Midland Brewing Company

Midland Brewing Company

How it all started Keith Lawrence worked with Joni Hayes on and off at different hospitals, and job sharing at a small hospital with one operating room. In December 2008 Joni and her husband Pete were invited to Keith Lawrence’s house for a New Year’s celebration. At this celebration were Keith’s brothers Dennis and Mike. The three brothers had been home brewers for ten years. Unknown to Keith and his brothers was that Peter after graduating with a degree in Chemistry, worked for about ten years as a brewer. As you would expect much of the night’s talk centered on beer and the beer making process. Pete graduated from SVSU with a degree in chemistry. His first job was in quality control atGuyer Brewing in Frankenmuth Michigan. Over the next few years he was promoted to Master Brewer. Within the year the brewery was wiped out by a tornado. He then went on to brew in a couple of other small breweries. Eventfully he took a job elseware in the chemical industry. Keith graduated with a degree from CMU in education, teaching in Caro Michigan for ten years. He then went back to school eventually graduating with a BS in nursing from the University of New York. After ten more years he returned to school to receive a Masters in Anesthesia from U of M. At the New Years party a lot of talk centered on beer and the process. That February of 2009 Keith invited Pete to a Pistons basketball game. On the trip down to the game. Pete, who had planned this for years, asked Keith if he would be interested in starting a microbrewery. A few days later the Midland Brewing Company LLC was started. The journey this far has been difficult (this is a bad time with finances to start a small business) and at the same time rewarding. We have made many friends along the way and have received encouragement from many others. We opened in October of 2010 with three beers on tap. We currently have eight beers on tap and two sodas of our own creation. We have started distributing in February 2011.