USA, MI: The world’s largest exclusive retailer of cherry food creations to expand into craft beer industry

The world’s largest exclusive retailer of cherry food creations is expanding into the craft beer industry, Petoskey News-Review reported on August 5.

Owners of the Cherry Republic plan to operate a small microbrewery in Charlevoix and at their Glen Arbor, Traverse City and Ann Arbor locations.

The company is awaiting approval from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission before setting a date for the first beer to be released.

The new micro-beer brewing operation will begin small with a focus on beers that follow the tradition of cherry made products the specialty store is known for, said Todd Gyulveszi, beverage manager of Cherry Republic.

“We want our focus to be on beers made with cherries,” Gyulveszi said. “Our intention is to begin small and experiment with our product. If we see an interest we will then test a shandy and stout and play around with a recipe we like until we get it right.”

The operation is small enough that it will not require any major renovation or changes to the current store footprint.

“This will be a very small brewing system,” Gyulveszi said. “It will be very self-contained and once we see how that goes we could look at future use and needs for our brewing operation.”

07 August, 2016