LYNN TO THE RESCUE
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TO LEARN MORE ABOUT PIGEON HILL BREWING COMPANY VISIT THE WEST MICHIGAN LAKESHORE TRAIL ON THE MIBREW TRAIL MAP.
Check out Hearst’s newest brand showcasing Michigan Breweries at MiBrewTrail.com.
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