Middle Brow Will Open a Second Location in Michigan

Middle Brow, the Chicago brewpub that earned a James Beard Award earlier this year as a semifinalist for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program, is opening a second location in Michigan. Ownership is keeping the exact address a secret, but say they’ve signed a lease to take over a space off Red Arrow Highway in Sawyer, Michigan, about 50 miles west of Downtown Chicago. Sawyer is along Lake Michigan and is a popular tourist destination. Co-owner Pete Ternes says they’ll take over a one-acre plot where customers can enjoy the outdoors.

“We’ve got the drawings done, and we’ve got a lot of the engineering work done,” Ternes says. “We’re putting out bids and getting permitting in place now. We think that by summer, we’ll be able to — you know, at the very least — throw some fun parties.”

First established as a brewery in 2011, Middle Brow would open a brewpub in Logan Square, Bungalow by Middle Brow, and offer pastries, bread, and eventually Neapolitan pizzas, and those pies deployed farm fresh ingredients from Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Indiana. By relying on a farm where they’ll grow their own hops, barley, and other ingredients, the unnamed Michigan Middle Brow project takes a hyperlocal strategy to procure ingredients.

With lighter lagers, saisons, and kolsches the brewery features the kind of brews that drinkers could enjoy while camping or by a lake, a kind of counterpoint to over-hopped beers that were once trendy. Middle Brow centers on yeast-forward beers and letting yeast ferment spontaneously: “It’s exciting and it’s weird and it’s risky, and it makes the beer taste like nothing else you’ve tasted,” Ternes says.

Last year, Middle Brow expanded operations becoming Chicago’s first natural winery with refreshing wines that, again, shared the same commitment to using wild fermentation. Natural wine is made with minimal intervention that, in theory, better showcases the grapes from the region.

Ternes promises the new location will contain elements of the Logan Square venue. There might be a small menu of fresh breads for the weekend, and doughnuts and ice cream. Middle Brow Logan Square offers Chicago-style tavern pizza on Tuesdays. Those pizzas won’t make their way to Michigan, but Middle Brow may offer Detroit-style squares as a limited special. Beyond bottles and cans of wine and beer, they’ll also have robust to-go offerings for travelers making a quick pit stop.

Much of Middle Brow’s wines were made from grapes grown in Michigan with ownership often hauling tanks of juice back to Chicago in trucks filled with tanks. Middle Brow already has ties to the Mitten State. Ternes points out they buy hops from Hop Head Farms, which is about 50 miles south of Grand Rapids, Michigan. They also source fruit for various barrel-aging projects from nearby farms. Ternes recalls family vacations in Michigan City, Indiana; and Michiana, Michigan. The concept of farmhouse brewing, using hops and barley made on the same premises, was pioneered by companies like Allagash in Portland, Maine; and Jester King in Austin, Texas. Those breweries inspired Ternes and Middle Brow.

Middle Brow searched for the right land but knew when they needed a record of success before investors and banks would fund their operations. Fourteen years later they’re in the position to open the way they intended.

Middle Brow Sawyer, Michigan planned for a summer opening