Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Stuhr.
Hi Scott, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Leah Stuhr and I had been working in the brewing industry in Asheville, NC when we met. It was shortly after that we started to discuss ideas of opening a brewery of our own, and after a couple of years of planning and searching, we settled on Silver Spruce Brewing in Traverse City, Michigan. Leah is from Traverse City originally and we just loved the area and the culture that comes along with it. We have used our experience and education to build what we thought was the perfect brewery.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have been a lot of challenges along the way, starting when we quit our jobs and moved to Traverse City with our 1-month-old daughter in June of 2018. We got right to construction and were open by the end of that same year. Things were going pretty well for just getting started, and as we were heading into our first summer, Eighth St. was shut down for construction for the entire season. We got through that thanks to a lot of local support and having a very small staff. We went into the next year ready for our first season, and that is when the Covid pandemic started, which was unexpected, to say the least, and that was a difficult couple of years as well. We made it through those years and are quite happy where we are today. Every year will probably present some challenges, both personal and business, but we hope to be here for years to come.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I have a background in biology and worked in the laboratory in the water treatment field out of college. I didn’t know it at the time, but this really helped provide the skills necessary to be successful in the brewing industry. There is a lot of microbiology, chemistry, and water treatment involved in the making of good beer. I switched over to the brewing industry in 2012 full time but was still doing a lot of lab work and quality control in addition to production. I believe that this background has really allowed us to deliver excellent quality product at our size.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I see neighborhood breweries and single locations doing well in the future, but the distribution side and grocery store competition is beginning to reach a saturation point. The days of small breweries growing into larger breweries might be over, but I believe there is plenty of room for quality beer in the tasting room. This will cause the model for some businesses to change and may even result in some mid-sized production facilities to go under. The rising costs are not unique to this industry, but with increased labor and materials comes decreased margins, and that is what makes distribution very challenging in these times.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.silversprucebrewing.com
- Instagram: @silversprucebrewing
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/silversprucebrewing
Image Credits
Emily Frances Olson
