Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Eric Gray, Zoe Woodworth, Tom Duex, Ryan Gray and Dick Gray stand behind the bar at the Keweenaw Brewing Company, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this April. The Houghton brewery has grown to be distributed through Michigan, northern Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota.

HOUGHTON — A Copper Country institution is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

The Keweenaw Brewing Company opened for business in April 2004. Since then, the Houghton taproom has established itself as a favorite stop for locals and tourists, while the brewery in South Range ships beers such as the Pickaxe Blonde and the Widowmaker Black throughout the Midwest.

The KBC is planning to hold a public celebration this week.

KBC co-founder Dick Gray had been living in Denver, Colorado, a hotspot for microbreweries. When he vacationed in the Upper Peninsula during his son’s hockey camps, he noted the lack of similar spots up here.

After he retired at 45, he decided to do something about it. Along with Paul Boissevain, who’d worked in the oil industry with him, he opened the KBC in April 2004. Gray bought Bossevain’s share of the company when he retired last year. The family-owned business includes Gray’s son Ryan, and his son-in-law, Eric Gray.

“The inspiration was just to bring good beer to the community and have fun with it,” Dick Gray said. “My wife calls it ‘my hobby gone mad,’ but it was something for me to do when I was so young to quit working. So it’s been fun for 20 years.”

From its base in Houghton County, the KBC gradually expanded distribution: to Marquette, Iron Mountain, then West Branch, Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids. It’s stayed at the same level since 2014 (“It’s kind of fun keeping it quaint,” Gray said). But that level still covers all of Michigan, the northern half of Wisconsin, and Minneapolis.

“It’s always fun going to a bar and then you see your beer on tap, like at a random bar in Green Bay,” said general manager Zoe Woodworth.

The KBC’s had about 220 employees over the past two decades. Most of them have been the bartenders, all local college students.

“That’s always fulfilling for me, that we can offer a pretty good-paying job in a small-town atmosphere, and you see all these kids that come and go,” Gray said.

Between market and wholesale, the KBC sells 14 styles of beer, as well as four flavors of seltzer (though those are being phased out, Gray said). The ones shipped throughout the Midwest are generally the perennials, found on the left side of the board in the taproom. (Pickaxe Blonde is the biggest seller locally, though the Widowmaker Black is biggest on the wholesale market.) The right side of the taproom board changes up more frequently. Instead of the 100 barrels a day being made at South Range, there’s about eight at in Houghton, giving them room to experiment with small batches. One beer on tap soon will have a mix of exclusively Michigan ingredients.

“The suppliers are always trying to wow us with what’s new and great in the hop world, new malts,” said head brewer Tom Duex. “Every year, they’ve got hundreds of new ingredients. I won’t be able to try them all in my lifetime, but it’s exciting just to try something different.”

The operation has expanded gradually, first expanding to the other side of the current building in 2005, then adding a deck in 2006. As they moved into wholesale, the KBC built the brewery in South Range in 2007, which has been expanded multiple times. Last year, the KBC added a another new facility to help with storage.

The evolution of Houghton’s Lakeshore Drive extends to the KBC. The big parking deck connected to the back deck at the KBC, which itself was in need of repairs. So Gray decided to tear that down using MJO, the same contractor that tore down the Lakeshore Drive deck.

The steel structure of the KBC’s back deck stood, old concrete was pulled and the deck was repaired, reopening late last summer.

That’s now joined by a new lower level, as well as an additional stairway coming up from Lakeshore.

A new KBC logo’s being added on the deck, and more lighting on both levels. The street-level deck will also have panels advertising the beers, as well as art.

“It’ll be done pretty quick, and then it’ll be up and running, and then it’ll be fun,” Gray said.

The KBC will also be a vendor in the city’s new social district, which allows people to buy drinks in specially marked cups and take that to other spots along the waterfront.

About 63% of the KBC’s sales are in the U.P., with Marquette as the biggest market. Gray’s also looking to expand the market slightly this year with marketing in Minneapolis and Duluth. Southern Wisconsin is another target, Ryan Gray said.

Over 20 years, the staff has accumulated a lot of memories. One of the most notable came during Senior Walk early in the KBC’s run. Gray was sitting by the large plate-glass window facing Shelden Avenue when a celebrating student kicked it in. Gray tackled the student and held him until the cops came to haul him off.

Thankfully, most days have been more sedate.

“I always like to look at this as a coffee bar atmosphere — very hometown, a lot of people you know, the same people all the time,” Gray said. “We have kind of limited hours compared to other bars, but it’s just more for community. I want the young people to come in and work and then leave at a decent time.”

He also gets a steady influx of tourists, who often tell him the prices are too low. (A pint is $3.75 — up from the $2 on opening day, but below the $10 they expected to pay.)

“They say I can make a lot more money if I sold these for $10 a pint,” he said. “I inform them, ‘Then you’d be the only one in here.'”

The actual anniversary celebration was delayed so Gray could be back up to join it. He arrived earlier than usual to be able to say goodbye to some of the bartenders who are leaving.

Of the 220 employees, only a couple have quit, he said. Most stay on; one of the bartenders who’s leaving has been there for the past six years.

“You say goodbye, and off they go, and you get a wedding invitation later, or an announcement that they’re having a kid,” Gray said. “It’s kind of fun.”