USA, MI: Aberrant Ales preparing to open in downtown Howell

Beer makers fired up brewing equipment for the first time this week at a new brewery expected to open soon in downtown Howell, the Livingston Daily reported on October 12.

The goal is to have six types of beer on tap when Aberrant Ales, 219 W. Grand River Avenue, opens, owners say.

"We'll have twelve different styles of beer once we're fully operational," said Clark Gill, of Howell, who owns the new brewery with his wife and fellow Brighton High School class of 1998 graduate Lisa Gill.

With their 10-barrel brew room operational and some final licensing hoops to jump through before they can start serving up original-recipe ales, the Gills expect to open "within a month," and they are hiring kitchen and waitstaff, they said.

They expect to have the following beers on tap right away:

Cream ale
Blonde ale
Amber ale
Pale ale
IPA
Raspberry Saison

"In the next year, our goal is to distribute to local bars and restaurants and then get into packaging beers after that," Clark Gill said.

The first spark that lead to the new brewery happened around a camp fire about a decade ago, when Gill, his friend Tom Lincoln, of Brighton, and others starting talking about how cool it would be to learn home brewing.

"It started as a hobby with a 5-gallon batch and turned into a passion," Gill said. "Then it was a 10-gallon in the garage and then a 1-barrel commercial system in the basement to start piloting batches."

Gill and Lincoln invented the five types of ale and taste-tested them with their friends.

Head brewer Adam Stout, who helped start Colorado business Nighthawk Brewery before brewing at Roak in Royal Oak, invented the Raspberry Saison.

Stout and executive chef Adam Weber will collaborate to invent new brew flavors and menu items.

"Since we just started brewing, we'll have to taste and then come up with food that pairs with beers and beers that pair with foods," Weber said.

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