Robert Allen

Detroit Free Press

A brewery to open in spring 2017 in Eastern Market has plans to use local produce such as cherries and watermelons in its beers alongside more traditional, German-style varieties.

Four friends from college partnered to open Eastern Market Brewing Co. in a two-story, 5,200 square-foot brick building built in 1929 on Riopelle between Winder and Adelaide. In one year's time, they've gone from calling a phone number on a faded sign to securing the building, the equipment and an experienced head brewer.

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"We've been so lucky," said co-owner Dayne Bartscht of Ann Arbor.

He and Paul Hoskin, Devin Drowley and Brad Silverman, all about 30 years old, went to Northwestern University in Chicago together. They'd initially hatched a plan to start brewing in a barn Bartscht has in Ann Arbor, then they noticed the building on a visit to Eastern Market.

"Detroit is really exciting right now," Drowley, of Ann Arbor said. "I feel like Detroit's a friendlier, more accepting city than Chicago."

They've been doing some serious demolition to the inside of the building, tearing down walls and removing cork-based insulation. They showed off the space to the public during September's Eastern Market After Dark event, but are gearing toward 6 p.m. Saturday, when they'll host an after-party for the 2016 Detroit Fall Beer Festival. They haven't yet acquired all the permits to make their own beer, so they said they'll be pouring local varieties from breweries such as Atwater Brewery and Dark Horse Brewing Co.

Eastern Market Brewing Co. will be the area's first brewery in the area along Gratiot in decades. As revitalization efforts have picked up steam in recent years, more restaurants have begun to open nearby, and Detroit City Distillery opened about a block away.

The brewery co-founders have hired Hazen Schumacher as head brewer, and his resume includes Detroit-based Atwater Brewery, Brew Detroit, as well as Comstock-based Bells Brewery, they said. While German-style beers tend to follow Reinheitsgebot (German beer purity law) ingredient guidelines of strictly barley, hops and water, the founders said they intend for their beer menu to include these as well as variations that take advantage of locally grown produce available in the market.

They recently had a mural depicting the brewery's name completed on the west-facing side of the brick building. An elephant was made part of the logo because the animal's social, collaborative tendencies align with their vision of "community, camaraderie and beer," Hoskin said. Also, it's known as a symbol of good luck.

The co-founders all have found post-college success and continue to keep day jobs: Drowley works as an engineer for a medical-device company; Hoskin is a part-owner in Arbor, a highly-rated restaurant in Chicago; Bartscht works downtown as a strategy manager at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan; and Silverman is an attorney in Connecticut.

They expect their five-barrel brew system will crank out fewer than 1,000 barrels (31,000 gallons) in the first year, and they don't immediately have plans to get into bottling or canning. Brick will be removed on Riopelle and an alley north of the building to allow for windows and a garage-style door to let in more light. The roof offers sweeping views of Eastern Market and downtown Detroit, and they're hoping to eventually open a biergarten there.

Spirits of Detroit columnist Robert Allen covers craft alcohol for the Free Press. He can be reached at rallen@freepress.com or on Untappd, raDetroit; Twitter @rallenMI, Facebook robertallen.news, and Periscope rallenMI