We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nick VanCourt. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nick below.

Alright, Nick thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

Yes, we are very much a niche brewery in several ways. First and foremost, we focus on farmhouse and barrel-aged ales in the Belgian tradition. You won’t find IPA, lactose beers, kettle sours or any of the day’s current trends here. We focus on world class, traditional beer. Also, about 70% of our beers, ciders and meads are made with 100% Michigan grown and processed ingredients. Local sourcing is also a key feature of our restaurant. Finally, we naturally carbonate all of our beers, ciders and meads, in the package. This provides exceptionally smooth carbonation and eliminates oxygen from the package, making our shelf life much longer than usual and also allowing for customers to cellar our products without them going stale.

Nick, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I grew up in a small UP town, working on a dairy farm and in my grandfathers giant vegetable gardens. My love for beer really started with Grandpa, who loved European lager and was always happy to lend a sip! Once I was grown up, sort of, and going to Northern Michigan University, I was introduced to amazing craft beers and would call Bell’s my first favorite craft brewery. This, ultimately, led to homebrewing. After a few years of that, I thought I should open a brewery. My brilliant wife, Marina, suggested I get an education and professional experience first. My first professional experience was an internship at the Great Dane in Madison, Wisconsin. After a few months of that I was off to The World Brewing Academy, where I was fortunate enough to study in Munich, Germany, and travel all over Western Europe with my classmates as we visited breweries, malt houses, hop farms, etc. After that I landed more jobs in the industry at Milwaukee Brewing Company, Tyranena Brewing Company and, finally, Ore Dock Brewing Company, before deciding to start Barrel + Beam.

At Barrel + Beam, we produce Old World products, typically with New World ingredients. Saison, grisette, biere de garde, barrel soured fruit ales, wild ales, dry ciders and dry meads, pretty well sum up our styles. Though we initially bottled everything, we now have many canned and draft products available. Our house yeast strain is a very aggressive fermenter and all of our products are very aromatic, yet dry with a focus on sessionability.

Our building and location is also quite unique. We are in a giant old supper club building on the edge of Marquette. We did an epic restoration of half of the building. We utilize about 9,000sq ft as a brewery, tasting room and barrel room, which doubles as our event space. We host many private parties and are known regionally as a beautiful spot to get photos taken. In the last year we renovated a space into a small kitchen. The Northwoods Test kitchen, falls in-line with our farmhouse roots and local sourcing.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I met Barrel and Beam Co-Founder, Marina Dupler, in fourth grade at Stephenson Elementary School. We become a couple in high school and have been together for nearly 25 years!

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

We are fortunate in Michigan to be able to self distribute beer, cider, mead and wine. Our growth has always been tied to the number of retailers we have (grocery stores, beer stores, restaurants, etc). We take a simple approach that has worked very well. We reach out and find the person who makes the decision, then we sample, then we sell! We have found that having a niche product means there’s a good chance the retailer won’t have anything like ours. So, if it’s really good and they don’t have anything like it, we are in luck.

Contact Info:

• Website: barrelandbeam.com
• Instagram: /barrelandbeam
• Facebook: /barrelandbeam