Wisconsin Dells Brewery Resurrects Popular Lost Beer

Bevvy resurrected Port Huron Brewery's most popular beer.

A new Wisconsin Dells brewery has resurrected a popular local beer that went out of production when its original brewery closed.

A lot of craft beer fans were upset when the Port Huron Brewing closed down its operations. Port Huron Brewing ended its production and closed its doors in January 2021, a victim of both COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and some equipment failures that preceded the pandemic. It had been a popular craft brewery, with a big local following in the “waterpark capital of the world,” and though its Oktoberfest and Oatmeal Stout beers were as popular, none of its brews were as sought after as it Honey Blonde Ale.

It was a beer sold everywhere from the local resorts with the waterparks to the corner taprooms and everywhere in between. So, when Bevvy, a new brewery purchased the Port Huron brewery in 2022, the decision was made to bring back Honey Blonde.

“Honey Blonde Ale was their most popular beer, hands down,” says Nicholas Smith, chief fermentation officer at Bevvy.

Though Bevvy has ventured into interesting craft brews like Kong’s Garage Band Stout, Verjus Sour Wheat and Cold Conspiracy Cold IPA, one of Bevvy’s very first offerings was to bring back the brew that made Port Huron famous. “We’re trying to honor what Tanner (Brethorst), the original owner and brewmaster, had done,” Smith says. “We knew that people liked the beer, and we knew there was a market for it.”

Though the brewery started in August of last year, it took several months to get all the correct permitting in place, and the brewery’s tasting room just opened in May 2023. The resurrected beer is now called Port Huron Honey Blonde Ale, to honor the original brewery.

“It’s an everyday, easy drinking type of beer,” Smith says.

And Bevvy doesn’t just produce a lineup of 16 or so beers. Bevvy is a combination brewery, winery and cidery, and besides beer, wine and cider, Smith also has ventured into mead production.

Nicholas Smith, makes beer, wine, cider and mead for Bevvy.

“That’s why my title is chief fermentation officer - because I don’t just make beer,” says Smith, whose original background was in winemaking.

Bevvy’s tasting room lineup includes a Dabinette dry cider made from locally harvested cider apples, Day Buzz All-Day mead, which is a light and sparkling mead that only contains 4 percent ABV, along with six wines made with locally harvested grapes including the Midwest Explorer Semi-Dry white wine made with Brianna and Itasca grapes and a Campfire Retreat dry red made with Frontenac grapes.

“We have some barrel-aged wines coming up,” Smith says. “And I’m also going to be releasing a port-style wine and and iced wine.”

Smith says the wine, beer, cider and mead line-up will change as he and his team grow to understand both what the local market and the tourist market craves. “We’re also still getting the word out that we’re here, and that the tasting room is open,” he says.

Port Huron was open from 2011 to 2021, and though Bevvy purchased the brewery in August of last year, the tasting room until four months ago. “Though a lot of people come here because they know the location as a brewery, hopefully they’ll also come here for the wine and cider, too,” Smith says.