The Alpha Michigan Brewing Company (AMBC) is a

nanobrewery Craft beer is beer manufactured by craft breweries, which typically produce smaller amounts of beer than larger "macro" breweries and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as emphasising enthusiasm, ne ...

in the village of

Alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter ''aleph'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ...

in the

Upper Peninsula of Michigan The Upper Peninsula of Michigan—also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. or Yoop—is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula of ...

Background

The establishment describes Alpha as "the smallest village in America with a brewery". Mike Bjork later told a local news outlet that the small size of the town around them, estimated by Bjork as being between 105 and 115 people, led to much skepticism about their business plans. AMBC's beer names are all related to Alpha, its former Porter school, nearby Mastodon Township, or Iron County, the county of Alpha and Mastodon Township. , its beers carry logos designed by local artist Tracie Wayman. The brewery's business is heavily focused on Alpha and its region. AMBC sources its barley, oats, and some of its hops from local farms, at least one of which is less than away, and , it donates a portion of its net sales to charitable organizations during fundraisers. For example, during the 2020

COVID-19 pandemic in the United States On December 31, 2019, China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The first American case was reported on January 20, and United States Department of Health and Human Services, Health and Human Services Secreta ...

, the brewery donated US$200 plus 20% of its Saturday beer sales to three nearby

St. Vincent de Paul Vincent de Paul, Congregation of the Mission, CM (24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660), commonly known as Saint Vincent de Paul, was an Occitans, Occitan French Priesthood in the Catholic Church, Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving ...

locations.

Owners

The brewery was registered as a company by Stu Creel in 2012. By the time it opened in 2018, the brewery was owned by Stu Creel and his wife, Julie, along with Mike and Mary Bjork. All four lived in the local area. In July 2023, the brewery announced that the Creels had sold their stake in the business to another local couple, Dan and Jackie Rosek.

History

AMBC opened in May 2018. A year later, AMBC ran out of beer after above-normal sales during the US

Independence Day An independence day is an annual event memorialization, commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or Sovereign state, statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or after the end of a milit ...

holiday. In early 2021, the brewery added outdoor heated tents to expand its COVID-appropriate seating. The funds to purchase them came from a Michigan weatherization grant program. In 2022, the company hosted an "Ice Bowl" winter disc golf competition to benefit a local

food bank A food bank or food pantry is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distrib ...

, and brewed a

pilsner Pilsner (also pilsener or simply pils) is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from the Bohemian city of Plzeň (), where the world's first pale lager (now known as Pilsner Urquell) was produced in 1842 by Pilsner Urquell Brewery. History ...

beer to support Ukraine during the Russian invasion of that country. The brewery celebrated its fifth year in operation over the 2023 US

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. It i ...

weekend, and did so again in 2024.

Location

AMBC is located at 303 E. Center St. in a former bus garage attached to Alpha's long-closed George F. Porter Public School. The school building is listed on the US

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

as part of the Alpha Public Buildings Historic Complex, all on a single block. The Porter School was last used as a school in 1967 and sold by the village in 2005. In 2024, the school was purchased by a married couple with ties to the area with the intent of transforming the old school into apartments. The interior of the brewery's taproom was partially constructed from secondhand materials gathered from around the village. Its bar was previously used for a buffet at the Alpha Inn and at the Alpha Veterans of Foreign Wars, changing hands when the locations closed, and a pew from the shuttered St. Edwards Catholic Church in Alpha is part of the brewery's available seats.

References

External links

Official websiteFacebook page
{{coord, 46, 02, 49.4, N, 88, 22, 37.8, W, display=title 2018 establishments in Michigan Companies based in Alpha, Michigan Beer brewing companies based in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan American companies established in 2018 Food and drink companies established in 2018