5885 Sawyer Road
Sawyer
269-405-1076
OWNERS: Scott Sullivan and Justin Heckathorn
BREWER: Jake Demski
FLAGSHIP BEERS: Star Chicken Shotgun, a West Coast–style IPA; Anger, a black, dry-hopped IPA; Brother Benjamin, an imperial IPA made with local honey to balance the hop bitterness
GREENBUSH BREWING COMPANY IN SAWYER.
As Michigan settlements go, Sawyer isn’t even a freckle on the palm of the mitten. The tiny Berrien County town isn’t a town so much as just a few buildings—a hardware store, a market, a restaurant, a pharmacy, a clothing store, and a post office—on Sawyer Road. Technically, it’s really just a district for purposes of taking the census every ten years.
The area spends four-plus months a year buried under drifts of lake-effect snow and the rest of the year buried under the weight of people from Chicago who own vacation homes along Lake Michigan. But unlike touristy towns like Saugatuck and Grand Haven, Sawyer doesn’t have trendy shops and galleries and fancy farm-to-table restaurants. But since 2011, Sawyer has had one thing that is both changing the face of the community and bringing people together—Greenbush Brewing Company.
Since converting an old coin laundry into a brewery, owners Scott Sullivan and Justin Heckathorn haven’t been able to keep up with demand. The first year their business plan called for $300,000 in revenues; they did more than $1.5 million. To meet demand they’ve built an annex across the street to provide more seats and they’ve constructed a kitchen in an old church to cater parties, weddings, and other special events.
The success of the brewery and kitchen have Sullivan and Heckathorn thinking big thoughts that could well transform this sleepy, never-been-much-of-anything town into a destination. They plan to open a creamery, bakery, and high-end delicatessen, using Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor and Dark Horse Brewing Company in Marshall as their models.
Greenbush Mug Club regular Mark Forrest.
It’s clear that the locals have bought in big-time. Not only has Greenbush transformed the face of the town, it has become the social center of the community, which previously had no place for people to gather.
The Sawyer census district has about eight hundred people living in it, but the brewery has more than thirty-eight hundred members in its Mug Club, including some who live as far away as Chicago and Detroit. On the weekends, locals generally stay away from Greenbush because it’s packed with out-of-state visitors. Weeknights are when the locals visit Greenbush, and Mondays in particular are busy because it’s Mug Club Night. Mug Club membership costs $60 and lasts for life: members get half off on twenty-ounce mugs of beer on Mondays and $2 off growlers on Wednesdays.
It was a cold, drizzly mid-February night when I was there, but the brewery was packed with people who came from miles around, including some from northern Indiana. There’s a constant stream of customers, including families with children coming in for dinner. They’re there for the discounted beer, but also because of the sense of community and the friendships that have developed since the brewery opened.
Scott and Kristen Campbell (front right) are regulars at Greenbush’s Mug Club Night. Kristen has been fighting cancer for several years, and other club members raised money to send the couple to Walt Disney World for a vacation.
Among the customers at Greenbush on most Monday nights is Joseph Warburton III of Sawyer. Warburton is a jolly fellow with a great full, gray beard. He never sits at the bar; instead, he stands at one end of the restaurant against a set of brown bookshelves that are chock-full of beer memorabilia and lets people come to him.
He loves it here because of the neighborly vibe. Over the years, he’s lived in California, Boston, and the Caribbean, but he’s impressed by the unique affinity people have developed for Greenbush and by the new spirit and sense of hope suffusing Sawyer. “Oh, yeah, people feel the connection,” Warburton says. “And by some strange coincidence, it really is good beer…. People come in and take pride knowing that one of the best beers in Michigan is made in their town.”
To say that Greenbush Brewing Company’s Mug Club has been a success is an understatement. The club has more than thirty-eight hundred members, while the population of the town and surrounding area is only about eight hundred people.
Standing with Warburton is Scott Campbell, a homebuilder who lives in Bridgman. He and his wife, Kristen, are here tonight because they enjoy spending the evening with friends. He admits that before coming to Greenbush he was a Bud drinker and his circle of friends was mostly constricted to comrades in the construction industry. Since joining the Mug Club he has established new friendships that are thicker than beer and extend beyond the brewery’s walls. Members of Campbell’s Mug Club group often go bowling together and invite each other over for dinner.
Scott and Kristen understand and appreciate the depth of the Greenbush community more than most customers. Kristen has been battling cancer for more than a decade and knows the end is drawing near. One Mug Club Night she mentioned that a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida was on her bucket list. When Sullivan and the staff learned of Campbell’s wish, they organized a fund-raiser—all the proceeds from a Mug Club Night were donated so Scott and Kristen could take a special trip together. Scott says that at first he tried to dissuade the brewery. “But they wanted to do this. They said they would pack the place, and they did.” The event raised $6,000: the couple traveled first class to Orlando with everything pre-paid.
That’s the kind of community Sullivan wants to foster. It’s not just about the money for him. He wants Greenbush to resemble a British or Irish public house: a place people go to visit with people they know and catch up on the news. He trains his staff to listen closely to the thoughts and concerns of Mug Club members and then works to make the taproom experience better based on that feedback. “I operate off the premise that if you do it right and do it as well as you can, nobody will have a problem with that.”
ONE MORE THING: Sullivan became a brewer and brewery owner by accident. He began brewing in 2008 after a carpentry accident in which he nearly lost a finger. That accident caused him to miss work for three months and sent his family into bankruptcy.
He equates his personal struggle with changes in Michigan’s economy—the decline of the automotive industry and the rise of the brewing industry. “When you’re like here,” Sullivan says, holding his hand a few inches above the ground, “that is where opportunity happens.”