"I’d say it’s a beer for the everyday beer drinker," he said. But he hopes to have a full line of beers, from darks to Indian pale ales, and to have his concoctions served in every possible location in the Tri-City area some day.

The brewing company started about six months ago as a joint effort of 30 some friends and family members, Piel said.

Piel, who holds a doctorate in chemistry and works as a chemical engineer for The Dow Chemical Co., traveled to Munich, Germany to attend the Doemens Academy of Brewing.

The chemistry background gave him a head start on the program, meaning he only had a few weeks’ crash course. But German brewmasters must have a two-year certification to brew.

In Bay City, it’s a team effort to man the small brewery. The rows of tanks and fermenters came from a brew pub in Albany, N.Y., and usually are quiet except on production days, since everyone involved has day jobs.

"Everyone chips in," Peil said. "It means a lot of long weekends."

Those weekends include grinding malted barley in an augur and loading it into the brewhouse, which can make 180 cases, or 450 gallons, of beer at a time. Then it’s heated for approximately five hours.

"The process of making beer is a lot like the process of making coffee," Piel said, replacing the coffee grounds with barley.

Then the mixture is loaded into one of the several large fermenters inside the warehouse that houses the brewery. After that, it is put in tanks for aging, where it sits before being loaded into kegs and distributed to area bars.

Hooligan’s will be the first place the public can consume Phoenix Golden Ale, which is named after a defunct Bay City Brewery. There are about 200 kegs made thus far, and brewers and taste testers have gone through two, Piel admitted.

There are 12 bars in Bay City, the main focus of distribution, that will carry their brews. But Midlanders can pop into Ghengis Khan Mongolian Barbecue, 5010 Bay City Road, on Friday afternoon to try it for themselves.