PETOSKEY — One of Petoskey’s trademark breweries is celebrating 10 years of business by continuing to commit to the local community.

Beards Brewery officially opened on Aug. 17, 2012. At the time, co-owner Ben Slocum was a student at Northern Michigan University while fellow co-owner Peter Manthei was living in Petoskey and working full time. Both were born and raised in Petoskey.

Manthei had brought up the idea of opening a brewery to Slocum after spending time in California and trying out his own home brew.

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“I liked drinking beer. I grew up working in restaurants so I liked cooking and I liked making stuff,” Slocum said.

“But I went to school up at Northern in Marquette and there were some breweries there in town, so I started hanging out there a lot and then when Peter (said) we should start a brewery, I'm like, this makes tons of sense, because there's no brewery in Petoskey and I don't want to have to drive 45 minutes to go get a craft beer.”

The two worked long hours at their original location at 207A Howard St. before expanding to their current location at 215 E. Lake St. in 2017, where they began to offer food in addition to beer.

To celebrate their 10-year milestone, Slocum and Manthei have several things planned. One of which is the new name for their classic beer Serendipity, which is now Midnight Peddler. They are also bringing Beards back to its roots as a small pub with The Beards Root Cellar.

The cellar will be a pub serving only beer, like in the early days of Beards at its Howard Street location. The entrance to the pub will be on Bay Street, making it totally separate from the main restaurant.

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“It's its own unique thing. So it will be the beer focused beer bar, basically allow the upstairs to be the best restaurant and the downstairs to be the best beer bar. So two different fields, two different experiences,” Slocum said.

Manthei added “So that's why we've given it its own name, its own entrance, its own hours. We're trying to get everyone to understand it’s kind of a special space that's all about the beer again.”

In addition to the cellar, Beards will be hosting a community event later this summer on Bay Street with local bands and “Hometown Heroes,” according to Slocum.

“The goal is to celebrate the community that we've been a part of for 10 years,” Manthei said.

More details about the event will be announced on June 22.

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Since opening Beards, Slocum and Manthei have both been heavily involved in the community. Slocum is a firefighter, a county EMT, chair of the downtown management board, secretary of the chamber of commerce board and works with the housing committee.

“It's our hometown. That's one of the major reasons we put (Beards) in Petoskey,” Slocum said. “We did a lot of traveling, we saw a lot of places we'd like to visit but ultimately this was home. So we wanted to be involved. And since then, I think the brewery is only one aspect of what we do locally in that way. We're trying to strengthen and help our community."

Manthei has worked with the C.S. Lewis Festival and is involved in Genesis Church, as well as The Manthei Group.

“It seems long and short,” Manthei said. “It definitely feels like we've been around forever at certain points because we've packed so much in, but when you look at the time frame, I feel like we've packed a lot in in a short time. I've told Ben I feel like we've worked 20 years of work in 10.”

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Contact reporter Tess Ware at tware@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter, @Tess_Petoskey 

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Beards Brewery reaches 10-year milestone, celebrates community