One of the best feelings is being able to grab a bottle of your favorite beer off the shelf and enjoy it at your leisure and now, Ore Dock Brewing Co. has joined the ranks of breweries allowing their customers to do just that.

They began bottling this past weekend, overcoming a hiccup in the machinery to take the Bum’s Beach Wheat to the shelves. Today they bottled the Reclamation IPA and it’s an exciting day for all involved.

Andrea Pernsteiner, Co-Founder of Ore Dock Brewing Co., said, “So for the last two years we’ve invited our patrons to come enjoy beer with us here in the tap room, but as of this week, as of Monday actually, we did have our Bum’s Beach Wheat bottled and on the shelves here in Marquette County. This coming weekend, in fact today, Friday, we will have our Reclamation IPA in bottles and on the shelves in Marquette County so that’s two brands now that we have on the shelf. Very exciting for us.”

They’ll also be taking their Saison to the shelf later this summer, eventually bottling more seasonals as time rolls on. For the time being, Ore Dock beers will only be available in Marquette County, but time may see them branching out across the U.P.

“We really hope to continue to radiate out into the U.P.,” Pernsteiner said. “We really wanted to make sure we took care of our backyard first. Marquette has been so generous and supportive of us that we really want to make sure that we dial in the distribution of our bottled product here before we try to expand out.”

While many breweries these days are choosing to can their beers, Ore Dock Brewing Co. opted for bottles because of its status as a traditional drinking vessel.

“The other reason is the bottle condition aspect,” Pernsteiner added, “the fact that we wanted to be able to bottle condition our Belgians just really lent itself to the bottle as well.”

The folks at Ore Dock Brewing Co. are very thankful to the surrounding community for its support and are ready for this next big step.

“We always welcome feedback here in the taproom so if you have particular beers that you really enjoy, we’d love you to stop in and let us know that you’d really like to see that in a bottle. We are so excited to be in bottles; we’re really excited that people are going to be able to enjoy our beer on their back porch or at their BBQ’s now, and we wouldn’t be able to do that without the support of everyone involved,” Pernsteiner concluded.