For some reason, I have always loved beer, starting at an early age when my only connection was the late 1970’s beer ads on TV. While I did not understand why you would care if beer was less filing, having it taste great sounded like a priority.
One night when I was 20 years old, it hit me that I could buy everything to make beer. I just not beer itself. As luck would have it, Bell’s Brewing had a great homebrew shop a few miles from my apartment. A hobby was born!
After graduating from Western Michigan University with a Finance degree, I ended up in Colorado working as an onsite event planner. At the time, homebrewing was still a hobby. Then one night I met an honest-to-goodness head brewer, Andy Brown. He was leading the Left Hand Brewing operations in Longmont, CO.
Andy and I kept in touch. Later, he ended up as the Wynkoop’s head brewer in Denver, CO. In 2009 the recession slowed down the onsite event management, and the Wynkoop needed someone to help put their beer in cans. Who knew that I could get paid to be around beer?!?! I jumped at the chance and became a packaging guy and keg cleaner.
From there, I attended the Seibel Institute of Technology in Chicago to learn about professional beer brewing. It was like beer fantasy camp. The instructors had been brewing rock stars for many years.
After Siebel, I landed a full-time job at the Wynkoop as a brewer! From there I worked up the ranks to be a lead brewer at Mountain Sun, a head brewer at Prost. YES!! I was an actual head brewer! Our team at Prost was fabulous and we won several Great American Beer Fest Medals. Those accolades put on the radar for Post Brewing Company. At the Post, I brewed beer and ate fried chicken.
During the pandemic, it was time to come home to Michigan. Having spent much free time and most weekends on Gun Lake while growing up, there was only one place to look. Down the road from my family and on England Point.
Now my wife Stacey and I get to live the lake life round and still enjoy the sunset every night! With no breweries on Gun Lake, it was time to put that finance major to work and help people with real estate.