After a strong opening night and a solid first week with the new building, East Channel Brewing Company new distribution and brewing center in downtown Munising is performing well.
“It was a little more of an undertaking than we planned on at the start, but it all came together well,” Owner and Brewer Joe DesJardins said.
The building, located at the northeast corner of Superior and Maple, will help create more of the various beers made by the microbrewery. With the exception of some of the measuring items that are shifted back and forth with the original location, the equipment in the new location is all fresh out of the packaging and ready for brewing. This will allow East Channel to keep up with demand in peak time, but not be too burdensome in slower parts of the year.
It was important for DesJardins, his partner Ted Majewski and the rest of the staff to not expand too quickly and risk not keeping up with increased demand from the expansion. A new sales person and a couple bartenders were added, but the goal is to make East Channel still feel like a local microbrewery.
“I’m hoping it’s the right amount to balance out the busiest times and keeping up with all of our distribution accounts, while kind of keeping that quaintness of what we are. Try to keep it where we’re at as a smalltown brewery feel,” he said.
Located in the former Country Connection bar, the larger production location puts business back into another downtown Munising storefront. A welcoming location for DesJardins and his family in the past, he said that it was fun restoring the building back into something useable for the community again.
“I think its fun with everything going on. When I was in school, (Munising) was on the decline where things were shutting down,” he said. “It’s nice to see a whole town where you can do things again. It’s a good vibe downtown with a balance because everyone is doing their thing. It feels good to be a part of it.”
The new location will serve as the primary location for East Channel while the focus turns to the original location. After a busy summer, deep cleaning and rest is scheduled through the holiday. After that, renovations to address leftover issues from last summer’s fire in the upstairs rental unit will be the primary task. DesJardins said that they hope to have the original location open by Christmas, but guarantees it to be open by Ice Fest in February.
Until then, East Channel will be open from 4-10 p.m. on weekdays, and noon-10 p.m. on the weekends.
