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Beer
brewer brings back Bay City tradition
By Cheryl
Wade 11/10/2006
Wednesday,
July 12, 2006
BAY CITY
-- A chemical engineer who works for The Dow Chemical
Co. is trying his hand at another kind of chemistry
-- beer making.
Kevin
Peil is preparing to have his first commercially available
beer, Phoenix Golden Ale, available by the keg at pubs
and restaurants around the Tri-Cities by Thanksgiving.
He's named it for Phoenix Brewing Co., the last of three
big independent Bay City brewers -- not connected with
restaurants -- to close. Phoenix closed in 1951.
Bay City
was known as a brewing hub back before Phoenix closed,
and Peil wants to resurrect the tradition with The Tri-City
Brewing Co.
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The new privately
held company has 30 owners who bought stock in it. Although
other investors have said they'd like to add their money,
Tri-City Brewing isn't selling more stock -- at least for
now, Peil said.
Peil has been
brewing at home for 15 years.
"This is something
that's always been a dream of mine for 10 years," he said.
Every time he made a little batch of beer, he'd think "this
would be so easy for me to scale up."
The new ale
is a recipe he developed using four types of German malted
barley. Beer aficionados will notice its definite malt flavor,
he said.
"It'll be a
very pleasant beer to drink," he said of the "dark golden"
colored beer which, people have told him, is similar to Sam
Adams.
"Our first
beer is basically a beer for the masses, that everybody can
drink and enjoy," he said. "We'll regularly introduce specialty
beers to go after connoisseurs."
What once was
an idea is now a brewery in part of a leased building at 3020
N. Water St. next to Hooligan's Food & Spirits. He bought
out an Albany, N.Y. brewery and had everything shipped to
Bay City in June. All the pipes and tanks are ready to go;
all Tri-City Brewing needs is the state liquor license.
Besides the
ale, the company also has a Web store that sells hats, T-shirts
and glasses bearing its name.
"We're adding
to it all the time," he said.
To prepare
for his new role as a brewer with a product to sell, Peil
put himself through the Munich Brewing Academy, a month-long,
intensive program in Germany. Part of the class involved hands-on
work at a German brewery.
"It was so
much fun and I came back so geeked and ready to do this,"
he said.
The brewery's
capacity is the equivalent of 3,000 cases per month. He plans
to start bottling the ale by next summer.
The company's
distributor, which is lining up places to sell the ale, is
Fabiano Brothers of Mount Pleasant.
Peil sees similarities
between work as a chemist and as a brewer.
"Brewing beer
is about moving hundreds of gallons of liquid from one tank
to another, keeping it chemically inert, having good chilling
systems in place," he said.
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