On Course at Shipwrecked

Rich Zielke knew it was only a matter of time before the craft beer craze that he came to know well while living in Colorado would take off in the Midwest, and, particularly, his adopted home of Door County.

“Coming from Colorado, I feel like we’re 10 years behind here,” he said. “Everything that happened out there, I can see coming along here now.”

While brewers like to see people drink their beer, Zielke, the brewmaster at Shipwrecked Brew Pub in Egg Harbor, is happy to finally see some beery competition, with Door County Brewing Co. about to celebrate its first birthday and the opening of its new Tap Room on the other side of the peninsula in Baileys Harbor, and to his south, Ahnapee Brewing Co. in Algoma about to celebrate its first anniversary in July.

“I think it’s great,” Zielke said. “Make it a destination, something for people to come for and include when they’re here.”

Zielke said he had his eyes opened to the craft beer culture when he moved to Colorado in 1997.

“I fell in love with it and kind of from the ground up got into the industry,” he said. “I was in Estes Park, Colo., which is very much like the seasonal tourist thing here, feast or famine.”

In 2008 he took the job as brewer at Shipwrecked.

“My wife’s from the Midwest, so we made the move back. This was a natural fit,” he said.

Within a year of his arrival, Zielke added a bottling operation to the already tight quarters of the Shipwrecked brewing operation, or “The Fishbowl,” as Zielke refers to the brewing area, which can be viewed from the bar and restaurant through a large picture window.

“We started the bottling with Door County distribution, then went statewide,” he said. “We’ve had some interest from Illinois, so we’re trying to cover that.”

When he arrived seven years ago, Shipwrecked was producing 300 barrels of beer annually, or 9,300 gallons.

“We just hit 1,200 barrels,” he said, or a four-fold increase of 37,200 gallons. Zielke attributes the growth to the bottling operation and to servicing more tap accounts.

With increased production, three years ago Zielke hired an assistant, Sam Koelling, a Sturgeon Bay native.

“I’m passionate about craft beer and I’ve learned to love Door County since I’ve been here, but it’s nice having Sam being from the area,” Zielke said. “He’s passionate about craft beer and passionate about doing it here. I’m enthused by him being a Door County kid and making this happen.”

Like Zielke did in Colorado, Koelling worked his way up from the bottom at the brewery. Last year he went through the American Brewers Guild’s craft apprenticeship correspondence program (“for working brewers who can’t get away,” the Guild states), and earned his Guild membership.

Zielke thought it was time for Koelling to brew his first commercial beer.

“He was hesitant to do the first brew. He didn’t think I was serious,” Zielke said.

Once he was convinced that it was really going to happen, Koelling said they started tossing around ideas for his first brew.

“I bounced ideas off Rich. Maibock came up,” Koelling said. “He’d never brewed one. I’d never brewed one. We don’t have time to do lagers in the summer, but we had time in the winter. So we just did it.”

Koelling’s Maibock has the distinction of being the first lager ever brewed at Shipwrecked. It was released in April and as of last week was still available on tap.

And how did it feel when he brewed his first beer for the public?

“It felt like a regular work day,” Koelling said.

“Until you put it out there and get that good feedback,” Zielke added.

“Sure,” Koelling said. “And I guess I’m not a very excitable person.”

Shipwrecked is owned by the Pollman family, who also own Door Peninsula Wintery and Door County Distillery. Since the brew pub is only open weekends during the winter months, Rich and Sam found themselves helping out the distillery operation, which may lead to some exciting beery developments.

“We have barrel ambitions,” Zielke said. “We spent a lot of this winter doing the mash for the whisky at the distillery because the pub business is down in the winter. The process is basically a mash, no hops. We’ve been sending it over there unfermented. They have more fermenter space than we do. That will pay dividends down the line. We’ll get some barrels.”

Of course you can find Shipwrecked beers at the brew pub and in bottled form at retailers, but you can also find Rich and Sam live and in person serving beer at the Door County Beer Festival in beautiful downtown Baileys Harbor on June 14. Rich said they will be serving Door County Cherry Wheat, Summer Wheat (hefeweizen), Shipwrecked IPA, Maibock and Maple Java Porter.