He spilled beer on her on their second date. Now they run a popular Michigan brewery. Drafting Table Brewing Co., which opened in 2016 in Wixom, is quickly becoming one of Michigan's big players in independent craft beer

Brian Manzullo | Detroit Free Press

Aaron Rzeznik was super nervous.

It was the spring of 2010, and time for the annual release of Oberon, the beloved Michigan wheat beer from Bell's Brewery that, to many Michiganders, marks the first sign of the coming summer. And Crunchy's, a popular bar in East Lansing right down the road from Rzeznik, was tapping Oberon and a bunch of other Bell's beers to celebrate the occasion.

But that's not why Rzeznik was nervous. He was taking a woman he met at Michigan State University — Kristin, an interior design student from Muskegon — on their second date. She didn't drink craft beer, but he talked her into a Hopslam, a seasonal double IPA brewed with honey.

"My buddies happened to be at the table next to us, kind of heckling me," Rzeznik recalls. "They're asking me questions about the beer, messing around with me ..."

Then he turned around. His hand hit the full pint of Hopslam. It spilled right onto Kristin.

You ever spill a heavy craft beer? It's not fun to clean up. It's wet, sticky and sometimes smelly if you leave it sitting too long.

"It looked like I peed my pants," Kristin says, laughing. "I think I sat there for two hours waiting for it to dry before I got up."

Meanwhile, Rzeznik turned bright red. Kristin says he started sweating.

"I thought for sure I was done," he says.

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As Aaron and Kristin Rzeznik are telling this story, customers begin trickling into the brewpub for Drafting Table Brewing Co., which occupies a 5,000-square-foot space on the corner of a sturdy plaza in downtown Wixom, right off I-96 in the outskirts of metro Detroit. They would be the first of many to stop in on this fall Wednesday afternoon to tip back or sample the smorgasbord of brews, from the signature Professional Pils to the fresh Simcoherent Double New England IPA to the dark Proud Lake Porter.

These beers are the brainchildren of Aaron Rzeznik, the founder of Drafting Table. And Kristin Rzeznik, the co-owner and "idea person" behind the operation, put her interior design experience into the branding and atmosphere of a craft brewery that's quickly becoming one of the more prominent in a rich craft beer state.

In other words, no. They weren't done.

Humble beer beginnings

Aaron Rzeznik studied landscape architecture at Michigan State. But he was already home-brewing by the time he graduated.

His love for craft beer began early, primarily thanks to his travels to Germany, where he "fell in love" with German ales and lagers. He brewed his first beer in his apartment with one of those Mr. Beer kits you can find in stores or on Amazon. "It tasted awful," he says. "Like a bad cider."

And then there was that one time where he and his roommate threw too many hops into a beer, causing the air lock on top of the bucket to explode during fermentation.

"We were playing video games one day, and we heard an explosion in the closet. We were like, 'oh, that can't be good,' " he says. "Sure enough, there were hops everywhere."

But through it all, Aaron loved brewing. He got better at it. When Kristin came along, she'd help as his sidekick, with sparging — the act of rinsing the grain bed during the mashing process — and other tasks.

Even during those earliest dates, Kristin recalled Aaron talking about opening a brewery. When they graduated and saw that the economy wasn't doing so hot, that helped push Aaron into professional brewing. He brewed for a few years at Witch's Hat, a popular brewery in nearby South Lyon, and found that he loved the business enough to keep going.

"It's one thing to have it as a hobby vs. cleaning large stainless tanks," Aaron says. "I ended up loving it."

Then came May 2015. It was time to sign the loan papers. It was time to sign on with the contractor. And it was time to sign the lease for the brewpub and production facility in Wixom, where Aaron Rzeznik grew up.

There was just one thing: They were also getting married that week.

“It was nuts. It was so nuts,” Kristin says, laughing. “We do that to ourselves a lot, though. It's OK.”

True to form, three of the beers they served at their wedding were home-brewed. One of them — To Hop And To Hold, a hazy double IPA — is still brewed at Drafting Table to this day.

An 'asset' to Wixom

Aaron Rzeznik's favorite Drafting Table beer is the Professional Pils: an easy-drinking German-style pilsner with herbal and floral flavors that make it clean and crisp. At 5.2%, it's crushable at all times of the year.

"I never get sick of it," he says. "It's tried and true. Still has a nice hop flavor."

The name, inspired by one of Aaron's landscape architect professors at MSU, also falls right into brand with Drafting Table, a mash-up of Aaron and Kristin's previous career paths. The bar top is made out of live edge wood and concrete, the walls feature drafting tools and collages of Aaron's architecture sketches from Germany, and the Mug Club wall is made out of drafting table boards from Lawrence Tech University.

Often, independent craft brewpubs will stick to a theme, or hark back to the origins of its building or an entire town. These touches make craft breweries feel like home, and also attract out-of-towners looking for local flavor and not a tourist trap.

"We feel like we're welcome there," says Jason Bobkin, 37, a Drafting Table Mug Club member from Westland who works nearby. "You may have heard the term, 'it’s your third place.' You got home, you got work and then somewhere else. This is like our somewhere else to go."

It also helps to have good beer. Perhaps the most notable, given the time of year, is Bourbon Barrel-aged Mean Vanilla Bean, a 15%-ABV imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels with Madagascar vanilla beans. It's among the best imperial stouts in Michigan, with a 4.36 overall rating on Untappd, and its releases have led to lines around the brewpub's building.

"It’s so balanced in all of its flavors," Kristin Rzeznik says. "It’s robust, yet it’s smooth. The barrel gets to shine but it’s not overpowering. Has a nice mellow sweetness to it."

At Detroit's Fall Beer Festival last week, a rye whiskey barrel-aged variant of Mean Vanilla Bean was on tap at Drafting Table's ever-popular stand, as well as the Bourbon Barrel-aged Maple Pecan Vesel in Distress, a Wee Heavy ale brewed with maple syrup and toasted pecans, which makes for sweet, nutty, caramel, toffee notes. The Free Press named it one of the best beers of the festival.

Like most independent breweries of its size, Drafting Table is well rooted in its hometown: Wixom, a Detroit suburb of roughly 14,000 people. Its priority is community-building, especially through events such as its Monday "run club," fundraisers and more. There's no kitchen, which allows for food trucks and customers to bring in food from nearby restaurants (there are four, including a Jet's Pizza, in Drafting Table's plaza alone).

And though Drafting Table does distribute its beers to other stores and bars through a local distributor, the Rzezniks' main focus is on Wixom and the brewpub. The brewery produced near 1,000 barrels of beer last year, according to state tax data.

"We just want to be an asset (to Wixom)," says Kristin, who's also the vice chair of the city's Downtown Development Authority. "When people return that gratitude, of just like, ‘Hey you’re doing a great job, thanks for being here in our community, this is our hangout spot' ... It’s nice to hear."

As for that spilled Hopslam all those years ago?

"We talk about that being my baptism into craft beer," she says, with a laugh.

If you go: Drafting Table Brewing Co.

Where: 49438 Pontiac Trail, Wixom

Hours: 3-10 p.m. Mon.-Wed., 3-11 p.m. Thu., noon-midnight Fri.-Sat.

Website: draftingtablebeer.com

Beers to try, with Untappd reviews from Brian Manzullo:

Professional Pils (5.2% ABV): 4.25 out of 5. "Great flavor for a pilsner. Extra hops, slightly malty, clean and crisp. Could drink this all afternoon."

"Great flavor for a pilsner. Extra hops, slightly malty, clean and crisp. Could drink this all afternoon." Strawberry Brewlius Milkshake IPA (6%): 3.75/5. "Excellent strawberry flavor, hazy, nice citrus undertone, slightly creamy in mouthfeel."

"Excellent strawberry flavor, hazy, nice citrus undertone, slightly creamy in mouthfeel." Simcoherent Double NEIPA (9.5%): 4.25/5. "Juicy and hazy with good citrus bite and a strong, hoppy finish."

"Juicy and hazy with good citrus bite and a strong, hoppy finish." Mom Said No Peanut Butter & Chocolate Stout (8.5%): 3/5. "Bold, roasty chocolate flavor. The peanut butter really comes through in the finish."

"Bold, roasty chocolate flavor. The peanut butter really comes through in the finish." Rye Whiskey Barrel Mean Vanilla Bean (15%): 4.75/5. "Way too smooth for 15%. Beautiful vanilla bourbon notes with chocolate and heat on the finish. It's awesome."

Spirits of Detroit writer Brian Manzullo covers craft alcohol for the Free Press. Contact him: bmanzullo@freepress.com and on Untappd, bmanzullo and Twitter, @BrianManzullo and @SpiritsofDET.