Birmingham-Based Griffin Claw Brewing Expanding

BIRMINGHAM, MI – Birmingham-based craft brewer and spirits distiller Griffin Claw Brewing Co. said Monday it would open a second location in Rochester Hills.

Griffin Claw operates a taproom, biergarten, brewing, distilling and distribution in Birmingham at 575 S. Eaton St. in Birmingham.

The second location will be at 2273 Crooks Road in Rochester Hills in the former East Side Mario’s American Italian Eatery, at the corner of Crooks Road and M-59.

All new experimental small batch beers, seasonal and specialty beers will be developed, brewed and packaged at the new 8,000 square-foot site, along with all of the brewery’s distilled spirits. It will serve as the Griffin Claw Brewing Company Think Tank and Test Kitchen.

“The craft beer community is always changing and embracing collaboration. This new location will be a teaching and training facility not only for our brewers but for customers looking to learn about the brewing process and culture,” Scott LePage, a spokesman for the company, said in a news release. “We’re looking forward to starting this project and growing the Griffin Claw family of craft beer and spirits, and providing the best craft beer experience for our customer.”

The Birmingham location’s bottling line will be moving to Rochester Hills as well as some of the current brewing equipment to make way for Birmingham’s new state-of-the art 50-barrel brewhouse, which will be three times larger than the current brewhouse. Expansion will allow Griffin Claw to brew up to 50,000 barrels of beer per year in Birmingham alone.

The Birmingham facility will also have a new “high gravity” system, which allows a new dynamic level of control rarely utilized in the craft industry.

LePage said the technology will ensure Griffin Claw will be creating the most consistent product available beginning at the brewing stage, all the way to packaging with 100 percent adherence to recipe, ABV, temperature and carbonation specifications.

This new technology and streamlining of efficiencies will also include the brewery’s new laboratory, enabling in-house testing to be done in real time, minimizing potential issues long before product ever reaches a customer.

“This expansion is exciting for us because it will allow us to better keep up with the demand of our core brands while still being able to experiment with new recipes, hop varieties, beer styles, barrel-aging, fermentation and not slow down our production,” LePage said

» Architect’s rendering of new Rochester Hills facility.