Bellaire brewery makes a business out of making everyone family

Joe Short is far more artist and craftsman, an artisan really, than he is a salesman.

Nevertheless, just minutes into a conversation with Short and this writer was wanting what he sells, beer, at 10 in the morning--a first, and I am no teetotaler.

It wasn't that Short, founder of Short's Brewing Company in Bellaire, pushed his product--plenty of people across Michigan already lap it up. Or that he worked to be convincing of how tasty it is--it's an award winner and high on creativity and originality--it's just that Short's love for beer and for the brewing business comes through so honestly and sincerely and simply when he speaks.

When Short, 32, talks about his 7-year-old, 3,000-square-foot pub in historic downtown Bellaire, he not only will tell you about the dozens of changing varieties; some a mild twist on traditional, others in flavors seldom associated with beer, (a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, carrot cake and blue spruce), he will also describe how psyched he is to have brought a successful craft beer to Northern Michigan. It's obvious in the company tagline: "A company owned and operated by people who care in Northern Michigan" and its slogan: "Life is Short's, drink it while you're here."

"It took a little longer for Northern Michigan to be exposed to this kind of beer," says Short, who began making his own beer in college in Kalamazoo (hugely successful Bell's Brewery is in nearby Comstock), and went on to work with microbreweries to learn the hops. "I feel like it's a population mindset, that mass-produced beer was the best kind of beer. So my objective was to teach people not to have this preconceived kind of notion about this kind of beer."

He is excited that Short's pub, which is housed in an 1800s-era building, has been an economic shot in the arm for Bellaire. "Not to discount the good stuff already going on here, but I think Short's has been very good for the area." He loves that craft beer aficionados make pilgrimages to Short's and that it is a regular stop for winter and summer tourists. And he is proud that he and his partners have found servers and other employees who are "genuinely interested in the people who come in. It's really special to me and to a lot of people, I think. It has this community feel, this family feel, and I'm really proud of that."

Talking to Short will at least bring you a deep appreciation for craft beer, if not an education in the science of making suds. He and colleagues spent a recent weekend in Boston with other "beer geeks" talking about the merits of pasteurization (or not) at a craft beer festival.

In any case, lots of people want what Short's Brewing Company is making--all of it. There's the beer, which is doubling in production this year. There's the food, which attracts crowds willing to wait an hour or more for a table, prompting a recent expansion of the kitchen. There is the fun: festivals, including one with a bar carved from lake ice, tastings, live music, dances and other entertainment--all orchestrated by a crew of craft beer lovers committed to making beer that stands out and providing drinking places to remember.

"We specialize in the unconventional," he says. "We do no traditional advertising. The best advertising we have is putting our beer in people's mouths."

That and marketing through its website, YouTube, social networks and hosting special events to get Short's name out farther and wider.

What Short's has grown into is a little beer empire that stretches from Bellaire to Elk Rapids with distribution points all around the state. Production this year is expected to jump from 8,000 barrels to 16,000. This year, Short's will package 36 beers throughout the year, five of them year-round. At the pub, 50 to 100 beers will be rotated on 20 taps throughout the year.

To keep up with the growth, Short has taken on three major expansion projects since October, totaling about $2 million in labor and equipment, he says.

In October, four new tanks were dropped into the Elk Rapids production facility.

In December, the deli at the pub underwent an overhaul. "We upgraded the food production infrastructure," he says. "We put in huge ovens, a hood vent system. To do that we had to reconfigure the bathrooms. It was two months of work hammered out in 17 days."

In January, more tanks went into the production facility and equipment such as centrifuges and silos were added, with more following in March.

"It was three fast and furious explosions," he says. "It definitely helps alleviate some of the pain. The growth process is always painful."

The capacity to feed more customers will require more improvements at the pub, he says. "We need to accommodate more people. There are a couple of things to do in house. A lot of these ideas are waiting at the discussion table."

The discussion table points to Short's democratic management style with all suggestions welcome, some discussed face to face, some, like ideas for new beer flavors, entered into a shared file.

"One of the things that's great here is we encourage creativity. So there's a handful of ideas they'll toss and we have a shared document we pull from. Then a lead team discusses and decides if we can produce it. It's always fun to dream," he says.

Fittingly, the business has a homegrown feel. Short, his partners, co-workers and friends helped get the pub kitchen expansion done, for example, and much of the wood-heavy pub is Short's handiwork.

Short says his home brewing records date back to 1999 during his college days, when he first began experimenting with beer-making.

He went on to work for Williamsburg and Traverse Brewing Company and "hopped around the state in various brewing companies. That's kind of where I picked up a lot of my experience," he says.

"I was 22 when I started writing a business plan and I had already been brewing more than a year," he recalls. "I figured it would be one of those things that you could recover from when you're younger rather than getting into a career and thinking about wanting to do this for my whole career. My strategy was kind of everything to gain but nothing to lose."

Short has a long story on how he got here and where it's all going. Why not grab a beer--the flagship Hupa-Lupa-Licious, Nicie Spicie, Turtle Stout, or any of dozens of others--and ponder it? Or better yet, just drink it.

Kim North Shine is a Detroit-area freelance writer, and a frequent Up North visitor with frequent cravings for craft beer.