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The first two specialty releases of 2012 have made it to store shelves around Michigan: Good Samaritan and Woodmaster. These two very unique beers will be pleasant surprises for the weary winter beer shopper. Each showcases local northern Michigan ingredients: one in a crisp and refreshing way, the other in rich, sustaining way.

Good Samaritan

Good Samaritan is a Belgian Amber Ale brewed with local apple cider and a specialty Belgian yeast strain. Sweet apple aromas and spicy esters of clove, nutmeg, and allspice entice the nose.
A pleasant crimson amber tone and slight haze give this beer an appearance similar to the cider it was made with, while malty hints of raisin and molasses balance the complex spiciness found throughout the profile. The finish is surprisingly clean.

The original batch of “Cider Ale” (the initial name listed in our 2006 brew log) was conceived thanks to a request for a charitable donation for the Bellaire Public Schools. Although, at the time, Short’s barely had enough money to stay in business, Joe wanted to honor the school’s request. He decided to brew a batch of a new beer specifically for the school district, which he personally hand bottled and sold, donating all proceeds.

The Good Samaritan label shows a man in a carriage pulling a Short’s Brewing Company beer cart. The cart has come to a stop, allowing school children to cross the road. The name Good Samaritan derives from our continued interest, as a company, in charitable giving and inspiring others to support their local communities.

Woodmaster

The Woodmaster is another Short’s beer rich in history and meaning. It is a high gravity American brown ale fermented with Northern Michigan maple syrup and toasted pecans. This dark brown, full bodied ale is rich with sweet malt and syrup flavors which are complimented by the presence of hop aromas and a faint nuttiness. The palate delights with toasted qualities of caramelized malt and an earthy pecan laced finish.

The first batch of Woodmaster was brewed in Bellaire on March 20, 2007. It was the 289th batch of beer brewed at Shorts, and was part of the Imperial Beer Series (#7 of 13 to be exact). Joe added 6 gallons of late season maple syrup to the brew (as shown in the photo), as well as 30lbs of toasted pecans. Today’s production batches in Elk Rapids use 24 gallons of maple syrup and 120lbs of pecans. That’s approximately 3.5oz of maple syrup and 2oz of pecans for every gallon of beer!

The Imperial Woodmaster was hand bottled in May of 2007 and had an estimated ABV of 9.5%. Today’s 12oz bottles are slightly lower, coming in right around 8.0%. As with other Imperial Beers, each 750ml bottle came with a hand numbered and signed hang tag with a narrative about the beer and brewing process. The hang tag for Woodmaster was unique in that it only described why Joe dedicated this beer to his friend Bill Sohn. It read:

This is a beer I dedicate to one of the most respectable, integral humans I will ever know. Bill Sohn, known as the Woodmaster around Short’s Brewing Company, is responsible for making it possible for me to craft this fine ale. Without the support of Bill and Pat Sohn, this beer and Short’s Brewing Company would not exist. It was the fall of 2002. Inside the wood shop located on Pontius road, Bill and I shared a bottle of an Imperial Stout I had made. While enjoying that beer, I exclaimed my frustrations with my current brewing job and how I wanted to leave and build my own brewery. It was there in that wood shop that Bill offered to support my idea and help develop it into a business. To this day, Bill provides support and guidance to me and Short’s Brewing Company. When I first met Bill, he drank mass-produced American light lager beer. After exposing him to several of my home brews, Bill soon began to fancy the glorious malt complexity of the beer we know now as the Bellaire Brown. Over the course of my home brewing and soon into my professional brewing career, Bill and I grew together as we both enjoyed beer, wood working, and the excitement of building a brewery. Every step of the way, Bill nurtured and guided my spirit with his love, dedication and wisdom to see my dream come to fruition. Bill still actively participates in our events and continues to fill our everlasting wood shop orders. Along with our tap handles, nearly every piece of wood in our facility has been processed by the Woodmaster himself. The label on this bottle is a painting produced from an actual picture of Bill tapping a maple tree in his yard on Pontius road when he was about the same age as I am now (28). There are several elements connecting this beer, to the man, the label and the company. I used maple syrup and pecans as extra ingredients to the formula of the double brown ale. It was appropriate because they both come from trees, and brown was the “conversion” beer for Bill. The label is important because it connects the craftsman approach to the product, the maple syrup, and the integrity of the man. It also articulates the use of working with wood and raw materials, much like the raw material we used to build the pub with. It is with sincere gratitude and love I dedicate this fine ale as the crown jewel of the entire Imperial Beer Series of 2007 to Bill Sohn.

We sincerely hope that you enjoy these first specialty beer releases of the new year. May the Short’s be with you!

-

Jon Wojtowicz, Short’s Beer Liberator

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The 2012 Short’s to Short’s Paddle will take place on Friday, April 27th, 2012.Our 8th Anniversary Party will take place the next day: Saturday, April 28th.

Keep an eye out for Short’s to Short’s registration details and other updates as these events approach!

- SBC Staff

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This new upper-level management position involves managing Short’s fast-growing production brewery operations, including the following departments: brewhouse, cellar, packaging department, systems integrations department, and safety assurance. The Brewery Operations Manager will work with the Owner, Head Brewer, Maintenance/Systems Integration Manager, and Quality Control Department to ensure that our operation is running at its maximum efficiency and that, above all, quality is assured. Additional duties will include coordinating with our HR department on personnel matters, assisting with brewery expansion, and assisting with the future planning and operation of a new production brewery.

The successful candidate will ensure reliability of all brewery equipment, including brewhouse, cellar, packaging lines, utilities, and instrumentation. Standardization of operations will be an important early focus for this position. The successful candidate will possess exceptional verbal and written communication skills. This is a high-level management position, so effective leadership skills and a proven track record are essential. The successful candidate should have a minimum of 10 years in the brewing industry, including a management role with a proven track record. A BS in Brewing, Engineering or Food Process & Packaging operations a related field is highly preferred. We are looking for a leader with excellent management and planning skills.

Experience with project management and budgeting are greatly valued. Special trades skills such as sanitary welding, CAD, HVAC, electrical, and/or mechanical experience will be considered favorably. Please also indicate related experience with fluid process systems, filler machines, packaging and conveyance systems, 5-S workplace organization or lean manufacturing, and the operation of forklifts, trucks, and tractors.

This position requires the ability to work in a fast paced environment, a flexible schedule, a willingness to go above and beyond, to stand for over eight hours at a time, lift 50 lbs to shoulder height, and work in extreme temperatures for extended periods of time in a wet and loud production environment, with chemicals of varying composition. This job requires a person who is able to be punctual and reliable on a day to day basis. Most of all, this position requires the kind of relentless pursuit of quality that comes with a deep love of our brand and the products that we produce, in order to ensure their continued quality into the future.

Pay Range: This is a salaried management position with benefits and a tremendous opportunity for growth with our company.

Please direct any questions about the position to employment [at] shortsbrewing.com.

- SBC Human Resources

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We are looking for someone to work closely with our brewery operations manager on maintenance and systems integrations projects. This is a new position, requiring in-depth technical and hands-on mechanical skills. To be considered for this position, you must have a minimum of 5 years’ related brewing industry experience with an emphasis on maintenance and systems integration. The ability to prioritize and assign repair and PM work, perform repair work, ensuring team member and product safety through establishment of SOP’s and training, ensuring all equipment and work environments are safe, managing the spare parts inventory program, developing and implementing a work order system or similar maintenance activity tracking system, managing preventive and predictive maintenance programs, process and equipment optimization, and lots of troubleshooting. Some budgeting and financial tracking will be required.

The successful candidate will have exceptional verbal and written communication skills, a self-motivated personality, and the ability to organize, plan ahead, and follow through with difficult tasks. This is a management position, so effective leadership skills are essential. In order to be successful in this position, you must possess the ability to identify needed plant improvements and make recommendations considering the highest level of quality and technology while being cost conscience. Experience with project management and budgeting are greatly valued. Special trades skills such as sanitary welding, CAD, HVAC, electrical, and/or mechanical experience will be considered favorably. Please also indicate related experience with fluid process systems, filler machines, packaging and conveyance systems, 5-S workplace organization or lean manufacturing, and the operation of forklifts, trucks, and tractors.

This position requires the ability to work in a fast paced environment, stand for over eight hours at a time, repeatedly lift 75 lbs to shoulder height, and work in extreme temperatures for extended periods of time in a wet and loud production environment, with chemicals of varying composition. This job requires a person who is able to be punctual and reliable on a day to day basis.
Pay Range: This is a salaried management position with benefits—placement will depend upon qualifications and experience.

Please direct any questions about the position to employment [at] shortsbrewing.com.

- SBC Human Resources

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We’re pleased to announce the 12 oz. bottle release of yet another
beer from our 2007 Imperial Beer Series: Publican Porter. Defined as
an imperial London porter, Publican Porter contains only traditional
brewing ingredients. Though many beers from the Imperial Series
showcased non-traditional brewing ingredients, Joe wanted to make this
beer a tribute to the fact that the porter style was once the most
widely consumed beer in the world.

Publican Porter was the first beer brewed for the Imperial Beer
Series. Joe’s brew log reveals that it was originally brewed on June
6, 2006 and was the only the 194th batch of beer brewed at Short’s.
To put that in perspective, we’ve now brewed almost 1,000 batches of
Huma Lupa Licious at our Elk Rapids production brewery.

Publican Porter was bottled on February 5, 2007. This seven month
conditioning period was due, in part, to the fact that Short’s did not
yet have enough staff members to dedicate to the arduous task of
hand-bottling beer. Fortunately, Tony Hansen was hired in February of
2007 as Joe’s brewer assistant. Together, Joe, Tony and Steve
“Steve-O” Ison (former Cellarman, current keg line operator)
hand-bottled the entire Imperial Series. This task required many late
nights and early mornings, but gave Tony (now our Head Brewer) and
Steve a chance to prove themselves and grow into roles of increasing
responsibility at Short’s.

The original artwork for Publican Porter was done by our long time
label artist and friend, Fritz Hortsman, one of four artist’s used for
this series. Each beer had a personalized hang tag that included
facts about the beer and where it fit in with the rest of the series.
All of these cards included a narrative from Joe about why he felt
compelled to create each beer, and were all individually numbered and
signed by him. Joe’s narrative for Publican Porter stated:

This beer was inspired largely by its historical value and is
development as a beer style. As much as I have gathered, porter was
becoming a recognized beer style around the 1700’s. It is said to be
an evolved product of brown ales being produced in London during that
time. I also understand that the dried brown and roasted malts of that
era contributed to its dark color. Among my portfolio of beers I craft
for SBC, I had not brewed a true porter until this imperial version. I
named it the Publican Porter after the owners of “public houses” which
were licensed to sell ale to common “port men” of the time. I have
read several different versions about porter and where its name came
from. Imagining a port side tavern and a publican mixing stale and
mild beer together for the port men and calling it “porter” will
always be how I pictured the birth of porter. That’s the concept I
bounced off of Fritz, and he furnished a most appropriate masterpiece
for the label work. While brewing this beer, I imagined a rich hearty
drink fit for a meal, much like the earlier porters that sustained our
forefathers. Rejoice with porter and bask in its rich flavor. Savor
its historical integrity.

We hope that you are able to once again “rejoice with porter and bask
in its rich flavor.” Cheers!

- Jon “Woj” Wojtowicz, Short’s Beer Liberator

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We are pleased to announce that we have decided to introduce Pontius Road Pilsner as a year-round bottled product. Pontius Road Pilsner was the first Short’s Brew created at our Pub, brewed by Joe Short on March 5, 2004. The pronunciation of Pontius is Pont – ee – us (not Pawn-chus). The real Pontius Road is located in Kalkaska, Michigan. It is where Bill Sohn, the person who encouraged Joe to “go for it” and open his own brewery, lives. When Joe opened Short’s in Bellaire, he knew that if Short’s was going to survive, people would have to be willing to seek out quality beer. Thus, the slogan for Pontius Road Pilsner is “Quality Lies Just off the Beaten Path.” We are happy that, starting soon, you won’t have to go so far off the beaten path to get this original Short’s Brew.

Part of what attracted Joe to brewing an American Pilsner was the historical nature of this style. The colonial settlers and first immigrants to America longed for their familiar, European lager beer, but did not have ready access to the same ingredients. In order to stretch their supplies, Americans added flaked maize to their pilsner beers. True to this tradition, we brew Pontius Pontius Road Pilsner with pilsen malt and a substantial, though not overwhelming amount of flake maize. Pontius Road Pilsner is a light, sessionable beer that still possesses a hoppiness suited to Joe’s tastes (he’s the guy that created Huma Lupa Licious, after all). Yet, while the hop bitterness of Pontius Road is somewhat prominent, the wonderful flavor and aroma of the flaked maize and pilsen malt do not get overshadowed. Our official description of Pontius Road Pilsner is “A true American style Pilsner where the malted barley, when blended with flaked maize (corn), produce a deliciously distinct flavor. It is light in body and color, with a surprisingly full flavor that gives way to crisp refreshment. Handfuls of hops provide pleasant aromatics and a wonderful dry finish. 4.5% ABV, 18 IBUs.”

After much consideration, we have decided to move the Magician to a seasonal specialty release, so that we can remain at a total of five year round flagships. While we love the Magician, we felt that the diversity of our flagship portfolio would be enhanced by this change. Magician fans should not despair, however. We will continue to brew the Magician and do our best to ensure its availability in kegs. We also intend to bottle the Magician as a seasonal specialty release, most likely as a limited fall selection. Meanwhile, the Magician is still available in stores while supplies last. Stock up now!

- Jon Wojtowicz, Short’s Beer Liberator

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The Liberator — our American Double India Pale Ale made with lemon and orange zest — is back. With an ABV of 7.5%, the Liberator packs a mighty 95.5 IBUs (on a scale of 100). We use eight different hop varieties in the Liberator. Seven of those are used in the boil and again in the dry hop, along with the eighth variety that is only used as a dry hop addition. To put it into perspective, we use more than twice the amount of hops (by weight) in the Liberator as we do in Huma Lupa Licious. In order to cram all of these hops into this one awesome beer, Tony devised a plan to add approximately 1.5lbs of hops every 4 minutes, during a 120 minute boil, so the total number of additions would equal 30 (in honor of Joe’s 30th birthday). Tony and our other Elk Rapids Brewers, Curt Guntziller and Aaron Smith, replicated this process on a much larger scale for this year’s bottle release.

The Liberator was originally brewed in November 21, 2008 at our Pub in Bellaire. The first batch was made in secrecy by brewer Tony Hansen who wanted to create a special beer for Joe and surprise him with it on his 30th birthday. In order to keep it a secret, Tony had to juggle the beer between multiple fermentors and conditioning tanks, each time intentionally mislabeling the beer so that Joe wouldn’t suspect anything. Finally, on Joe’s birthday, a lone growler of the Liberator was brought to our (then) newly acquired production facility in Elk Rapids, where Joe was already overseeing the immense construction project at hand. There, Joe and a few of our brew staff tasted this epic double IPA for the first time. Everyone agreed that for such an immensely hoppy double IPA, the result is very drinkable and refreshing. You may find that, as hard as this beer is to resist, you will want to keep some in the back of your fridge for a hot July day.

The label art for the Liberator was originally designed and used for a Short’s Great American Beer Festival sponsorship t-shirt. People who paid $100 to help send us to the GABF in 2007 received $1.00 pints at the pub for an entire year and a snazzy tee shirt. If you look at the bottle label, the city depicted in the background is actually Denver. We all liked the artwork so much, that when it came time to bottle the Liberator, it seemed like a perfect fit.

Even as we publish this release, you should be able to find the Liberator in a store near you. We hope that you enjoy this year’s batch as much as we enjoyed brewing and bottling it for you! Oh, and one more thing: Happy Birthday Joe!

- SBC Brew Staff

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Update: Short’s has re-evaluated packaging department staffing and decided not to hire a new filler operator at this time.  Thank you to all of the candidates who applied for this position.  Please check back for future job postings!

Short’s is seeking an organized, hard-working person with strong mechanical aptitude to operate our bottle filler machine. We seek a candidate who has operated machines (preferably similar to a filler machine) and who has been responsible for troubleshooting and fixing problems with such machines. The successful candidate will ensure the quality of our packaged product through effective bottling line operation. Essential functions of this position include:

* Coordinating with the Plant Manager to bottle and package beer according to production schedule.
* Effectively operate bottling line.
* Able to troubleshoot and fix mechanical problems with bottling/packaging line (and related) equipment.
* Recognize low fills and improperly filled/packaged product.
* Ensure quality of the finished product is up to par with Short’s quality standards.
* Make sure bottles are being properly date stamped and labled.
* Attendance and punctuality — doing everything possible to ensure the bottling schedule stays on track.
* Know proper and safe operations of every machine on the packaging line. Follow all safety rules.
* Be able to locate Start on Stop buttons including emergency stops on every machine.
* Work as a team.
* Ensure the cleanliness of all packaging equipment & packaging area.
* Assist all other packaging employees in their daily task to ensure that packaging continues in a smooth fashion.
* Make Plant Manager immediately aware of any process and or packaging problems, or any machine malfunction.
* Deal with all problems in a calm professional manner.
* Work with all other departments to form a more unified company.
* Strong communication skills and writing ability.
* Ability to accurately follow instructions and take direction
* Ability to respond to frequently changing production pressures
* Ability to work effectively and cohesively within the production department
* Ability to work with a diverse group of people

Preferred qualifications:

* Previous experience as filler operator or mechanic in an industrial/plant operation.
* Experience with a rotary pressure/counter pressure filler.
* Previous experience in the brewing industry.

Working Conditions:

This position requires the ability to work in a fast paced environment on their feet for over eight hours at a time, repeatedly lift 55lbs to shoulder height, and work in extreme temperatures for extended periods of time, in a wet and loud production environment, with chemicals of varying composition. This job requires a person who is able to be on time for work every day and who will not miss work.

If you are interested, please email your cover letter and resume to employment [at] shortsbrewing.com. Please do not apply unless you possess the requisite mechanical aptitude for this unique position. Thank you!

- SBC Human Resources

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UPDATE: We are now seeking a third party company to help us design our next revision website. After this project is complete, we will evaluate our in house needs and decide what position would best suite our overall website and design needs (will still be heavily design focused). Stay tuned!

Short’s is seeking a talented web designer who also possesses strong graphic design skills. The successful candidate will demonstrate the skills and experience necessary to independently take our current website to the next level, design and build our new e-commerce website, perform graphic design work as needed, and assist with IT work, special assignments, and other tasks as needed.

The successful candidate will possess the skills to take our mock-ups and napkin sketches and render them into highly functional final products adhering to all W3C standard html and css for all browsers. Specific web development tasks will include designing, coding, modifying and documenting our internet and intranet sites. You may also be asked to design apps and special websites as needed or assist in their production via an outside vendor. You will work with our marketing team to perform regular site updates and maintenance to keep our web presence professional and functional. You will need to be able to juggle multiple projects and deadlines: everyday tasks may require emergency graphic design work or fixing a broken web function, while bigger, long-term projects will also need to be completed in a timely fashion. Through it all, you will demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively with our management staff to keep everyone updated as to the status of your work. A strong knowledge of WordPress and PHP is highly desired.

Essential Skills / Experience:
Degree or educational experience in IT/web design
Work experience as a web developer
A demonstrable portfolio of web development and graphic design work will be highly favored
You must write clean, semantic HTML and immaculate CSS
A thorough knowledge of Javascript, PHP, HTML, CSS, JQuery, Ajax, WordPress and MySQL is required as is experience with version control systems like SVN and GIT.

Please direct any questions about the position to employment [at] shortsbrewing.com.

- SBC Human Resources

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