Solidified with building permits and approval, Elk Brewing is officially under full construction. Located on the corner of Wealthy and Henry, those passing by can expect to see major renovation over the next few months.

Erin Karns started brewing eight years ago when his wife Lisa Karns purchased him a home brewing kit.

“I fell in love with it and knew it was what I wanted to do,” says Karns.

“When I got married I brewed a bunch of beer for the wedding and my wife decided to use our initials as the name and it just stuck. Everybody started calling it Elk,” says Karns.

Karns and his partner and brother-in-law Taylor Carroll, who joined Elk Brewing five months ago, struggled most with their source of funding. Now with investment from a private financer, their doors plan to be open by December or January.

“We are going to have the largest beer garden in Grand Rapids. It will occupy inside with 80 occupancy and outside 120 occupancy. It will make us different than most of the microbreweries here that have 10 to 20 outdoor seats,” says Carroll.

Elk Brewing plans to pair with Harmony Brewing to learn more about their systems operation and apply those to their own brewing techniques.

“It has been unbelievable with the community of brewers, how everybody works together and everyone helps us out to get us open as soon as possible,” says Karns.

“If you look at the big picture there are thousands of restaurants but maybe only eight breweries, it’s really not that saturated in my opinion. There are so many channels to bring people into local breweries,” says Carroll.

“Jonny B’z will purchase an English style phone booth and patrons can go in and hit one of the three numbers and full menus for delivery to their table or people are more than welcome to bring in their own food,” says Carroll.

Karns and Carroll encourage those interested to look to their Facebook page where they will post weekly updates of the construction process and other information to come.