Five Defining Moments and Five Defining Beers

The 20-Year history of Short’s Brewing Company

By Craig Manning | March 9, 2024

Joe Short was too young to buy beer, so he started making his own.

That’s the humble (and somewhat illicit) origin story of Short’s Brewing Company, which opened its doors in downtown Bellaire 20 years ago this April. Two decades on, Short’s is a craft beer titan—the biggest brewery in northern Michigan and the third biggest in the state, after Founders in Grand Rapids and Bell’s in Kalamazoo.

How did one young man’s adoration for craft beer morph into one of northern Michigan’s cornerstone businesses? Northern Express sat down with Short to talk through the specific moments (and the specific beers) that shaped the brewery’s first 20 years.

FIVE DEFINING MOMENTS

#1: The Spark
“The first step was being exposed to craft beer when I was around 19 or 20,” Short says. “I immediately had an affinity for it, but it was hard for me to acquire, not being of legal age. So I taught myself how to homebrew.”

Soon, Short had come to love the process of making beer almost as much as he loved the beer itself.

“I was just stoked about the craft,” he explains. “I was stoked about the creative process, about learning the history of brewing, and about sharing what I thought were masterpieces with people. Around that time, I remember being told that ‘Whatever you choose to do in your life, you need to make sure it's something that you enjoy.’ And very early on, I was saying to myself, ‘Well, this is clearly it!’”

#2: The First Big Triumph
“I was 23 when I started working on Short’s,” Short recalls. “I had been brewing professionally for a couple years, and I was working on writing a business plan, choosing a location, and learning what you have to do—and what not to do—just to get your doors open.”

It took two years of hard work for Short to bring his vision to life. In 2003, he snagged a 100-year-old former hardware store in downtown Bellaire and worked to renovate it. Finally, on April 26, 2004, Short’s Brewing Company officially opened its doors.

“That felt like a triumph,” he says. “Just being able to open the doors in this remote village in northwestern Lower Michigan and say, ‘Hey, everybody! Come check this out. I’m working on some stuff here. It’s amazing and you should be a part of it.’ That first day was a ‘holy shit’ moment—as in, ‘This happened; I did it!’ But I was also thinking ‘Now what? Now you’ve gotta keep the doors open.’”

#3: The Darkest Days
Keeping those doors open proved to be an immense challenge and didn’t necessarily get easier as Short’s cycled through its first few years.

“The winters were a killer,” Short says with a shudder. “We started to throw a party at the end of every month, just to get through the off-season. We did a Halloween party in October. We did Brewski Bash in November, around Thanksgiving. We did an ugly sweater party in December. In February, we’d try a Valentine’s dinner. It was about doing whatever could get us to April for the anniversary party. We’d throw those end-of-the-month parties so we could pay rent, and then we’d have our big anniversary bash in the spring to pay taxes.”

“Every year got a little better,” Short adds. “But for a long time, we really were focused on doing what we needed to do to make it to the next summer.”

#4: The Growth Spurt
Despite a nationwide economic downturn, 2008 was a major level-up moment for Short’s. That year, the brewery opened a new production facility in Elk Rapids, significantly ramping up its beer-making capacity and its ability to chase down beer distribution opportunities.

“I believe we started really mild distribution in 2005,” Short said. “We started out with [alcoholic beverage distributor] Imperial Beverage, and they would order a few kegs here and there…and then that turned into a couple of pallets here and there.”

While you can now find Short’s beer on just about every grocery store and bottle shop shelf in the state, those early distribution years were all about draft sales. With Imperial Beverage as a partner, Short’s kegs made their way to bars and restaurants around Michigan, and word started to spread. In no time, the brewery was being stretched too thin.

“We were starting to see more folks show up at the pub; we were becoming more of a quote-unquote ‘destination,’ and people were making a point to seek us out,” Short says. “It got to the point where it was hard to make enough beer for both distribution and on-premise sales.”

In order to meet the mounting demand, Short’s took its biggest growth step ever, purchasing an old manufacturing facility in Elk Rapids and converting it into the new hub of brewing operations. The investment not only allowed Short’s to expand its distribution significantly, but also gave the brewery a presence closer to local hubs like Traverse City.

Today, the production facility is also home to the Pull Barn, itself a bustling taproom and beer garden.

#5: The “Pinch Me” Moment
Short’s will officially celebrate two decades of operations with its annual anniversary bash, scheduled for April 26-27. It’s a major milestone for any business, let alone a craft brewery nestled in a small northern Michigan town.

But when asked for his “pinch me” moment —as in, the moment in the Short’s story where he knew his business had really “made it”—Short can’t think of an answer.

“Frankly, I still don’t know if I’m there,” Short says. “When you say ‘made it,’ I don’t really feel like that’s even the case for us. Every year has been different. We’ve had our successes. We’ve had our failures. But it’s been a relentless 20 years of figuring it out. There have been a few times where we were on the brink of bankruptcy. And we’ve always celebrated every single anniversary as ‘We made it through another year.’”

In other words, maybe the “pinch me” moment for Short is an untapped keg to be enjoyed sometime in the next 20 years.

“My wife Leah and I still, to this day, work five, six, seven days a week,” he says. “So, maybe I’ll know we’ve made it when we can take an extended vacation together for three months.”

FIVE DEFINING BEERS

When you run a brewery for 20 years, you come up with literally hundreds of different concoctions. Some become staples, some become cult classics, and some get forgotten. In honor of the milestone, we asked Short to remember some of the brewery’s definitive creations from over the years.

#1: The Bedrock Beer
“I always say the beer that built Short’s was Huma Lupa Licious,” Short says. “IPA was and is my favorite beer style, and I really wanted Short’s to be known for a great IPA.”

Short got his wish: Huma Lupa Licious was “the first beer we ever sold at the pub” and became the brewery’s early top seller.

“That was the style that I spent all my time really honing and perfecting,” Short says. And while other Short’s beers would eventually overtake Huma in popularity, the IPA remains his personal go-to: “It’s still my daily drinker,” he says.

#2: The Overall Flagship
For more than a decade, Huma Lupa Licious was the Short’s Brewing Company flagship. While the IPA is still on the short list, though, a different beer accounts for 50 percent of the company’s sales.

As Short remembers it, Huma lost its top-dog status in the mid-to-late 2010s, when oversaturation in the IPA market sent customers “bouncing around” to other styles. “At that time, I doubled down on the number-one beer style in the world, which is the light lager,” he says. “I put a ton of my focus and energy on Local’s Light. And now, that beer is our top-selling beer overall and Michigan’s best-selling craft lager.”

#3: The Boss’s Favorite
When asked to identify his choice brew, Short’s list includes Huma Lupa Licious, Nicey (a wheat ale with orange zest, lemon zest, coriander, and peppercorn), Spruce Pilsner (an imperial pilsner brewed with spruce tips), and Juicy Tree (a Christmastime IPA made with blue spruce needles, juniper berries, and cranberries).

Recently, Short’s has introduced a trio of Local’s Light variants—Local’s Amber, Local’s Dark, and Local’s Litro Stout—to capitalize on the massive popularity of the brand. The first two are an amber ale and a dark lager, respectively. The third is a light nitro stout (abbreviated “Litro”) along the lines of Guinness.

“Right now, I have Huma Lupa Licious and Local’s Litro Stout on tap at home, and I make black and tans almost every day,” he says. “So, maybe that’s my favorite Short’s beer.”

#4: The Odd Duck
While beers like Huma Lupa Licious and Local’s Light have found broad audiences by offering traditional takes on familiar styles, Short’s has been known to get a little weird from time to time. We asked which of the brewery’s adventurous beers Short loves the most.

“That would definitely be Bloody Beer,” he says, referring to an oddity brewed with Roma tomatoes, black peppercorns, celery seed, horseradish, and dill. “If you like Bloody Marys with a sidecar lager, you’ll love this one. It’s a weird beer, but technically and structurally, it’s something I’m really proud of.”

#5: The One That Got Away
Some beers aren’t appreciated in their own time. Which under-loved beer sticks on the brain for Short?

“There was one beer from the early years that I didn’t necessarily care for, but I thought was really well executed, and that was the Smoked Apple Ale,” Short says. “We took seven bushels of northern Michigan apples and we smoked them just down the street from the pub at the Bellaire Smokehouse. Holy shit was that beer smoky as hell, but there were a very select few people that just loved it.”