It is finally Christmas Eve, I really hope that everyone has all of their shopping done and is ready for good times with their family and friends. We all know that I have worked at Bearded Lamb Brewing Company for the last 3+ years. It should come as no surprise that I will be deciding to showcase and promote the brewery that I work at for the Twelfth Brewer of Christmas. Come by today and see me at the brewery for the holiday that we affectionately refer to as Christmas Steve, I will be pouring beers all day for your enjoyment. (I have a little something planned for the couple of days after Christmas on the page, and everyone that I see today will be included in it, with their permission of course)
Admittedly, I will be cheating a little bit today. I couldn’t arrange a time that worked for both of us with our brewer Doug Diedrich for an interview, so I went with one of our brewery owners instead. Today we will be putting the spotlight on our Twelfth Brewer of Chirstmas, the CEO and owner of Bearded Lamb Brewing Company in Plymouth, Michigan, Ryan Lamb.
Ryan Lamb is a local to the Plymouth, Michigan neighborhood in which Bearded Lamb resides. Although he was born in Ann Arbor, Ryan did end up graduating from Plymouth-Canton High School. After High School, Ryan pursued a college education at Washtenaw Community College. He currently resides in the next town over in Livonia, Michigan.
Previous to owning a brewery Ryan began working at Busch’s Marketplace when he was a teenager. He started by pushing in carts for a living and worked his way up to being a corporate buyer for the company in his 13 years at Busch’s. After Busch’s, he took the same job title he held at Busch’s and began working for the United Dairy Farmers in the state of Michigan selling homemade ice cream. Last but not least, his most recent job before owning the brewery was at Bimbo Bakeries, which is the largest bakery in the world. He left his job as regional manager of the Southeast region of Michigan at Bimbo about 3 years ago to pursue being a brewery owner full time.
This was not Ryan’s first foray into business ownership though. With his business partner, he established Motor City Trivia back in 2009. He owned this company for about 4 or 5 years before they eventually sold the company to Sporcle trivia. This is the job that led to him deciding that one day he wanted to get into the brewery business. As owner of Sporcle, he used to travel around to different areas of the Midwest, Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis, and Grand Rapids. The establishments where he was getting the most receptive welcome to trivia happened to be breweries. It was then that he noticed the prevalence of the community involvement that breweries tend to attract. This was an aspect that drew Ryan into the thoughts of one day owning a brewery.
In 2020 when Liberty Street Brewing Company went on the market for sale, this opened the door for Ryan and his friends to purchase the brewery. After a long year of hammering out the details and waiting for the sale to go through, Bearded Lamb Brewing Company served their first pints to the Plymouth community the day after Thanksgiving in 2021.
Getting into the brewing industry with no previous experience in the industry has had its share of challenges for Ryan. Bearded Lamb opened up as we were still dealing with some COVID restrictions and the aftermath presented unique obstacles to overcome. Ryan lamented that learning some of the aspects of the business such as day to day operations and the manufacturing side of the business proved to be hard at times, but was grateful that he had good brewers and employees to help teach him about the industry.
Another big undertaking for the brewery was a renovation and remodel over this summer that closed the brewery from the end of May until the beginning of August. Some of the features that were upgraded or fixed during this shutdown include changing the way that the beer is served. Instead of coming from serving vessels, it is now kegged off and served directly from a brand new insulated cold room. The fresh beer comes through all new draft lines that were installed as part of the remodel. Then there were some cosmetic and general facelift upgrades including new floors behind both bars (this was very much needed), upgrading TVs, and lighting.
The biggest challenge during the upgrade over the summer though was the removing of the old tanks and the installing of the new tanks in the brewhouse area. The owners of Liberty Street put the tanks in and then built the brewhouse around it. Bearded Lamb did not have the ability to do this, so parts of the building had to actually be dismantled to swap out the old tanks for the new tanks. After a long, gruelling process the new tanks are currently in the brewhouse and with the imagination and creativity of our Brewer, Doug Diedrich, are producing high-quality, clean beer.
In the three years of operation in the Old Village neighborhood of Plymouth, one question that we get asked often at the brewery is why the name Bearded Lamb? I wish there was some huge, convoluted, interesting story explaining that answer (maybe we will work on coming up with one). It turns out the answer is actually very simple, Ryan Lamb has a beard and his last name is Lamb.
On your visit to the brewery some of the options Doug brews that you will see on tap most of the time include a couple of our regular beers, THE American IPA- West Coast IPA, Soul Geometry- Hazy IPA, Old Village Pub Ale- English Bitter, and B.B. Rifle Blonde- Blonde Ale. The rest of the beers on our draft list rotate very frequently and include options such as Serious Fizzness- Hard Seltzer, Crispy Leaves- Brown IPA, Keough’s Irish Red, 30-Days Long Goodbye- Saison, and much more.
With the holiday season upon us, some of the seasonal releases that are featured on the board at the moment include our Foolish Consistency- Oatmeal Stout, and the Brew McIntyre- Scotch Ale. Both of these beers are great options to sit at the bar and have a few of. If you are looking to enjoy a couple during your holiday festivities tomorrow, you can always come by today to see me and get a couple of growler fills for your Christmas get together (wink,wink). Just a reminder, we don’t sell physical growlers anymore, so you have to bring a vessel with you to get it filled.
What does Ryan see for the future of Bearded Lamb Brewing Company? In the near future, the focus will be on creating beer for the local community and continuing to establish the brewery’s identity, name and brand. A little further down the line he would like to see the brewery grow to the point of offering some sort of distribution or canning options for the beer. Whether it is just for onsite sales of beer to go, or actual distribution outside of the brewery.
All good things must come to an end, and with the Christmas holiday upon us tomorrow, the Twelve Brewers of Christmas has been without a doubt the most fun I have had on the page so far. Let’s all celebrate the holiday season today by stopping into Bearded Lamb Brewing Company, where I will be awaiting your arrival behind the bar and our Twelfth Brewer of Christmas, Ryan Lamb, will surely be hanging out celebrating the holiday. Merry Christmas everyone, and as always, Cheers!
#cheers #brewery #beer #BeerLovers #craftbeer #drinklocal #christmaseve #holidaybeer #plymouthmichigan #michiganbeer
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