Inspiring Conversations with Troy Zitzelsberger of Third Nature Brewing

Today we’d like to introduce you to Troy Zitzelsberger.

Hi Troy, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
We’re a friendly local neighborhood brewery family owned and operated.

I actually started the first craft beer taproom in Seoul, South Korea and a brewpub shortly after that. My brother and I always talked about opening a brewery in our home state, MI. We where sitting a round a campfire and our sister said her and her husband wanted in. My brother and brother in law searched for a location and found one while I was still overseas. We took a huge gamble opening in one of the world’s most competitive beer markets (Beer City USA), purchased the land, my wife and I moved back and the rest is history.

Everyone in the family plays their part in handling different aspects of the brewery. My brother Chad is a financial planner, another family business that my brother in law Bryce is now a part of. My sister Lisa handles our social network, sister in law Hayley handles our HR as well as a good portion of our accounting and my wife Donghee teaches our Yoga on Tap classes. There’s now 6 kids amongst the families and we can’t wait for the day we can put them to work at the brewery as well :).

We are where we are because we’re a family of outdoor enthusiasts. On any given day you can find one of us running on the White Pine, biking at Luton or Merryl, or floating down the Rogue. We have a very German last name hint the large outdoor biergarten. It really is lovely during the summer and it’s a winter wonderland during the winter complete with igbrews and fire pits.

Our business and location is constantly changing and evolving to meet the ever changing market and economy. It’s been fun.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We officially opened our doors a few months before we had to close them due to that pandemic. We immediately pivoted our business and switched to a take out and delivery model, something we had never planned to do. Thankfully, with our large outdoor biergarten we where still able to do some business on site and give people a safe haven to come to.

Since covid we’ve had to deal with an ever changing market IE
inflation. No one likes to raise prices and no one likes to pay more.
There was also a period of time post covid where there was an industry wide labor shortage especially in the kitchens so everyone was short staffed which created far more problems then the obvious ones and continues to hurt many local businesses.

We’ve been impressed with Third Nature Brewing Co., but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Here at Third Nature Brewing we have the state’s premier biergarten and one of the most efficient brewing systems. Thanks to our mash filter, a mash press that only a handful of breweries in the country have, we’re able to benefit from a very high efficiency meaning we use far less raw ingredients and create far less waste then your typical brewery. Nature is in our name and we take pride in being as green as possible in practicing sustainable brewing and sustainable business practices.

We also have an RO filter which gives us a clean slate to work with for every one of our beers. For instance for our Bohemian Pilsner we replicate the water profile of Plzen, Czech Republic and for our Stouts we replicate the water profile of Dublin, Ireland.

To top it all off we’ve invested in a centrifuge so we’re able to get our beer to market quicker and cleaner with a much longer shelf life.

We’re also a family business that is very family oriented. Every week we have a family day on Tuesdays complete with specials geared towards families and family trivia. We also have a big family day celebration a few times a year, our winter celebration includes sledding, arts and crafts, balloon animals, a snowman building contest, kids menu specials, hot cocoa bombs etc…

We’re also dog friendly offering dog biscuits and water bowls as well as a certain menu item for our canine and feline friends.

We do family trivia on Tuesdays, regular trivia on Wednesdays and have live music on Thursdays.

To go along with our vast beer selection we also make our own cider, seltzer and wine.

• Website: thirdnaturebrewing.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thirdnaturebrewing?igsh=dzJobjdmMW92a2Nl
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thirdnaturebrew?mibextid=2JQ9oc