MiBrew Magazine: Whiskey Point

“It’s to the point I don’t like answering the phone because I have to say, ‘no, we don’t have outdoor seating.’ Once the threat of snow is gone, we’ll set up the outdoor seating again. We deliver our beer within a 10-mile radius. Anything we can do to sell a beer, we’re doing it. Overall we’re making it work.” On this particular January day, Bosel is running his homebrew shop and preparing for the Thirsty Thursday Virtual Trivia contest he hosts from 7-9 p.m. “I just did a release of Russian Imperial Stout (11.4% ABV). Maybe after trivia night tonight, I can have a beer.” As Bosel and his partner are fond of saying: “We are just two guys who make some damn good brews.” So if you’re rolling through Kalamazoo County and you hear a train rolling down the track, it’s clearly a sign to make your way to The Distant Whistle Brewhouse to wet your whistle.

MICHIGAN BREWERIES KEEP CRAFT BEER A SOCIAL EXPERIENCE—AT A DISTANCE

I moved here when I was eight, I graduated from high school here in a class of four - and 50% of us went on to get master's degrees. So yeah, I've been here my whole life, pretty much

— Patrick McGinnity Owner of Whiskey Point Brewing

Whiskey Point Brewing: What’s It Like Running America’s Most Remote Brewery?

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.

BY Karl Klockars FOR mibrew trail

remote brewery in America. Sure, there are small-town breweries that are separated by more raw mileage, but those are connected by things like “highways” and “dry land.” And yes, there are other island-based breweries, but most are connected by bridges; at most an hour long ferry ride. If you want to try a pint of Whiskey Point beer, it requires a two-hour ferry ride or a 15-minute flight over a 30-mile stretch of Great Lakes water, meaning once you get to the historic grocery store that houses the Whiskey Point Brewery, you have definitely earned that pour of blonde ale, IPA or porter. We spoke with owner and brewer Patrick McGinnity about what it’s like to run a brewing business so distant from the mainland, on an island with just a few hundred year-round residents:

hiskey Point Brewing Company, located out in the waters of Lake Michigan on Beaver Island, may very well be the most

MBT: Before we start talking about the brewery itself, let’s talk about the location: Have you been a full-time resident of the island for pretty much your entire life? Patrick McGinnity: I moved here when I was eight, I graduated from high school here in a class of four - and 50% of us went on to get master's degrees. So yeah, I've been here my whole life, pretty much; I was gone for school and work and things, then came back in 2013. Fun fact: I once spent more than twelve months without leaving the island at all. It was just a busy time [and] it was about eleven months before I realized that I hadn’t left the island. And then at that point I had to just stick it out and try to make it past the twelve-month mark because, yeah, you're never gonna get that close again. [laughs]

MBT: Tell me about your brewing journey, and why you wanted to bring a brewery back home to Beaver Island. Patrick: When I was teaching composition at Central Michigan University, someone got me a kit for Christmas and I started home brewing and really got started to get into it and kind of geek out on the science. And so I was always thinking, “Wouldn't be great if there was a brewery on the island?” It took quite a while before we even started getting real craft beer on the taps at the bars on the island. I wouldn't have been interested in starting a company somewhere else because I wasn't really into entrepreneurship - it was more that Beaver Island was missing out on the craft beer scene, and I knew that with all the tourism that goes along with craft beer that it would be a destination place if we could get it up and running. MBT: How long has Whiskey Point been up and running? Patrick: We’ll be starting our third year on like, the first of July. I won't say we haven't had a good year yet, but we haven't had a normal year yet. Our first year we had all these building delays and things that pushed it until almost the Fourth of July before we were able to open, and then we just got slammed and ran out of beer. In 18 hours, we were out of beer. And basically we had to close down until we could brew more beer. Then our grain supplier went out of business and didn't tell us. So we were waiting on a couple thousand dollars in grain that never showed up - you know, a perfect storm of things going wrong. We lost almost half a month in our first year because we didn't have any supply. Then we were hoping for good things this last summer but obviously that didn't quite happen. We were running at about 50% throughout the summer. But I have a feeling that we're going to hit our maximum capacity [this year] pretty early on and we’ll have to get equipment upgrades going, because we're trying to streamline things and get as much beer out of the system as we can.

The Distant Whistle Brewhouse is known for its Pale Ales and IPA's, Loyal customers point to the brewery's ability to consistently produce a quality beer and its large selection of rotating taps as but a few of the reasons they keep coming back.

MBT: What's what's your favorite thing to brew, and what's the most popular beer you guys have? Patrick: We started out with an IPA, a porter and a red ale as our initial lineup. The amber was my favorite recipe that we had, and then when our grain supply dwindled that first summer, we had to try to figure out what we could bring with what we had on hand. So we came up with a blonde ale, just from what we had. And wouldn't you know it - that's everybody's favorite, the one that we created in a hurry because we were trying to do something. MBT: And what kind of brewing system are you working on? Patrick: It’s all electric, because otherwise we would have to use propane or something. It’s just an electric system, a two barrel system from Stout [Tanks and Kettles]. We picked it up used from a brewery in Alaska, so it actually had to be shipped by barge from Alaska to Seattle, and then got on a truck and drove here and then got back on a barge to come to the island, so it had quite a trip to get here. So it's it's kind of small and cute, but we produce roughly 70 gallons per batch, and because we're maxing it out and trying to get everything we can out of it, we keep running up against all these things where it's like, “Well, yeah, we can produce more beer but we'll need more cooler space, because we don’t have a big walk in…” So trying to figure out which things to upgrade first is going to be the puzzle.

By Mike Lerchenfeldt for mibrew trail

Project. These microbreweries are two different and separate companies but same ownership. She splits her time equally between both locations. As their first and only female brewer at these popular microbreweries, she is said to be a breath of fresh air in the world of craft brewing. These are two of the best places to be in the Metro Detroit Area to meet up and lap up a beer. They both have great atmospheres and plentiful beer selections made with tasty local ingredients. They are perfect spots to go to after the Detroit Lions let you down. Rain or shine – it’s always pouring. In two vibrant communities, she helps brew beers for the masses to experience. Being able to create something out of raw grains that people can enjoy is a great feeling. Her favorite beers on tap are low ABV and crisp. They have clean, easy drinkability for a hot or cold day. Perfect for Michiganders who never know what to expect weather-wise, and perfect for health conscious, outdoor runners like Sudduth.

Two former Northern Michigan University classmates and friends have turned a youthful hobby into a successful business in the village of Vicksburg, located in Kalamazoo County. Dane Bosel and Andy Clous are equal partners in The Distant Whistle Brewhouse, a small batch craft brewery they opened in August of 2016. Clous was a home brewer in college and when he and Bosel both later moved to the Kalamazoo area, they remained friends and, after brewing some batches in Bosel’s garage, the two began to entertain serious thoughts about taking their passion for craft beer to another level. “Andy had all his homebrew equipment from college but he was in a one-bedroom apartment. That was kind of cumbersome,” Bosel said. “I had a garage and those first batches turned out well. Then we started thinking about how we could sell our beer.” The dream, though, got bogged down with “all the red tape, paperwork and waiting” involved in meeting all of the licensure requirements to open a brewery.

MBT: Are there any indigenous ingredients to the island that you’ve had a chance to play with in your beers? I’ve read that you have a Beaver Island native hop varietal... Patrick: Yeah, we've brewed with that a little bit but we aren't really set up to brew with full cone hops for the most part, so I've already done it at a small scale - like homebrew scale. I still haven't had it tested to find out what it is; it may have been something that went wild from somebody's farm back in the 1800s and ended up in the swamp area. Mostly we don't have the liberty to experiment much just because we're trying to produce enough of the basics right now [but] I would like to do some more things. Long Road distillery gets their juniper berries for the Michi-gin from Beaver Island, and I've got a property that has junipers all over it, that’d be fun to try something similar with a beer. MBT: Are there any other island-based breweries that you know of, and are any as remote as you are? Patrick: There’s pretty much just a handful. The one that I was using as a model is out in Maine, and it's on an island [Monhegan Brewing] - the main brewer is a lobster fisherman so they're only open when it's not lobster season. They're also affiliated with a brewery on the mainland [Lake St. George Brewing]. But yeah, there are not very many at all and we're definitely the only one in Lake Michigan. And I think we're the only one that's a brewery licensed in Michigan that's on an island in the Great Lakes.

MBT: Have you ever reached out to talk shop with them, or anyone else who runs a really remote brewery? Patrick: I've been tempted to! I haven't quite yet [but] I have been in touch with the Copper Harbor Brewery [Brickside Brewery]. I was in touch with them early on when I was planning, just trying to find out what they do to stay open year round. His advice was to just brew higher gravity beers in the winter so they keep longer, and hope for the best. [laughs] MBT: What’s the wildest thing someone’s done to get to your beer since you’ve been open? Patrick: I find it really interesting - one of the things that I like about the brewery culture Is the willingness of people to travel. Like, [where] you're going to make stopping every brewery you can find part of your itinerary. I wasn't at the brewery when it happened, but there was somebody who flew a private plane from Fox island to Beaver Island, so that we could deliver beer to the airport for them to take back for their dinner. An airplane trip! Just to get some beer. MBT: What's the hardest thing about running a brewery on an island? Patrick: Oh, that's a great question. Yesterday I actually had to come up with a new recipe because the ingredients we needed for our porter, which we were brewing yesterday, were sitting in Charlevoix because they get delivered by UPS - but planes hadn't flown much the day before, so they were backed up on passengers and freight. So we found out early on in the day that our freight wasn’t coming over. So, I had a couple hours to come up with a recipe and so we ended up brewing a kolsch instead of a porter, because the hops were kind of the same and we had other things in stock that we could use. So that's the biggest challenge - the logistics. Like, “we ran out of co2, it's gonna take three days to get some because we have to send a tank over and then get a tank back.” Even our wastewater - we have to haul it all off site, so we have to get a permit for that. It's just extra hurdles that you have to do.

MBT: People say art thrives in its limitations - do you think that working in this remote location has made you a better brewer? Patrick: I can't say that it makes me a better brewer, but I think it makes all of us better business owners in some ways. Nobody expected [the brewery] to be huge - it was a huge success by island terms, [but we just ] wanted it to be a new social place on the island. The important part is that we're still making good beer. People are still coming in and having a good time, and this whole island has a lot of pride in the brewery. That's wonderful. This interview has been edited for space and clarity.

Photo Credit: Brady McDonough

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