Growing Roots, Brewing Beer

Owners of Elder Piper Beer + Cider sought community and connection for their new brewery

By Greg Tasker | Aug. 10, 2024

The apple orchard near Bliss, Michigan, is a bit of a hike from Elder Piper Beer + Cider in Petoskey, but for owners Trace and Eeva Redmond, the connection to the family farm and local ingredients is more important than the drive.

After a decade working for some of the country’s biggest breweries, the Redmonds returned to Michigan to open their small brewery and cidery in the Old Town Emmet neighborhood of Petoskey, Eeva’s hometown.

“We make beers and ciders that are rooted in the context and the place where they are made,” says Trace, who experimented with home brewing in college and jumped into the beer industry right after graduation. “Over my brewing career, I have had the opportunity to brew a lot of different beers in a lot of different places. What unites all those beers is a fascination with fermentation. I’m excited to dig deeper and share my explorations through the beers and ciders of Elder Piper.”

Orchard Rehab

That exploration includes the old orchard at the 100-acre family farm near the Mackinac Bridge, something the couple began doing as they were looking for a location and putting the pieces together to launch their business. The orchard is part of a flower farm, Open Sky Farm, which grows and sells a large variety of flowers as well as dried spices and herbs.

“We were feeling really disconnected from our craft,” says Eeva, recalling their time away from brewing while they were planting the seeds of their business in Michigan. The couple met while they were students at Kalamazoo College and both followed career paths into the craft beer industry. “We were walking around the farm and came across a feral orchard … There were apple trees all over.”

The Redmonds began pruning and tending the trees to rehabilitate the orchard. Eventually, they began harvesting the fruit, initially making small batches of hard cider. Production has grown steadily as the trees have provided more fruit. They named the cider Pillows and Blankets Harvest Cider because they used the packing boxes containing their pillows and blankets from their move to do the first harvest.

“We don’t know what kind of apples [are in the orchard]. We’ve tried hard to identify,” says Trace, who has a degree in microbiology. “They’re so old and there are so many varieties. It’s hard to correctly say what the varieties are, but there are about 10 to 12 varieties.”

Their ciders go through 100 percent natural fermentation, using only the yeast on the collected apples. That process creates “a really unique taste of the season and the orchard,” Trace says. The couple does not use sulfites or spray the trees with pesticides.

Beer, Food, and Culture

Sourcing from that farm and others in northern Michigan is important to the Redmonds. They buy Michigan hops, malt for their craft beers from Great Lakes Malting in Traverse City, as well as cherries and a blended apple juice from King Orchards in Central Lake for their ciders.

An important aspect of their production process is the use of a reverse osmosis water filtration system. The system includes a sediment and carbon filter and removes almost all the minerals from the water, providing a blank canvas for their beer. They are able to mimic different water profiles to highlight different characteristics of beer styles.

For example, they can create a bright and mineral water profile for a German pilsner or a soft and rounded profile for their Beach Grass Helles Lager.

Like the hard ciders, the craft beers on tap at Elder + Piper are Trace’s recipes, and the selection includes lagers, pale ales, stouts, and IPAs. Trace knows his stuff—he was an assistant brewer and cellarman for Founders Brewing Co. in Grand Rapids for three years. He also worked as quality manager at ROAK Brewing in Royal Oak before moving onto Highland Brewing in Asheville, North Carolina. There, he held roles including research and development brewer and brewing manager.

Eeva, who studied art history and classics in college, was one of the first marketing and sales hires at ROAK Brewing. She then worked at Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in Asheville, where she was the tour team lead. Eventually, she moved to Highland Brewing as a communications manager.

Her epiphany with beer came long before that career began. After leaving Petoskey, she spent a year in Belgium.

“Belgium had such a fascinating beer culture. It was my first experience with beer as more than a backyard barbecue beverage. There was different glassware, different flavors and culinary efforts. It was connecting beer to food to moments in culture,” Eeva says. “That was just fascinating to me.”

A Hidden Gem

The couple started developing a business plan for their own brewery in the midst of that first year of the pandemic.

“We’d always talked about opening our own brewery, and COVID came around,” Eeva recalls. “We had great jobs in Asheville, but we realized we didn’t have roots in the community outside of work. We sort of had that moment, ‘If we are going to ever open a brewery, we do it or let that dream go.’”

They returned to Michigan in 2021 and began searching for a location. They found their spot in an early 20th-century manufacturing facility that dates back to 1929. The taproom boasts the original wood floors and large windows allow lots of light. There is also an outdoor patio, a great spot to watch an evolving neighborhood.

The snacks available at the brewery are unusual, inspired by the couple’s trip to Spain. The menu includes canned sardines with preserved lemon or hot peppers, smoked salmon, and sliced fennel salami. The brewery does not have a kitchen to prepare food.

“I just love tapas culture,” Eeva says. “Offering tinned fish is a bit non traditional, but [the fish] and smoked salmon pair with our citrusy IPAs quite nicely. We have snacks that you can make dinner out of, enjoy al fresco.”

Elder Piper Beer + Cider is marking its first summer—the brewery opened the last week of March, almost a year to the date the building renovation began—enjoying the craft beverage aficionados and others who have found them.

“We’re still a hidden gem,” Eeva says. “We get a lot of people traveling here from Grand Rapids and Gaylord. I’ve loved this period of hidden gem quality because we’ve gotten to know people. People stop by with their kids in strollers or with their dogs. We are definitely becoming a neighborhood spot. I love it.”

Find Elder Piper Beer + Cider at 923 Baxter St. in Petoskey. elderpiperbeer.com