Continued growth for Blackrocks Brewery

Marquette hasn’t canned/bottled beer since pre-prohibition, 
around 1916.  That all changed on Wednesday, September 18, 
when Blackrocks Brewery began running its canning line at its 
9000 square foot canning and distribution center located at 
950 W. Washington Street.  

The Blackrocks team, including co-owners, David Manson and 
Andy Langlois, completed this final stage in the process 
before distributors showed up to take their product to s
helves around the Upper Peninsula.

Andy and David opened their nano brewery on Third Street in 
December of 2010.  After both of them had been laid off from 
the same company, Andy and David made a decision…instead of 
uprooting their families and leaving a town they both loved 
so much, they decided to follow their dreams and go for what 
they had talked about doing for years. 
After upgrading from a one barrel brewing system to a three 
barrel system and cramming fermenters into every possible 
inch of the yellow house on Third Street, they knew what 
their next step had to be.

In February of this year, Andy and David purchased the old 
“Coca Cola Building” on West Washington Street.  The work 
began immediately. Everyone on the Blackrocks team did what 
had to be done to get to the final product.

The new facility houses a 20 barrel system which will allow 
them to produce around 2200 barrels a year.  Their canning line 
has the capability of filling 33 cans per minute.  They will 
be consistently canning three beers that their Third Street 
customers have helped to decide.  They will be the Grand Rabbits 
Dry Hopped Cream Ale, Coconut Brown and the 51K IPA. They will 
also release a bomber bottle (22 oz.)series quarterly.  The 
first release will be the Flying Hippo, an Imperial Belgian IPA. 

Distribution will be limited to the Upper Peninsula at first. 
Blackrocks plans to grow slowly and increase the distribution
footprint over time.  As of Friday, September 20th, Griffin
Distributing and Peterlin Distributing had 2 of their 3 beers 
out for purchase. Brewers Andrew Reeves, Christopher Hutte and 
Josh Frazier, along with Andy and David, will be dividing their 
time brewing at both the facility on Washington Street as well 
as the Brew House on Third Street.  They are adding 3-4 employees
to their team with this recent expansion. The most recent addition
of their crew is James Short, former head cellarman of Shorts 
Brewing Company.

The Brew House on Third Street will continue with their smaller
brews, allowing them to experiment and serve diverse styles. The
project to open the upstairs for increased seating will begin this
fall. 
For more information, contact David or Andy at:
shout@blackrocksbrewery.com