Something Rare Brewing at Rare Bird

Nov. 1, 2014

Rare Bird, indeed. At most brew pubs, women are found behind the bar, taking orders or cooking. Not many women are brewers in the burgeoning world of craft beer, but that doesn’t mean there couldn’t–or shouldn’t–be more.

An early pioneer on the Traverse City brewing scene was Kim Schneider, head brewer at North Peak several years ago. Schneider moved on and currently crafts beer at a downstate brewpub.

Now, brewer Tina Schuett has taken the beer-making baton and run with it. Schuett is head brewer and co-owner at Rare Bird, a Traverse City brewpub and contemporary cuisine restaurant that opened last June.

Northern Express sat down with Schuett to learn how she got into beer making, the challenges she faces and the vision she and her business partner Nate Crane have for their establishment, and the future of beer in northern Michigan.

NORTHERN EXPRESS: Where does your interest in beer come from?

TINA SCHUETT: I’m from Wisconsin, so beer’s pretty prominent there. It’s the main beverage of choice for a lot of people. In high school I lived in Germany for a year, so I got to taste the best beer and get used to it and learn what good beer was. When I got home, all my friends were drinking the bad stuff and I was willing to pay extra to get the good stuff. Then my interest, and kind of obsession, with beer stuck when I went to college and I learned how to home brew from a friend. I just started with extract like people normally do and then eventually moved to all grain.

EXPRESS: And you just developed from there?

SCHUETT: After I graduated college, I was a park ranger for a while and that brought me to New Zealand; I was there for a year. Along the way, I just sampled as much beer as I could, went to as many breweries as I could. Then, after being a park ranger, I did children’s health research and I was stuck inside a cubicle and just wasn’t happy. So I just started applying to breweries and I finally got a job at one in the middle of Wisconsin, and that’s what got me into it.

EXPRESS: Did you ever get any professional training?

SCHUETT: Before I moved here, I came to the Traverse City Microbrew Fest and talked with one of the head brewers at Short’s and I said, "˜I’m really interested in getting started. What should I do? Should I go to Siebel [a brewing institute in Chicago] and take some courses or should I just go knocking on brewery doors and try to get hands-on experience?’ And he said, "˜Your best shot is just getting hands-on experience.’ So, I was lucky enough to get my foot in the door at a brewery and that’s what started it.

EXPRESS: What brought you to northern Michigan?

SCHUETT: My mom is from the area so I was familiar with Traverse City. We’d come up here every summer to visit my grandma and cousins. I gave notice at my job at the other brewery. I was still working there and I was at a festival with them and I met someone from a brewery here. And I always liked the area and I thought it would be fun to move here, and they were looking for a brewer. So, it just ended up perfectly.

EXPRESS: Tell the story of how Rare Bird came to be.

SCHUETT: Rare Bird was a long, strenuous process [laughs]. Nate Crane and I started almost three years ago now. He worked at Right Brain when I started there. And then we knew that Right Brain was going to move so we thought, "˜OK, cool idea, let’s go into this location since it’s a proven location.’ And we started working with the landlord. We worked with him for over six months and came up with a concept and everything. And then, at the last minute, when we were ready to sign the lease he kind of backed out. So that sent us scrambling and we found this location, which we actually like a lot more in the long run, now that we have gone through it.

We also had these investors. We had signed the lease. We had put in a lot of money. And when it was time for the investors to step up, they backed out. So, at that point, we went knocking on all these bank doors, two young people with no experience running a business, trying to get money. And finally, between four or five different banks and some crowd funding, we got all the funding we needed. And Nate and I played general contractor and builder; we did as much as we could. We couldn’t do electrical or plumbing or HVAC, but anything that didn’t require that special license, we did.

EXPRESS: What was your vision for Rare Bird?

SCHUETT: Along the way, we said, "˜Let’s do a brewery, OK, but let’s do something different. Let’s not only have our own beer, let’s have everybody else’s beer on tap, too.’ So that’s why we have 35 taps. We just knew we had to do something different than everybody else.

Express: How has that worked out? What’s the balance between your own beer and others’?

SCHUETT: We hands-down sell mostly our beer. The breakdown may be 60 or 65 percent versus 40 or 35 percent.

EXPRESS: How did you come up with the name?SCHUETT: [Laughs] Before I came to Right Brain, the word on the street was this girl you know, "˜How fun. Brewing.’ It’s just long, hard, strenuous work. It’s a lot of cleaning, a lot of wetness, heavy lifting. But if you’re passionate about it, the community is responsive to female brewers. Even when I talk to other head brewers, they’re awesome. They only want to help. Everybody’s pretty supportive. I think people just think it’s kind of cool that I’m doing it on my own. I try and not make it a thing, more than anything. I’m just brewing beer, just like everybody else.

EXPRESS: What is your beer making philosophy?

SCHUETT: I just try to brew to my palate, mainly, and just make balanced beers, and I hope that other people like my style. I just try to keep it clean and balanced and fun. Fun little twists, got to make it personal. But I brew what I think I would like and hope that other people would like too.

EXPRESS: Your favorite creation so far?

SCHUETT: That’s really hard. It’s like picking your favorite child. Right now, from what’s on the board right now, I would say the Schadenfreude. It’s the milk stout that we have on. In comparison to a lot of stouts, it’s on the lighter side. And I feel like it’s just really kind of nice and light and balanced and it’s got nice chocolaty and coffee flavor and we get really good response from people on it.

EXPRESS: Do we have the right amount of craft beer bars in Traverse City, not enough, or too many?

SCHUETT: I think we’re at a good level. If another one came in, I’m sure they’d fit in fine. The thing that I like to compare it to is the wine industry back in the 80s and 90s. There were a couple that started and then, all of a sudden, this boom happened and I’m sure they were kind of freaking out when they heard all of these people coming. But it’s created its own industry. And I think the same thing is happening with the craft beer industry in Traverse City right now. We’ve got the Ale Trail, we’ve got all the different beer and wine tours. It’s its own thing now that I think people are really grasping on and we’re getting recognition for it.

It should push some of the breweries that maybe just had it kind of easy before when there was not much around here. Now, it’s like you’ve got to step up your game. It makes everybody do their best.