Wolverine State Brewing Co. plans Halloween week opening of Ann Arbor tap room
E.T. Crowe stands in the middle of what soon will be the Wolverine State Brewing Co. on Stadium Blvd. in Ann Arbor in late July. At that time, Crowe and her partners had hoped the brewery could open in September.
Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com
The Michigan Liquor Control Commission awarded a microbrewer’s license to Wolverine State Brewing Company on Wednesday, clearing the last and biggest hurdle for Wolverine to open its brewery and tap room on Stadium Boulevard.
"There are no more maybes,” said partner E.T. Crowe. “We will open. There is no more 'if this, if that.'”
Now the team behind the brewery is preparing to open next weekend. Crowe said that she loves the idea of a Halloween opening, though she wouldn't nail down a specific day yet.
Crowe said it has been a long and somewhat challenging process since the partners signed the lease in January on the space toward the rear of the building at 2019 W. Stadium.
The most challenging, Crowe said, was the unforeseen and unbudgeted line items.
“When you turn an empty warehouse over the course of 10 months, three or four months longer than we’d hoped, into a brewery and a great bar, it boggles the mind,” Crowe said.
When the tap room opens, Wolverine Lager will not be the only brew on tap. Head brewer Oliver Roberts said besides the flagship beer, he has create,six others: Wench’s Westside Wheat - a wheat ale; Big House Brown- a brown lager; Hopportunity Knocks - an IPA; Emoatable - a dark oat lager; Gulo-Gulo Northwest Lager, a hoppy American lager using all American hops; and Pride of Biscuitville, an American Bock.
Crowe said that Wolverine will still continue to work with Michigan Brewing to bottle Wolverine Lager in Webberville.
“We do not have a bottling line at this time in our brewery,” Crowe said. “We hope to have that in place by this time next year."
Wendy Ochoa is freelance writer in the news and business sections. She is also a journalism student at Washtenaw Community College where she writes for the Washtenaw Voice.
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