What does the craft beer boom mean for home brewers?

Michigan is known as the "Great Beer State" for a reason. It's home to nearly 200 licensed craft breweries and counting. The excitement isn't confined to downstate: Despite its rural character, the Upper Peninsula is nationally recognized as a hotspot for brewing talent. Keweenaw Brewing Company, Blackrocks Brewery and Ore Dock Brewing Company--to name but three of more than a dozen local breweries--continue to push the boundaries of taste and style. And we mean that in a good way.

Local craft breweries don't exist in a vacuum, though. Even talented brewers absorb techniques and best practices from those who came before them. In fact, most brewery owners and employees start out as homebrew dabblers. Without a healthy amateur brewing scene, the ranks of future craft beer stars would be a lot thinner.

But has the craft beer boom diminished folks' interest in homebrewing, loosened the ties that bind the homebrewing community, or encouraged homebrewing enthusiasts to attempt to "go pro" faster than before? At least in the Upper Peninsula, the answer is a resounding "no." If anything, the local homebrewing scene--led by Bay de Noc Brewers, Marquette Home Brewers and other local organizations--is stronger than ever before, thanks to a groundswell of interest in beer and support from local breweries and other businesses.

Support your local homebrewer

For enterprising Upper Peninsula residents, homebrewing has been a vocation for years, even decades. Bay de Noc Brewers, possibly the region's oldest homebrew enthusiast group, got its start in 2006 and now boasts more than 50 active members. Marquette Home Brewers, the brainchild of brewing enthusiast (and current Marquette Home Brewers president) David Gill, started up in 2013.

"For most early members, brewing was a solitary pursuit, and any learning we were doing was on our own," says Gill. "I was sure there were other people around who knew much more about brewing than I did, people who could serve as comrades and mentors."

Even in the early going, Gill and Bay de Noc Brewers president Ben Harris were keen on connecting amateurs with the best and brightest U.P. craft brewers. "I wanted to enhance the local beer culture by getting home brewers together and connecting all of us with professional brewers in the area," says Gill, a sentiment echoed by Harris and other early Bay de Noc participants.

They couldn't do it without support from local businesses, a sure sign of the symbiotic relationship between amateurs, professionals, business owners and members of the drinking public.

Bay de Noc, for instance, owes its explosive growth to Mike Sattem of Hereford & Hops, where the club still holds regular meetings. Sattem helped organize Bay de Noc's first few events, drawing in local enthusiasts who might otherwise not have heard of it. The club also holds gatherings at Bobaloon's Cafe and Pacino's Restaurant in Escanaba, both core supporters since the beginning. It's a clear example of the camaraderie that binds distinct arms of the service industry--bars, restaurants and people who just want to brew good beer.

Collaboration breeds creativity

Hereford & Hops isn't the only professional brewing outpost that supports Upper Peninsula amateurs. From the Soo to Ironwood, local homebrewers can count on their for-profit brethren for mentorship and logistical help.

"The local brewing community has been very receptive to what we're doing," says Josh Marenger of Bays de Noc Brewers.

For Marenger's group, prominent supporters include Larry Bell of Bell's Brewery (in Kalamazoo) and Upper Hand Brewery (the recently-opened production brewery near Delta County Airport), Jason Robinson of Brickside Brewing and Tim Eichinger of Black Husky Brewing, just across the border in northeastern Wisconsin.

Bay de Noc Brewers also puts on what's arguably the largest Upper Peninsula networking session for homebrewers, professionals and regular folks: UPtoberfest, an annual celebration held on the second Saturday of October in Escanaba.

"UPtoberfest is a wonderful event for the community," says Harris. "Each year, 600 community members join us to enjoy local craft beers, wines, meads, music and food, all under a gigantic tent."

And Marenger collaborates with Jamie Strand, owner of White's Party Store in Marquette, to produce the annual U.P. Craft Beer Week each year. Unlike UPtoberfest and Marquette's U.P. Craft Beer Festival, U.P. Craft Beer Week is a dispersed event held at bars and breweries across the region. That keeps beer lovers (and their dollars) in communities and reduces the most problematic aspects of centralized beer festivals, like drunk driving.

In Marquette, established brewers and breweries have been wildly supportive of Marquette Home Brewers. Ore Dock, Blackrocks, the Vierling and Chocolay River Brewing Company have all hosted the club's events at various times. Some of the region's most talented brewers, including David Manson and Andy Langlois of Blackrocks, Brian Richards of Cognition Brewing in Ishpeming, and Nick VanCourt of Ore Dock, have donated their time and taste buds as judges for Marquette Home Brewers' brewing contests.

But true to the Upper Peninsula's neighborly ethos, support flows both ways. At least one Upper Peninsula brewery--Brickside Brewing--owes its existence, in part, to Bay de Noc Brewers. According to Marenger, the club helped organize and fund the Kickstarter campaign that launched the Copper Harbor nanobrewery.

Getting better all the time

Harris, Gill, White and others are continually impressed by the progression of the U.P. homebrewing scene. Simply put, our inquisitive amateur brewers are getting better all the time.

"We are the type of people who like to challenge ourselves and learn, putter and tinker with equipment, design and build stuff, continually tweak our process and equipment, push the envelope and just generally explore our creativity," says Harris. "We like learning about the history of beer styles, expanding our palates, reading and learning about the many aspects of brewing."

"We often alternate meetings: One month might be on a specific beer style, the next on brewing techniques," adds Tom Uelmen, also of Bay de Noc Brewers. Over time, this approach expands local brewers' knowledge base and sparks new ideas and approaches that wouldn't have arisen without prodding.

A growing number of homebrew club members are graduates of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), the gold standard in craft beer knowledge. BJCP rigorously evaluates taste, appearance and other qualities, allowing judges to provide tough but fair feedback that pushes homebrewers to the limits of their talents and creativity.

"Members can bring their home brews to our meetings [for sampling by judges]," says Uelmen. "The magic is the feedback...If your beer is not brewed in the intended style, you get honest comments and tips on you can improve the next time you brew. Without the honest and constructive input, none of us would improve our craft."

Meanwhile, the homebrew clientele at places like White's appears to be more knowledgeable and sophisticated than ever. When Strand purchased the store, back in 2010, she and her staff found themselves answering the same basic questions over and over again. They were more than happy to do so, of course, but they've found themselves less and less in demand these days. Even novice homebrewers have a broader base of knowledge about beer styles these days.

"I've learned a lot from my clients," she says.

That's good and bad for Strand's business. On the one hand, she's selling more homebrew starter kits and ingredients than ever before. On the other, she simply can't stock the depth and breadth of advanced supplies--specific yeast strains, hop varieties, specialized equipment--that experienced, high-volume brewers require.

"The homebrewing niche has gotten very hot," she says. "We focus more on stocking items that brewers might need at the last minute, rather than trying to emulate a brewing superstore." It's an acceptable trade: As her clients become more knowledgeable about beer styles and brewing processes, they tend to buy higher-end products, like limited-release bomber bottles and top-tier six-packs.

This broadening knowledge base is spawning support businesses that drive the region's craft beer scene. Case in point: Craft Culture, a Hancock-based business that isolates and cultivates native yeast strains--many taken from natural environments in the Keweenaw--for use in distinctive beer styles.

Is it easier to "go pro"?

Laypeople might assume the ongoing craft beer boom is creating new opportunities for amateur brewers to "go pro" and start their own businesses or find jobs as brewers at local craft breweries. That's true to an extent, but it's certainly not a free-for-all. In fact, significant barriers remain for aspiring brewers without demonstrable experience.

"It's really hard to get a job at a brewery," says Strand, noting most U.P. craft breweries have just a handful of brewing staff members. In some cases, a single brewer handles everything, perhaps with a part-time assistant.

"You can't just hire a bunch of people to brew because brewing is fun," she adds. "Running a brewery is like running any other business--you have to be profitable."

Anecdotally, Strand finds many U.P. breweries are emulating a national trend: They're hiring extremely qualified staff to handle their beer-making operations, often limiting consideration to brewers with science degrees or years of hard-won experience.

Just like U.P. homebrewers' growing knowledge base, this is a good and bad thing. It's unfortunate that truly talented homebrewers have fewer opportunities than they'd like. Then again, a narrow pipeline for "going pro" encourages serious homebrewers to stick with their craft for longer in the hopes that it'll eventually pay off. At worst, homebrewers can tap a supply of fresh, homemade beer whenever they please. Not really what you'd call a downside.

So what should you do if you haven't yet jumped on the homebrewing bandwagon? Simple, says Marquette Home Brewers' Gill.

"Join your local home brewing club as soon as possible. That's the absolute number one way to learn, to get support and to make this hobby fun," he advises. No matter where you live, "Someone in your local club will already have answers for you, and we are always glad to share."

We'll raise a glass to that.

Brian Martucci writes about business, finance, food, drink and anything else that catches his fancy. You can find him on Twitter @Brian_Martucci