A new brewery and tasting room opened in mid-July in Sawyer.

Fulcra is the culmination of a dream for two home brewers with deep ties to the area, Noah Hopkins and Ty Webb. Ty and Noah met in 2008 at the Local Option, a brewpub in Chicago. Noah was bartending and Ty was in law school. Both were homebrewers. As Ty went on to practice law and continued homebrewing, honing his recipe with dreams of someday opening a brewery, Noah co-founded Local Option, a nomadic brewery, making its beer all around the midwest.

Later Noah became production manager at Dark Matter Coffee, helping build and run Dark Matter’s iced coffee brewery. He was involved in the barrel-aged coffee program, traveled to Guatemala to engage in coffee fermentation projects and helped formulate coffee beers with breweries around the midwest. During this time, Ty and Noah began homebrewing together in each other’s garages and realized both still had the dream of opening a brewery.

Fulcra is a friendly, inviting space in a two-room bungalow.

My beer-loving husband was impressed that they make just a few beers (six when we visited last week) and concentrate on doing them well. As someone who isn’t a fan of overly hopped beers, I appreciated the cream ale. There’s a craft soda on the menu for non-drinkers as well.

“As brewers, and as our name implies (Fulcra means “balanced,” sort of), we strive to make balanced, drinkable beers,” Noah says. “Whether they are traditional or somewhat experimental we want people to branch out, try something new and learn more about beer in the process.”

Noah (he’s the one with the glasses, sans hat, in the photo), who is running the business day to day, grew up between Niles and South Bend and spent much of his formative years exploring Harbor Country. He moved back to the area three years ago when the property was purchased and construction was soon to begin. 

Ty is still in Chicago with his family practicing law full time and helping with the brewery remotely or in person when he can. His parents, and multiple aunts and uncles, have cabins near the brewery.

“The brewing scene in Harbor Country is a small, tight-knit community,” Noah says. “We feel like support and good beer makes the whole beer community better. So we have had lots of support from many of the other local breweries. I feel like most of the breweries in the area have very distinctive beers and aesthetics. We are no different. We have a very unique, distinctive and comfortable taproom.”

An outdoor beer garden is planned to open in spring at the latest, as is live music and perhaps food trucks or food pop-ups, Noah says.

Fulcra is open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 3-9 pm; Friday from 2-10, Saturday from noon-10 and Sunday noon-8. Closed Wednesdays. Hours could shorten a bit as cold weather sets in.

“We want to be a community hub and is very important to serve it the best we can,” says Noah. “We understand that businesses have to make the hard decision to shorten hours or close for some time in the winter. I feel like we have the ability to weather the winter season and look forward to being there for the community as the drinking and dining options become more limited.”

 Fulcra, 13400 Red Arrow Hwy, Sawyer