Hello, and thanks for checking out our blog and the first
entry in what will be a documentation of our journey to open and ultimately
operate our brewery in Sister Lakes, Michigan.
While it would be easy to say this is just the beginning of
our journey, that would be far from true. This venture is actually the
culmination of the better part of a century of our family history in this area
and a long-time appreciation for creating and enjoying great beer.
Our story starts in the 1930s, when our Great Grandfather
Jim Hickey – a fruit farmer of Irish decent – bought a primitive cottage on
Round Lake with the vision of creating a family gathering place. Since 1937,
our grandmother, father, and us have enjoyed summers in Sister Lakes. Over the
past decade, we have slowly all been drawn to live in this area full-time,
making it our home in practice rather than just in our hearts.
After years of exploring the world of craft brews, two of
the Morin brothers decided to give homebrewing a shot in December of 2010 by
brewing a German Altbier extract kit. Before long, the youngest brother, Brian,
had his own homebrew set up and a hobby quickly became a passion. For over five
years, the Morin brothers have been experimenting with new recipes and
techniques to make great beer.
In case you’ve never homebrewed, a typical batch of homebrew
yields five gallons of beer. When you get excited about it and start brewing
almost weekly, you end up with LOTS of beer. What do you do when you have too
much beer (believe it or not this IS a real problem)? You share it with
friends! We started sharing our passion with friends and family and the
feedback was overwhelming. People loved our beer and wanted more. Friends would
exclaim, “You need to sell this stuff!”
Again, in case you’ve never homebrewed or don’t know any
homebrewers, it’s every one of our dreams (whether secret or overt) to open a
brewery. Most homebrewers quickly talk themselves or allow themselves to be
talked out of this idea. Well, we think way too positively for that nonsense.
We love good beer. We make good beer. We love Sister Lakes, Michigan. We love
to drink good beer in Sister Lakes, Michigan. Why not make and drink good beer
in the community we love and provide others with an outlet to do so as well?
Check back for future updates as we go through this process,
and subsequent entries that explain how we landed on our mission and purpose of
“fostering community, one pint at a time.”
