ECONOMICS & enterprise A
ECONOMICS & enterprise A brewing business in Frankenmuth By Vanessa Denha Garmo When Haithem and Anmar Sarafa purchased the Frankenmuth Brewery, they were not fulfilling a lifelong dream of becoming beer brewers. However, after doing some research, they discovered the beer business is in their blood. Founded in 1862, the Frankenmuth Brewery is the second oldest brewery in the country and the oldest in the state; it is Michigan’s Original Craft Beer. Today, the brewery not only provides hand-crafted beer but also German-style dishes and awardwinning burgers. “We did not know a lot about the brewery when we first began to evaluate the purchase, but we certainly did a lot of due diligence to find out about its history,” said General Manager Haithem Sarafa, who oversees daily operations and owns the brewery with his brother Anmar. “We researched both the history of the Frankenmuth Brewery as well as the craft beer industry for many months prior to making the purchase.” In fact, when the Sarafas were first considering purchasing the brewery, they targeted Anheuser-Busch as a potential tenant for the property but the company was sold. So, they began to look at the Frankenmuth beer brand, which hadn’t been available to retailers for more than 15 years. The Sarafa brothers discovered that the beer industry clearly showed that craft beer was the only growth segment of the market. “And based on discussions we had with industry experts, we were convinced that the Frankenmuth name had a lot of strong brand recognition and cache in the marketplace,” said Anmar. “We projected the craft beer segment would continue to experience high growth in sales and profit margins. And Michigan is one of the fastest growing markets for retail craft beer sales in the country. As one industry expert put it to us, ‘Craft beer is to the younger generation what wine was to us when we were their age.’” Even though sales of craft beer were increasing, the business venture was not without challenges. The Sarafas faced an economic decline in the state of Michigan, tourism was down, and general beer sales were on a decline. Anmar and Haithem Sarafa “We projected the craft beer segment would continue to experience high growth.” – Anmar Sarafa With the bottled beer back on store shelves, the Sarafas are optimist that tourists will drive past Bronners and the Bavarian Inn to visit and dine at the Frankenmuth Brewery. The Frankenmuth Brewing Company, housed in the historic fourstory, 28,000-square-foot building, is a destination for food lovers and beer aficionados. They provide banquet and meeting facilities, along with seasonal outdoor dining. An afternoon or evening at the brewery is more than a bottle of beer with a meal; it is an experience. Located in Frankenmuth, Michigan’s Little Bavaria, they are known for their award-winning lagers and ales. Patrons can enjoy an outdoor dining and patio seating along the Cass River on one of three decks. You can take a free beer tour where you can learn about the beer, brewing and bottling process. Patrons can visit the retail shop and take home a sixpack of handcrafted beers, root beer and German-style growlers. There are about 5,000 residents in Frankenmuth and the town is heavily dependent on tourism. The Frankenmuth Brewery re-establishes one of the three commodities the city has been known for: Chicken, Christmas and beer. Although the Sarafas anticipated the restaurant would drive business to the beer production, it has been the reverse. “We did not anticipate the extreme growth we have experienced on the beer side and the challenges we have faced on the restaurant side,” said Haithem. “The brand recognition is so strong,” said Anmar. “We believe the re-production of the beer will drive tourism to the restaurant.” Not only did the Sarafas research the brewery’s viability, they researched its history and shared their favorite fact about beer from the book Grape vs. Grain by Charles Bamforth. “The first acclaimed seat of brewing was Mesopotamia (the latter-day Iraq), with a plethora of archeological and art evidence informing us of the important role that beer had to play in society. It is now believed that brewing within Mesopotamia can be traced to Sumeria and later to Babylonia. The first evidence of people enjoying beer is to be found at Tepe Gawra, in modern-day Northern Iraq, with seals from 4000 BC depicting the drinking of beer through straws from a huge jar.” “So we suppose you can say that we have made our ancestors proud by going into the beer brewing business,” said Anmar. Frankenmuth’s founding fathers brought the tradition of brewing to the mid-Michigan forests in 1845. John Matthias Falliers founded Frankenmuth’ first brewery in 1857. Cousins William Knaust and Martin Heubisch opened the Cass River Brewery just north of the Fallier property in 1862, where the Frankenmuth Brewery continues to stand today. The Cass River Brewery was purchased by Johann Geyer in 1874 and renamed Geyer’s Brothers Brewing Co. For the next 112 years, the facility operated under many names including the Frankenmuth Brewing Co. Ferdinand “Fred” Schumacher from Duseldorf, Germany, purchased the brewery one year before a fire destroyed most of the structure in 1987. The microbrewery continued operation following the ownership acquisition by Randall E. Heine in 1990. The nation’s second-oldest microbrewery was at peak production in 1996, distributing more than 30,000 barrels of locally produced microbrews across 25 states, when an F3 tornado struck the facility, causing several million dollars of damage. A brew pub was opened in 2003 and closed three years later. Some of the stores carrying the Frankenmuth beer are Hiller’s, Busch’s, select Meijers and several independents. The Sarafas plan on distributing the beer in other states. 44 CHALDEAN NEWS SEPTEMBER 2011
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