Our Story
Brewery Outré began as the vision of our Founder and Head Brewer, Ted Linabury. As a long-time homebrewer, Ted started Brewery Outré out of his love of great beer, pursuit of unique flavors, and desire to bring some more outré beer styles to his hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Ted began brewing because, aside from it being a fun way to make beer for himself and his friends, his favorite style of beer—saisons—were notoriously hard to find locally, expensive, or both. As he began experimenting with different yeasts, locally-sourced grains, and a variety of hops, Ted's beers became more nuanced. This was in part due to his focus on the terroir of each ingredient and fermenting with yeasts that impart a dry finish. Wanting to do something different and intrigued by the concept of natural wines—a type of wine that relies principally on the terroir of the grapes and wild yeast—Ted began to delve into the world of beer-wine hybrids. Soon, a saison made with 100% Michigan-grown ingredients (including the yeast), a sauvignon blanc saison (that would eventually evolve into our Blanc Slate OEPA), and Phoenix Haus Ail were born, albeit without names yet.
In 2017, Ted officially created the Brewery Outré brand and partnered with an existing brewery and meadery, Norse Nectar, to take his brew out of the kitchen and into the wild. Brewing on their 1 BBL pilot system allowed the newly-formed Brewery Outré to start producing beer, experiment with styles and recipes, and become part of the local craft beer community. However, as one might suspect, brewing on such a small scale was not a suitable long-term solution.
In the spring of 2020, Ted—along with few friends—began planning for Brewery Outré's own taproom, complete with a a shiny, new 5 BBL brewing system. The following year, the Brewery Outré team began working with NoMi Developers to plan and build out the brewing space and taproom on the lower level of the newly-constructed Harrison Circle apartment building in downtown Kalamazoo.
From summer through fall and winter of 2021/2022, we worked hard to finish the taproom, building and assembling most everything ourselves, by hand. Then—finally—in March, 2022, we began brewing in the new space, on our new equipment, and preparing our taproom (and ourselves) to open as soon as possible.
That brings us to day.
On April 1, 2022—after a couple of soft openings to preview a few of our beers to the community, and test ourselves and our equipment—we officially opened our doors to the public.
We're excited to be making some fantastic outré beers to share with the community, and we hope everyone will enjoy trying some unique, interesting, and delicious brews with us in our industrial-yet-cozy taproom.
To stay up to date on all things Brewery Outré, see what's new on tap, and find out when we're hosting food trucks, check back here or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.