E-Malt.com News article: USA, MI: Pike 51 Brewery opens in Hudsonville

Steve Guikema, Ron Snider and Ken Groenink, co-owners of Hudsonville Winery, added an on-site brewpub this year that is holding a grand opening/anniversary celebration on June 1 and 2, Mlive.com reported on May, 23.

“This is the realization of a 20-year dream,” said Snider, who, along with Guikema, is a machinist with Blackmer Co. in Grand Rapids by day, and brewery/winery owner by night.

“We were talking about doing this while homebrewing back in the 1990s.”

Pike 51 Brewing Co., named as a throwback to the turnpike history of Chicago Drive, is finally open for business and pouring pints inside the winery.

After the White Flame Brewing Co., Pike 51 is the second brewery for Hudsonville, which was a completely dry city just five years ago but has now demonstrated a thirst for local craft brew.

“I actually think it will be good for both of us,” White Flame owner Bill White said about the two breweries operating in the same vicinity. “It reinforces my belief that the community is thirsty for craft beer. Cheers to Hudsonville!”

“The city of Hudsonville and the entire area, really, has welcomed us with open arms,” said Guikema.

The winery got approved last year for a microbrewery license, meaning a bottling line is in the future plans, said Guikema. The license drove a roughly $400,000 expansion of the small operation.

Beers are brewed in a 3.5 barrel system using three fermenters and three bright tanks. The owners hired former HopCat brewer Jeff Williams in March. The anticipation of their opening has been “incredible,” said Guikema.

“We’ve already been getting phone calls from out of state. We think the beer is going to catch on right away.”

For the opening party, which is concurrently a third anniversary celebration for the winery, Pike 51 will have 8 to 10 beers on tap. They will have 16 standard taps on draft when they get up to full speed. Sixteen ounce pints sell for $4.50.

Initial beer styles include a pale lager, two Belgian wits (one brewed with tea), a Belgian IPA, a French farmhouse ale, and two oatmeal stouts, one brewed with lactose sugar and dark roast coffee. They are also brewing a Hefeweizen, which is a German wheat beer known for its low hop bitterness and high carbonation.

There’s plenty of room on the property for future expansion, but Guikema said they are planning to let demand dictate any future growth. For now, they are planning some landscaping and parking lot improvements, but are mostly just happy to have opened the brewery far ahead of their original time horizon.

“Beer was going to be added after five years and we started it after two,” he said. “We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. We want to do it the right way.”


29 May, 2012