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Mothfire Brewing Co. Opens in Ann Arbor

New brewery includes space for small group gatherings

By Kathy Gibbons

Mothfire Brewing Company has opened in Ann Arbor. || Photo by Chris Stranad

A passion project has become a business for a trio of partners who love good beer and have opened Mothfire Brewing Co.

Noah Kaplan, David Becker, and Alexis Jorgensen recently opened Mothfire in Ann Arbor. Kaplan says the business started out as a small brewery in the back of Leon Speakers, his Ann Arbor-based company manufacturing custom audio and audiovisual components.

“We used to brew originally in the filing room and in the back of the factory,” Kaplan says. “Then we had an opportunity around 2020 around the time of the pandemic to purchase an existing brewing company (Pileated Brewing Co.) … the good thing about it was we were able to take all the recipes we had been working on for years and take them on to a commercial system.”

Strangely, maybe serendipitously, the pandemic hit. That basically shuttered operations at Leon, which wasn’t considered essential to operate during COVID-19. But breweries were. So Kaplan and his partners were able to focus on Mothfire Brewing Co., which he says gave them time to continue fine-tuning recipes, develop their brewing system, and begin building their brand.

“What’s interesting is the first time we actually packed a Mothfire beer, we had no idea what to expect (in terms of customer response),” Kaplan says. “It was one of those times during the pandemic that we just posted on Instagram that we had fresh beer we’d bottled. We hand-labeled it all, we opened the garage door, and all of a sudden cars just started showing up from everywhere. It was epic.”

Photo by Chris Stranad

Within a year, they’d installed a canning line and were distributing beer. The previous brewery had a taproom, but it was tiny and only open about a dozen hours a week. “It was cool, dimly lit garage style,” Kaplan says. “But the vision was always to scale up.”

So they created what he calls “a 1,000-day plan” directed at getting a Mothfire Brewing Co. production-scale facility in place by 2023. With “a ton of hard work and insane dedication and a million miracles,” they have, opening Mothfire in recreated space adjacent to Leon Speakers.

Photo by Chris Stranad

“We had this kind of creative campus vision, where we have Mothfire in the front building … it’s an industrial area, so now we have this taproom in the front with a big patio,” Kaplan says. “You can totally see the whole entire production facility, which is 5,000 square feet.”

Because Mothfire Brewing Co. doesn’t open until 4 p.m. daily, there’s space available for groups of about 50 during the day who can book for meetings and other events. There’s a full bar and small kitchen, and those renting the space can hire their own caterers. (Mothfire itself features food trucks.) Brewery tours can also be included.

“We’ve already hosted groups for business meetings,” Kaplan says. “And it’s really nice, really small, and has a really easy way to serve food. It’s really easy from the catering standpoint because we do have a back of the house with silverware, glassware, dishes, giant coolers. It’s like a brewery experience during the day.”

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