E-Malt.com News article: USA, MI: Railtown Brewing Co. opens in Dutton

After several years of brewing beer at home, Justin Buiter and Gim Lee decided to turn their passion into a business. The partners have located the latest addition to the West Michigan beer industry in Gaines Township, where Railtown Brewing Co. will open to the public for the first time on Friday, Dec. 12, mlive.com reported on December, 7.

“We felt the population has been growing quite a bit out here in recent years,” said Buiter. “It’s an untapped market.”

Because the two partners both still have day jobs, the brewery will be opening only two days a week to begin with, from 3 p.m. to midnight on Friday and noon to midnight on Saturday.

“We also don’t want to run out of beer,” said Buiter. “It’s been a year and 3 months since we started. We want to make sure when we open we have consistent hours.”

For the grand opening, Railtown is pouring five taps of beer out of its 3-barrel nano-brewing system. Buiter said the opening lineup includes a blond ale, a brown, an IPA, a milk stout and a weizenbock.

As time goes on, Buiter said “we’ll be all over the place” in terms of beer offerings. The duo plan to explore American, Belgian and English style ales, and experiment with sour beers and barrel-aging.

The partners completed the brewery on a tight budget, going without a bank loan or investors, Buiter said. The interior design is meant to be warm and inviting, with wooden floors, dimmed lighting and only a few televisions.

Railtown’s license allows for distribution, but Buiter said the company plans to focus on the taproom and will selectively distribute any leftover kegs.

“We’ll see how our beer stock holds out,” he said.


10 December, 2014