USA, MI: Saunders Point Brewery getting ready to launch in Gladstone this summer

For nearly a year, the space on the eastern end of the Rialto Center on Gladstone’s Delta Avenue has been undergoing serious work: plaster covering 20-foot brick walls was painstakingly chiseled off, flooring was removed, walls came down. There’s still a good amount to be done, but 1000 Delta Ave. is well on its way to becoming Saunders Point Brewery, thanks to collective efforts from the community. Owner Jake Mills hopes to have beer flowing from taps at some point this summer, the Daily Press reported on April 23.

Mills, who works as an electrician at the Billerud mill in Escanaba, began homebrewing after he and friends Chris Amis and Tom Kidd took a Brew 101 class at Bay College.

“The teacher of the original class we had was one of the brewers at Upper Hand,” explained Mills, referring to the Bells subsidiary that produces and serves beer near the Delta County airport. “He actually said, ‘hey, there’s gonna be a bartending job opening up; just come, get come experience.'”

Getting in at Upper Hand provided Mills the opportunity to work alongside brewers and “pick their brains,” he said.

A proud moment came when he brought something he’d concocted to a homebrew competition hosted by Upper Hand. Because Mills was an employee, he wasn’t eligible to officially enter or win the competition, but the beer was so well-received that his recipe was taken on and is still made by Upper Hand — the Red Buck IPA.

Mills remains on good terms with folks at Upper Hand, who are among those responsible for helping Saunders Point come to be.

“Jake’s really getting a lot of help from brewers from all over the U.P. that have given him advice,” said Amis, who’s also been putting in a lot of time at the developing brewery.

“That’s been probably the coolest experience of the whole thing,” said Mills, elaborating to say that Nick VanCourt of Barrel + Beam in Marquette, George Schultz of ByGeorge Brewing in Munising and Jeff LaTulip of LaTulip Brewing in Cooks have all been helpful and candid about the process of starting up a brewery.

Having grown up in Gladstone since his elementary years, Mills wanted the operation to reflect the town’s history. The name “Saunders Point” used to refer to the area before the Soo Line came and developed the town, back when a Captain Nate Saunders used to come and fish from the point.

The multi-purpose building that houses the brewery, the Rialto Center, holds stories from the last century.

Some pieces of the past are evidence of the former Rialto Theater: there’s an opening for projectors high on a wall pointing towards an elevated stage area where the screen used to be.

Indicative of the era of the roller-rink — which some may remember occupying the space in the ’80s — are smooth wooden floors and a light fixture in the ceiling with arms of multicolored bulbs reaching out from a central point.

“As we’re taking this place apart, you could kind of see some of the history,” said Mills. He explained that when the roughly five-foot carpeted walls that had been in place for the roller rink were removed, “you could see where the theater seating was at one point. We found some of the old arms from the theater.”

The building has seen a variety of occupants over the years — Amis said it was a teen nightclub at one point, and Mills remembers taking his kids to gymnastics there years later. Most recently, it housed Old Glory Firearms, which has since relocated across the street to 1017 Delta.

Some of the wooden flooring — and subfloor and joists — had to come up in one section so that concrete could be poured to make a suitable floor for the cold room. Mills said it was a painstaking process to not only pull up the old floor but especially to dig footings in the crawlspace for new structural support. They’ve saved as much of the materials as possible to repurpose into furniture.

From the floor joists, Adam and Mason Whitney have already made one table.

Another major project was the uncovering of the 20-foot-high interior brick walls. They still need to be power-washed and sealed, but the guys think the worst of it is out of the way.

“All this brick was covered with plaster,” said Amis. “So we had to painstakingly chisel — like, power-chisel it off. I think it’s gonna be worth it.”

There were no large doors to allow for the brewing equipment to get in, so a hole was punched out of a side wall, then reoutfitted with a garage door — glass, to allow light in. Some more similar ones may be added in the future.

Plumbing and HVAC still need to be installed, large projects that make it difficult to gauge a timeline, so an opening date has not yet been set.

Once things are closer to being ready, Saunders Point will still have to test out their setup and get some beers made and ready to serve. They have two brew systems and plan to have 16 beers on tap at once.

Since Mills has been building recipes for a while, the core line-up of six is already established, and online polls have selected names for a few of them: an IPA, a pilsner and a light lager have been christened “Happy Rock Haze,” “Millsner,” and “Local 21,” respectively.

The plan is for the brewery to be friendly to families and the community. To help encourage patronage of other local businesses, Mills said he doesn’t intend to serve food, but instead will allow people to bring it in.

“I have two younger daughters … they’re going to brew root beers and cream soda here. That’s in addition to the 16 taps,” said Mills. “There’ll be a variety. Light lagers, pilsners, IPAs, stouts; there’ll be ciders, wines, hopefully a sour.”

For trial batches of more experimental recipes, they do have a small one-barrel pilot system, which will allow for some creativity.

To avoid competing with other U.P. breweries that can and bottle their beers for distribution, Saunders Point does not plan to enter stores. Draft beers will be served on location, and kegs may be distributed to some other local watering holes.

“White Birch has already reached out; they want us to make a beer just for them,” said Mills. He added that Mo’s Pub has expressed interest in collaborating, and the Saloon will likely serve Saunders Point beer as well.

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