Alexander Alusheff

Lansing State Journal

LANSING – A brewery is coming to Old Town.

Dan and Kyle Malone, a father and son duo, plan to open Ozone’s Brewhouse this spring in a warehouse at 305 Beaver St.

“This won’t be your standard true-to-style beer,” said Dan Malone, of East Lansing. “We call beer liquid art, so it fits into Old Town."

The Malones plan to have five house beers, each with an interesting mix of flavors, among them a cherry vanilla amber ale, a chocolate pepper porter and a sage ale. A chocolate mint stout, a raspberry saison and a lemongrass wheat will be among the seasonally available beers.

Brewing started as a hobby for Dan Malone roughly 20 years ago. In 2010, when Kyle Malone turned 21, he started brewing with his father.

“It didn’t strike me until our fourth or fifth batch of beer that we could start a business,” Kyle Malone said. “It’s a hobby run amok.”

He went to school at Michigan State University for a short time before taking brewing courses at the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago. Kyle Malone then moved to Indiana to work at Three Pints Brewing Co. just outside of Indianapolis. He spent two-and-a-half years there, becoming the pub brewer.

Last year, he moved to East Lansing to work with his father on starting the brewery. Kyle Malone is the head brewer. Dan Malone, who is the senior vice president of Energy Resources at Consumers Energy, is financing the project. However, he said he'll still come in and help make batches.

“The craft beer attitude is coming around,” Kyle Malone he said.

When Ozone opens in May, it will be the 10th brewery in the Lansing area, soon to be followed by Arcadia Ale & Smokehouse on Michigan Avenue.

“The time is right for doing this in Lansing,” Dan Malone said. “The craft beer scene has expanded like we’ve seen in Grand Rapids.”

The craft beer bars and breweries popping up around town in recent years have shown there is a market for another brewery, he said, noting that there are still no breweries on the north end of town.

“Old Town is growing,” Dan Malone said. “We’re looking to create a destination spot that adds to what we see with Meat and Zoobie’s Tavern. Something that adds the next element to it.”

The brewery’s location, a block north of Old Town's shopping district, will help draw more traffic to the area, possibly expanding the neighborhood’s footprint, said Austin Ashley, executive director of the Old Town Commercial Association.

“Hopefully it will open up Old Town more to the north, because it’s getting crowded,” Ashley said. “Microbreweries are popping up all over the place, so I’m happy one is opening in Old Town.”

Since the Ozone will just serve beer and snacks when it opens, the Malones will be partnering with Old Town restaurants to deliver food.

“It makes for a nice collaboration,” Ashley said.

Ozone’s will occupy roughly 2,500 square feet of space in the warehouse on the corner of Beaver and Turner streets. It will include the bar from the former Mustang Bar on Turner Street.

The Malones had originally looked at the Mustang Bar property, but it was too small. The property owner, Terry Terry, is turning it into an event center called UrbanBeat. Terry owns the warehouse on Beaver Street and told the Malones they could have the bar, Dan Malone said.

“We’re taking a piece of Old Town with us,” Dan Malone said.

Contact Alexander Alusheff at (51)7) 388-5973 or aalusheff@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexalusheff.