Brew Pioneers: Traverse Brewing Company keeps Northern Michigan‘s Suds Flowing

March 13, 2002

The year was 1973, and Jack Archiable was studying literature and psychology at Ohio
University. In his spare time, he was learning how to make beer. Little did he know this fun hobby would one day turn into a full-time business.
Now Archiable spends his days at Traverse Brewing Company, Ltd., a microbrewery located
just south of Elk Rapids. Since 1996, he‘s been brewing up stouts, ales, and porters, all lovingly named after Northern Michigan hang-outs -- Old Mission Lighthouse Ale, Manitou Brand Amber, Sleeping Bear Brown, Torch Lake Light, and a host of others.
But starting a business in these North Woods takes lots of courage and stamina, not to
mention a good sense of humor. “Our motto has always been, ‘We‘re too dumb to go away, and
we‘ll make the best beer possible,‘“ he jokes, then adds a bit more seriously, “ We‘ve constantly kept focused, and we love what we‘re doing here.“
The “we“ he speaks of is himself, beermaker John Niedermaier, assistant brewer Sam
Sherwood, and Elaine Edstrom, who handles much of the office work. John Edstrom, who founded the business with Archiable, is no longer with the company, but a host of dedicated volunteers are taking up the slack, for which Archiable is extremely grateful.
“We have an incredible volunteer staff,“ he says. “I have people who help on the bottling
line, who help move snow... and they get paid with a hearty pat on the back and with low fills off the bottling line, and they‘re happy.“

TAKES TIME
What surprises him most about owning a microbrewery? Mainly, the amount of time and
energy required to keep everything running smoothly. Although Niedermaier handles most of the beer-making these days, Archiable still averages 60 to 65 hours a week on everything else.
“You really become one with the brewery,“ he says. “Luckily, my wife and family support
me on that. They know that if the brewery is successful, we‘ll all be successful.“
Still, it‘s not always easy, especially competing with everyone from Kalamazoo Brewing
Company owner Larry Bell -- who Archiable describes as “the king of microbreweries in the state of Michigan“ -- to Budweiser, Coor‘s and all the other big guys. Much of it comes down to tap handles.
“We‘re competing against everybody who has a tap handle,“ says Archiable. “Next month,
I‘ll be hitting up the pubs to get tap handles back where we‘ve lost them. In this business, it‘s just a constant arm-wrestling over which pub, which restaurant, is going to serve who‘s beer. Sometimes you just have to go in there and do it the old-fashioned way, as they say... beg.“
The brews produced at Traverse Brewing Company are sold not only in Northern Michigan,
but also throughout the entire state. A mandated three-tier system puts the microbrewery at the first tier, the distributors at the second tier, and the stores and pubs at the third tier. Archiable currently has eight distributors that peddle the brews from Ann Arbor to the U.P. -- to restaurants, taverns, groceries, and anywhere else beer is bought or consumed.
“It‘s been fun to see what‘s happened since 1996, as far as what‘s been hot and what‘s not
been hot,“ he says. “I never thought there‘d be this many brew pubs and microbreweries in the state of Michigan. Our license was 007, meaning we were the seventh one to come down the pike, and as of last month, there were 65.“

37,000 GALLONS OF BEER ON THE WALL...
Still, they‘re the only microbrewery in this area (as compared to the brew pubs in the region). Traverse Brewing‘s facility includes a small bar with on-tap beer available by the glass.
“We‘re licensed as a microbrewery, so we‘re allowed to have a restaurant if we so desire,“
he explains. “But our whole idea is to manufacture the best beer we can make and get it out the door.“
And that‘s just what they do. Last year, they made about 37,000 gallons of beer, with
Manitou Brand Amber as their biggest seller in glass bottles and Sleeping Bear Brown the biggest seller in draft. But Archiable keeps it all in perspective.
“You‘ve got to remember that if the big guys screw up and accidentally dump what they have going on in their fermentation room, they‘d probably be dumping that in one day by accident,“ he notes. “I heard about Coor‘s doing that a few years ago, and I calculated it out and went, ‘Man, that‘s our whole production for a year. Holy Smokes!‘“
Still, starting a microbrewery, keeping it viable for six years, and looking forward to an “in the black“ status this year is no small feat. Lots of hard work and long hours are involved, and a loyal fan base doesn‘t hurt either.
“I‘ve seen a lot of people who used to drink Budweiser or Miller or Coors at the pubs try
Sleeping Bear Brown on draft, and God Bless ‘em, they‘re still drinking it.“


(SIDEBAR)

A Short Primer on Beer-Making

It all begins with malted barley, which is quite a process by itself. “You can read books 200 pages long just on the malting process,“ says Archiable. “But we don‘t do that here, we buy ours already malted.“
The barley is poured into a mill, where it‘s cracked to get at the kernel (“barley corn“). Hot
water is added, the mixture (“sweet wort“) is left to rest for 90 minutes, then pumped into a copper brew kettle. Water is then sprinkled on top of the barley (“mash“), where it trickles through and pulls out the sugar. It‘s boiled for an hour, laced with bittering hops, then left to rest for an hour.
From there, it‘s pumped through a hop percolator and heat exchanger to an open-top
fermenter, where yeast is poured in. Left to ferment for five or six days, the yeast is then stripped off and saved.
“We‘re still using a strain of yeast from the first batch we ever made,“ explains Archiable.
The mixture is then pumped to a conditioning tank, chilled, filtered, CO2‘d, then packaged
and sent out the door.
The whole process takes nine to ten days and produces beers ranging from the very mild
Sleeping Bear Brown to the more intense Traverse Brewing Company Stout. They also produce two seasonal beers, such as last year‘s Power Island Porter and Elk Lake ESB (extra special bitter), as well as the Traverse Brewing Company Shandy, a 50/50 mix of light ale and lemonade traditionally served to children in pubs in Ireland.
Although hard core beer drinkers might not fancy the shandy, “the people who like it, like
it a lot,“ says Archiable. “And it does taste really refreshing, especially on a hot summer day.“
In honor of St. Patrick‘s Day, Traverse Brewing Company will be offering a special Firken
stout, along with brewery tours on Friday, March 15, and Saturday, March 16. For more information, call (231) 264-9343 or visit their Web site, www.traversebrewingcompany.com.