HOLLAND, Mich. — Big Lake Brewing might be a big name in the West Michigan beer scene now, but it started out with humble beginnings in someone's garage.
"The previous ownership regiment was three guys that home-brewed together, worked together," said current Head Brewer Zach Dreyer. "They were friends. The classic story of brewing in pots out in the garage in propane burners ended up turning into some good beer and they decided to open up a brewery.”
Big Lake Brewing has grown immensely since then, opening up a pub and a separate production facility, located a mile apart from each other in Holland.
Dreyer said they can package up to 10,000 cans a day at the production facility. The pub has a much smaller operation, but they still run through about 13 kegs every week, with 24 beers on tap.
“When you're at production, they have a huge hot liquor tank, and a way bigger kettle than what we have," said Jeff Genova, General Manager of Big Lake Brewing's pub. "There's are just basically twice as big as (ours). Then our fermenters and bright tanks are a quarter the size of what they have. They have huge ones.”