Alexander Alusheff

Lansing State Journal

LANSING – Sleepwalker Spirits & Ales is on hiatus.

The nanobrewery served its last batch of beer inside the Allen Market Place on Aug. 26. The business has since cleared its equipment from the tiny taproom it occupied in the incubator space since 2014.

Sleepwalker had planned to expand to its own storefront this fall where it could serve food and eventually spirits along with its beer. But last month, co-founder Matt Jason left the company after he and co-founder Jeremy Sprague couldn’t agree on how to move the business forward.

"It was an incredibly valuable experience," Jason said. "The craft beer scene in Lansing is a phenomenon. It's something that a number of people saw early on ... and I was lucky to be apart of it."

The two offered investors their money back after the split. Because the business didn't retain a certain percentage of investors, all were automatically reimbursed, Sprague said. They had raised $125,000 to build a micropub at 1621 E. Kalamazoo St., in the same building as the Allen Market Place.

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Sprague will continue on with plans to open the micropub, but he will have to raise the capital once more and look for a new location.

“I am not going to give up on Sleepwalker,” he said. “I am not willing to let it die so easily. It’s a bummer. Matt and I put our hearts and souls into Sleepwalker.”

Sprague will soon put up a new stock offering, this time with the option to purchase voting shares to create a steering committee for the business, he said. He did not give a timeline for when the business could reopen as a micropub. With Sleepwalker's hiatus, the number of breweries in the region is now 11.

“I think a lot of people are still rooting for us,” Sprague said. “We’ve made some really great beer.”

Some of the Sleepwalker’s regular beers on tap included Urbandale Wheat, Imperial Stout, Impermanence Pale Ale and Scotchy Scotch Ale. For its last batch, it dedicated a beer to Joan Nelson, director of the Allen Neighborhood Center, with a 9% bourbon barrel imperial chocolate stout.

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“Those guys are sweet,” Nelson said of the beer named after her. “It’s been a wonderful run with Sleepwalker. They’ve been an integral part of the community out there of food and beverage entrepreneurs. We have not seen the last of Sleepwalker.”

Alexander Alusheff is a reporter at the Lansing State Journal. Contact him at (517) 388-5973 or aalusheff@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexalusheff.