northpierbrewing-blog

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“It’s going to be legen -- wait for it -- dary!”

- Barney Stinson

Our Legends Club memberships are now available! The details are as follows:

For those interested in an Ambassador membership, here are some additional details on the extra goodies: 

First of all, what the heck is a uKeg? Well, a uKeg is a durable, double-wall vacuum insulated stainless steel growler that keeps beer cold and fresh. It has a CO2 regulator cap with a customizable tap handle and gauge. Essentially, it’s draft beer on the go. Here’s a quick video on how it works:

The Belgian beer glass that you will take home is the 16oz version we keep in the taproom for all of our Legends Club members. It has a gold logo and gold rim...we like to keep it classy at North Pier:

Our Ambassador members-only T-shirt will be a unique design that won’t be for sale anywhere else. Details are still being finalized, but here’s a sneak peek:

 Lastly, for each of our Ambassador members, we will have a personalized plaque with your name on it in the taproom. That way you can show all of your friends when you bring them by. 

If you’re interested in becoming a Legends Club Member or Ambassador, please email the following information to jay@northpierbrewing.com:

- Name

- Preferred Email Address

- Phone Number

- Member or Ambassador Preference

We’ll then add you to the list and when you come in for the first time you can pay and we’ll get you your membership cards and any take home benefits.

We hope to see you all at the end of May!

Thanks,

- Jay

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“The only way to do great work is to love what you do”

- Steve Jobs

North Pier Brewing Company in Benton Harbor, MI is a start-up brewery with a taproom and beer garden that is located less than one mile from Lake Michigan and right in the heart of a Jack Nicklaus Design golf course. On tap, we’ll have a rotating list of 12 hand-crafted beers that will focus on Belgian-inspired and yeast-forward ales. 

We are currently looking to fill several full-time and part-time beertending positions starting on May 8th, 2016. These positions will be the face of the company, and as such will be responsible for most aspects of the beer-bar operations. In addition to day-to-day activities, beertenders will have the opportunity to learn about our beers, the production process and craft beer in general.  

Responsibilities for this position include:

- Beertending and engaging with guests - Handling cash and operate the POS system - Cleaning – behind the bar, tables, floor, restroom, washing glassware  - Bussing and resetting tables as required - Changing kegs - Operate the growler filling station (training will be provided) - Serve at tasting events and festivals - Beertenders will report to the tap room managers

Candidates for this position must have the following qualities to be considered for the position:

- Have an outgoing personality - Be at least 21 - Flexible work schedule, including nights and weekends - Passion for craft beer - Ability to work in a team and communicate effectively - Follow alcohol awareness procedures for preventing intoxicated guests - Bartending or beertending experience desired - Interest in brewing is optional – could lead to production area opportunities

If you’re interested and would like to complete an application, please email us at jay@northpierbrewing.com. Please include your resume with this initial email.

- Jay

[northpierbrewing-blog]

Long live letterpress

Hello! My name is Anne-Elise and I love all things crafty. In particular, I have been printing letterpress note cards and posters for the past few years. So when my brother Jay asked me to print some letterpress beer labels and note cards for North Pier Brewing Company, I jumped at the chance to tackle a new project.

Letterpress is the oldest form of printing.  Simply put, a surface with a raised design is inked and pressed to imprint that design on your paper.  The technique dates back to the 1400s and was the primary form of printing for the next 500 years. Eventually it was replaced by offset printing methods and nearly disappeared.  In the late 1980s, letterpress printing had a revival among small printers. However, it wasn’t until the 1990s that letterpress was propelled into the mainstream by … Martha Stewart. Her magazine featured letterpress wedding invitations, sparking a renewed interest in the printing method.

I print on a Vandercook press. These are huge machines that weigh several thousand pounds. The last of them was manufactured in the 1970s. They can be challenging to work with, but they produce the deep impressions that are now associated with letterpress.

The beer labels

Jay wanted to make some sample labels for the test batches they have been working on. Letterpress labels seemed like the perfect fit. We felt that the two shared similar traits - both letterpress and craft brewing require a lot of time, attention to detail, and passion.

We researched the proper paper to use, and designed the label. We also had to order the polymer plates – this is the raised design that you put on the press to print. The tricky part for me is that it involves two colors, and that the different colors are very close to each other (leaving little margin for error). This means that you ink the press with the first color and run all of the labels through. Then you clean the press, re-ink it with the second color, line up your plate perfectly, and make another run. It involves a lot of minor adjustments, but the result was amazing.

The note cards

I love personalized stationery. While the beer labels were the primary objective for this project, I knew I wanted to make note cards as well. We used the same North Pier Brewing Company logo as we did with the labels, but I also printed the interior of the card with the secondary logo. This means the card went through the press three times: (1) Front of card in the red color, (2) Front of card in the golden color, (3) Interior of the card in the red color. It was a lot of work, but definitely worth the effort.

All in all, the entire project meant spending all day on the press. It can be an exhausting process, since you are physically cranking the press for each run (and each label required two runs, each note card required three runs). I calculated that I ran the press almost 1,000 times that day, which definitely counts as my workout for the week.

Stay tuned to find out what other letterpress projects Jay, Steve, and I come up with!

- Anne-Elise

[northpierbrewing-blog]

Santé!

Hi - my name is Steve Distasio and I am the new Head Brewer of North Pier Brewing Company.  For my first blog post, I figured I should write a bit about our focus on brewing Belgian styled beers. In the future there will be more technical and in depth style profile posts, so this is more of a primer.

I first went to Belgium while I was attending a brewing course in the United Kingdom. We had a week of vacation, and it was a no-brainer to visit the motherland of beer! I was also able to talk my girlfriend into flying out to join me, so I had someone to listen to me ramble on about random beer knowledge. 

I was lucky enough to try some of my favorite beers in the world at the source. I also found myself learning a lot about the role beer played in Belgian culture.  This really all hit me one night while at a bar in Leuven. No more than 5 blocks from our hotel sat a small pub on the corner of the street.  While this place did not have a vast selection of beers (Leuven is the birth place of Stella after all), they made up for it with atmosphere. We took a seat at a small table on the beautiful patio space, next to some fresh hop bines growing up the fence.  What started as a place to grab a quick beer and some lunch ended up turning into an all-night stop.

As the sun faded away and the outdoor lights flickered on, I took a moment to look at the landscape around us. There were customers of all ages grouped together at tables, enjoying the company of those around them over a couple of drinks. They didn’t have tables lined with mixed drinks and macro lagers. Rather, they had an array of fine Belgian Ales properly served in their respective glasses. There were middle aged women drinking goblets of Chimay and Rochefort, young college students sipping tulips of La Chouffe, and flutes of Geuze Boon. It was an incredible plethora of people enjoying great beer from their homeland. It was truly a beer drinking community. I was blown away and really enjoyed being a part of that community, even if it was only for a couple days.

This trip through Belgium inspired me to start brewing more Belgian styled beers. I began focusing on creating beers that were crafted to be dry, extremely drinkable beers, with beautifully complex flavors and aromas.  I wanted to learn how to strike the perfect balance between large spicy, fruity, floral aromas without creating a beer that was too overpowering and offensive. How to create complexity without being overly heavy handed with spices and hops.  How to let the Belgian yeast shine, and how to handle and treat the extremely finicky characteristics of each individual strain. I wanted each of my beers to embody the same artisan roots as my favorite Belgian beers. Most importantly, I try to create beers with the same aura that helps people feel connected to the beer.

If you have never explored the vast range of Belgian beers before, this may be a bit of a new experience. Each style can be polar opposites of one another, and often beers within the same style may be wildly different. Historically, Belgian brewers have never been ones to brew within specific guidelines, and beers often changed with the seasonality of ingredients. Style guidelines were, more or less, implemented as a way for drinkers in the export markets to understand exactly what they were drinking. Do not be surprised if a golden light bodied, easy drinking beer ends up having an alcohol content well about 8%. It is about quality, not quantity here.

Here at North Pier Brewing, we are busy cranking out test batches of our own interpretations of these Belgian styles. While you may not be able to drink our beer for a couple more months, we encourage you to go out and try Belgian styled ales for yourself. Remember, beer is meant to be shared among friends, so I expect some invites…

[northpierbrewing-blog]

We’ve only just begun

“Do I know what I’m doing today? No. But I’m here, and I’m going to give it my best shot”

- Hansel, Zoolander

This blog is dedicated to the goings-on at North Pier Brewing Company for anyone who is interested in learning more about us. We’ll be adding more posts with some background on us, updates on our progress, and some additional ramblings from me. 

We’ve come a long way in the past six months. We turned an idea into a business plan, started executing and haven’t looked back.

We searched high and low for a building and ended up in a location that has been in front of my eyes for years. As an avid-yet-mediocre golfer, I’ve driven by our building many times while playing Harbor Shores. We filled out countless forms, signed our lives away, and filed for our Brewer’s Notice and Microbrewery License. We hired a head brewer, developed recipes, and brewed our first test batches. All signs point to us sticking to our timeline but there are always unknowns and surprises (like the fact that my wife, Jordan, and I found out we are having twins shortly after the brewery opens!).

Starting a brewery is exciting, terrifying, fun, tedious, strategic, tactical, and a whole host of other things all at the same time. It’s exciting to be on the verge of selling our own beer in our own taproom, yet terrifying because of the risk of failure. It’s been fun visiting other breweries, tasting new beers and creating our own beers, but tedious wading through the mountains of paperwork required to get our licenses. We’ve put our strategic hats on and envisioned the future, yet we’ve been tactical in figuring out the minute details to get us into operation. One thing is certain though - it’s the best job I’ve ever had and I’m going to give it my best shot. 

Hope you enjoy and look forward to seeing you all for a beer in 2016!

- Jay