Beer, wine to be made downtown Ann Arbor
December 15, 2008
Chris Nass passed this article from Mlive.com written by Tina Reed onto me. It is about some exciting beer related news concerning downtown Ann Arbor. I have the post cut and pasted but you can still click here for the link.
Beer, wine to be made downtown Ann Arbor
Posted by Tina Reed | The Ann Arbor News December 15, 2008 09:22AM
Downtown Ann Arbor may soon have its own beer and wine manufacturing company.
Called Northern United Brewing LLC, the company plans to make, bottle and sell beer, wine and distilled spirits in downtown Ann Arbor, Dexter and Traverse City. State tax credits for the company are expected to be approved today.
The company also plans to add a tasting room and a restaurant to the Ann Arbor location, said Jon Carlson, one of two managers in charge of operating the company.
It will join a small number of local businesses where patrons can purchase beer brewed on site, such as Grizzly Peak Brewing Co. and Arbor Brewing Co. But while the established businesses mainly sell beer consumed on site, the new company’s planned focus will be selling its packaged beer and wine.
The managers behind downtown brewing restaurants Grizzly Peak Brewing Co. and the recently opened Blue Tractor Cook Shop and Dexter-based Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales are behind the company. Northern United Brewing owns the Jolly Pumpkin Artisan and Grizzly Peak brands, as well as North Peak, a brand served in one of the restaurants in Traverse City.
Ron Jefferies, owner of Jolly Pumpkin, will serve as president of the new company.
The group plans to invest $5.8 million in the project and will hire 67 people between the Ann Arbor and Traverse City sites in its first year of business. The owners plan to create 158 manufacturing-type jobs in five years.The business should be approved for $1.1 million in tax credits over eight years during a Michigan Economic Growth Authority meeting today, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
The company is considering setting up shop in the space in the former Kaplan and Instant Furniture Rental building downtown. Work should begin in January, Carlson said.
Tina Reed can be reached at 734-994-6843 or treed@annarbornews.com.
Posted in Beer News, Beer and Food, Brewery/Brewpub, Michgan products, local food
December 15th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
WOW!!! This is further proof that Michigan is ground-zero for the beer world! It’s exciting to see Ron’s name associated with this project.
CB
December 15th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Yeah, sent this to the e-mail list this morning, heard back privately that there are issues with this story. The AA News has had issues with their brewery reporting in the past, so was worried about putting this one on the blog.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:12 am
If true. This is awesome.
December 16th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Supposedly per Ron Jeffries (but still 3rd hand for me), the brewery/distillery will be near Traverse and Jolly Pumpkin cafes will be built in AA and Dexter.
December 16th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Jnaz,
I had a story in the past that Mlive ran on JP that they were not happy with and that was on my mind when I posted this one. I then thought Mlive gets more hits than us so I ran with it.
I hope the issues they had with the Mlive story is not with the facts but that Mlive had let the cat out of the bag. They are my favorite MI brewery and I want the story to be true.
June 17th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
lookinh for a job my sister aunt owns the beer place that u are tlaking about please get a h old of me at 734 330 4980 thank you stephanie ressler