In this episode of Total Michigan, we sit down with Pete Sanford, the owner of Steele Street Brewing in Ionia, to explore how an unexpected career change, a run-down building, and a simple desire to create a welcoming space turned into one of the community’s most beloved gathering places. Pete shares the heart, grit, and vision behind building a true hometown pub—where tables get pushed together, conversations flow effortlessly, and belonging is poured one pint at a time.
Links:
Steele Street Brewing
300 S Steele Street
Ionia, MI, 48846
Website: https://www.steelestreetbrewing.com/
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[00:00:17] Cliff DuVernois: Hello everyone. Welcome back to Total Michigan, where we share the stories of the dreamers and doers. Whose heart and grit keep our community strong. I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois. Across this great state, every [00:00:30] town has that one place, the spot locals talk about. The pub where nobody sits alone for long, where tables get pushed together and the stories flow like beer. A place that feels less like a business and more like the living room of the community.
[:[00:00:58] Cliff DuVernois: And like any true [00:01:00] Michigan story, its beginnings weren't polished and predictable. They were rooted in hard work, persistence, and the belief that a hometown pub can bring people together in a way that few places can.
[:[00:01:19] Cliff DuVernois: Let's step into my conversation with Pete Sanford, owner of Steel Street Brewing in Iyou, Michigan.
[:[00:01:37] Pete Sanford: We are a brewery. A brewery first and foremost. We also make pizzas that are quite popular. We have folks that come in just for the pizzas. So w. As time has evolved, we've become a little bit more of a restaurant. But our heart and soul is certainly in making our own beer providing a place for people to come together and visit [00:02:00] with each other and just being a part of the community.
[:[00:02:21] Cliff DuVernois: And if you would, Pete, why don't you tell us where are you from? Where did you grow up?
[:[00:02:50] Pete Sanford: My mother and my stepfather were both from Michigan, so we. Immigrated to the great state of Michigan, I guess, from the Pacific [00:03:00] Northwest. We settled in a small town in between Ludington and Manistee. I went to high school there, graduated with another 15 people in my class. Wow. And I wanted to pursue a, a biology degree and went to the community college there for a year and a half. West Shore Community College transferred to Central Michigan.
[:[00:03:47] Pete Sanford: And so, I transferred to Michigan State and graduated in 92 with an animal science degree, and settled in the Ionia area, Ionia County, Clinton County, because [00:04:00] there were a lot of dairy cows. And, uh, my former career. Involved working with dairy cattle in one aspect or another.
[:[00:04:13] Pete Sanford: I, I like biology is, I mean, it's all around us and agriculture is all around us. That's some of the attraction to, to beer is agriculture and history, and you make beer from the ingredients that you [00:04:30] get from the earth. Similar to bread baking. I, I love to make bread. So all those things tie together historically. If you're researching beer, the beer styles come from regions, right? 'cause that's what they have. You use the water, you use the ingredients.
[:[00:04:58] Cliff DuVernois: How did you get involved [00:05:00] with making beer?
[:[00:05:06] Pete Sanford: No, I, post-graduation, I was working for a small dairy as a herdsman. That dairy also had a sugar bush supply company for maple syrup. And one of the things you do in the spring is collect sap and hang around and boil sap and of course drink beer.
[:[00:06:12] Pete Sanford: And so Nice. Started to, uh, bought a nice all grain system and started going to, um. Home Brew club in Grand Ledge, Michigan. There you go. And um, there's several of us in that club now that own breweries. And so we've been open [00:06:30] almost 10 years. And so if you go back 10, 15 years ago, it's every home brewer's like, I'm just gonna start a brewery.
[:[00:06:38] Cliff DuVernois: Right, right.
[:[00:06:41] Cliff DuVernois: it is quite a leap to go from having a home brew kit to actually opening up a brewery. The restaurant business is tough.
[:[00:07:00] Pete Sanford: I am still asking myself that question sometimes. Fair enough. Fair enough. It's very challenging. I, I think ignorance. Oh, you didn't know any better, right? It's like, ah, I can do this. Why not? Yeah. My wife is really good with numbers.
[:[00:07:46] Pete Sanford: Quite physical. And I knew I couldn't probably do that forever. well, let's, save her money and look for a spot and we can just open a small brewery. And once I turn 50 or something, then I can just. Make [00:08:00] beer and have a brewery. And so that was the plan. I had a, a knee injury that kind of kicked me out of the hoof trimming a little sooner than I wanted to be out.
[:[00:08:31] Pete Sanford: Similar to now where a lot of businesses are going out and so you could pick up a lot of used equipment and I was just warehousing it. one thing led to another and it was sort of a retirement dream that got pushed up
[:[00:08:43] Cliff DuVernois: Sure. And then, 'cause you talked about purchasing this building and, and per my research, if I understand this correctly, this used to be a dry cleaning correct facility here.
[:[00:09:14] Pete Sanford: It's a bit of an ugly building on the outside. Okay. But the high ceilings, the open floor plan there's a block portion back that I figured I could turn into a kitchen and, and a brewing facility. But really it's just after you got [00:09:30] everything with the open span, you can do anything you want, right?
[:[00:09:54] Pete Sanford: yeah, this, property was very affordable. We put a lot of money and [00:10:00] time into it. You bet. But it just, it was, I wanna say the perfect spot. We've had water in here twice. We are in the floodplain. That's not a good thing. It's also six miles from my home, so
[:[00:10:15] Pete Sanford: That's it.
[:[00:10:29] Cliff DuVernois: what, [00:10:30] what, what are some of those like challenges that you had along that way?
[:[00:10:57] Pete Sanford: Right. And it's not cheap to have all that done. [00:11:00] but there really, we, we gutted this place. So there wasn't much left other than the exterior structure. And so you're starting kind of from new, so, right. Challenging part for me was figuring out how you wanted to design everything and set things up and not knowing what to do with zero experience in this business.
[:[00:11:27] Cliff DuVernois: watching YouTube.
[:[00:11:41] Cliff DuVernois: So then it was about, what, seven or eight years in total for you to transform it from?
[:[00:12:01] Cliff DuVernois: And for our audience, we're gonna take a quick break and thank our sponsors.
[:[00:12:27] Cliff DuVernois: You won't wanna miss this. We'll be [00:12:30] right back.
[:[00:12:49] Cliff DuVernois: Just go over to TotalMichigan. com, enter your email address today.
[:[00:12:55] Cliff DuVernois: Welcome back to Total Michigan, where we share the stories of the dreamers and doers, whose heart and [00:13:00] grit keep our community strong. I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois.
[:[00:13:21] Cliff DuVernois: That was just the beginning. In the next segment. Pete takes us inside the transformation of that old building, the challenges that came with it, and the art and [00:13:30] science behind brewing a wide range of beers that Steel Street is known for. Let's get back to that conversation.
[:[00:13:52] Cliff DuVernois: What is your philosophy behind that?
[:[00:14:17] Pete Sanford: Beer in general is, is struggling. And probably there's valid reasons for that. But when I make a recipe. It's really like, let's read about this [00:14:30] style of beer or that style of beer and get as much information as you can. Sure. And then try to execute that the best that you can. I have a lot of flexibility here because I'm a pub brewer.
[:[00:15:10] Pete Sanford: You say, Hey, what do you think? And, the decision. And so I am not super creative. That's another thing that I struggle with. I like to execute things and I try to execute things very well and be consistent. I'm more of a, sort of like the cook chef type brewer [00:15:30] versus the real science geeky type brewers.
[:[00:15:52] Pete Sanford: Um, but at the end of the day, people are happy with my beer and, and that's what makes me happy. and so. It is, it's, I've got a beer in the back. It's [00:16:00] fer many now that I a Christmas ale, seasonal ail that I, I'm doing things I don't normally do, like put craisins and orange zest in and so, yeah, I just don't generally do a lot of that.
[:[00:16:20] Cliff DuVernois: Well, I I can also imagine too, like if, if you go to, you know, someplace like another brewery somewhere you're visiting and you see something on the menu and you're like, oh, well that kinda looks [00:16:30] interesting. And it's basically, it's in the name. So if you have like a vanilla Java porter, you already know the two big ingredients in there.
[:[00:16:52] Pete Sanford: Right. Plagiarism. Yeah, it is that like, well how do they do this and find a [00:17:00] clone recipe of this and how can I make this that there is something to terroir and terroir is not just like what's around, but like the process that you do. And I've learned sometimes the hard way when I look back at recipes like, oh.
[:[00:17:39] Pete Sanford: It was like, oh my gosh, I'm running out of beer. Right? So it, it varies and sometimes she's like, I gotta put this beer on it. I wish it could sit in the fermentor another week, but I need it. Yeah. And so, you get pushed along depending on what's out here. But that's what makes it fun too. Sure.
[:[00:18:00] Cliff DuVernois: so now, coming in here and, you've got this passion for brewing beer. You have essentially the chemistry background sort of, sort of to be able to pull it off. So you have become quite a hit. I own you. And I say that with all the love. 'cause doing the research for the episode, people online leaving reviews for your place.
[:[00:18:37] Pete Sanford: We have fantastic staff and I like to try to be the curmudgeon in the back.
[:[00:19:10] Pete Sanford: You know, usually you'll go on people, we'll find a loser here or there, but Right. You know, generally, We're making people happy. And so I, I think we, we do that and we're set up as a pub. We are pub service, so everybody orders at the, [00:19:30] the counter and then, so we're not really mingling around. it's a place where.
[:[00:20:04] Pete Sanford: Everything you need.
[:[00:20:18] Pete Sanford: So we will pick up your fork if we see you drop it. But generally we're, we're behind the bar. Yeah. So it's just a different style. It's it's a pub style.
[:[00:20:37] Cliff DuVernois: And you've got over 700 mugs, meaning over 700 people have put down some money and said, yeah, I want a mug. Write their name on it, and it's on the shelves. You've got mugs hanging. You've got 'em on the rack that's behind the bar that says a lot of testament about the people in the area who believe in this.
[:[00:21:02] Cliff DuVernois: Hey, it never hurts to lubricate. And they're like, well, sure. We'll buy one.
[:[00:21:16] Pete Sanford: And, people feel good about that because they like to be part of the community. Yes. And so it, it works for us. The, the lifetime thing, it will add up if you're a place that is. In Grand Rapids [00:21:30] probably be pretty challenging to have a lifetime mug membership. My friend e at Eagle Monk, they've got a, a giant one, same deal.
[:[00:21:56] Pete Sanford: She's a teacher in town here. So you know those [00:22:00] things. It's kind of fun. It's, it's fun to have.
[:[00:22:13] Cliff DuVernois: But I also know too, that you work with some of the businesses, like an example is, I had a guest on the show from Sozos Coffee, right? Rodney? Rodney, yeah. In the area. Does a fantastic job with coffee. And you actually uses coffee in some of your brew. Yes, yes. Talk to us about. Trying [00:22:30] to get other community businesses involved with what you're doing?
[:[00:22:57] Pete Sanford: Same atmosphere up there. People [00:23:00] come in, they drink coffee. We are a coffee shop that sells beer. And so
[:[00:23:23] Pete Sanford: He is so,
[:[00:23:38] Cliff DuVernois: Wonderful. I actually wanna try all those that are up there right now. 'cause the names just sound so good. But if they're coming through the door and they're like, Hey man, recommend a beer. And I know you probably get that a lot. Walk us through that process. What would be some things or how would you steer them?
[:[00:24:10] Pete Sanford: And I'll help you, because we, we have like five or six IPAs on like right now. Do you like dark beers? And so we try to figure out what they like and match. What we have. And you know, if someone comes in, they want a light beer, we'll try to sneak in a little more flavorful light beer because, you know, as, [00:24:30] as we want to, to cultivate someone and to, to maybe drinking and something different besides a American light lager, right?
[:[00:25:03] Pete Sanford: And, and so I mean, it brush your teeth and drink an IPA.
[:[00:25:08] Pete Sanford: Those are the kind of things what we like. Don't be afraid to try a beer twice different times. But trying to figure out what people like and, and just matching up with what we have sure is what, what we try to do.
[:[00:25:26] Pete Sanford: I've always enjoyed making bread, or [00:25:30] since I started making bread, I've always enjoyed it. Um, so we make our own pizza dough. We do a long slow ferment. It's a simple straight dough. We cook on a deck ovens so they're crispy. And we have a, a handful of pizzas that, that are different. So those do well.
[:[00:26:11] Cliff DuVernois: Oh, I bet. That's what I was ing about. 'cause I'm a big fan of Rubens.
[:[00:26:26] Cliff DuVernois: That's their choice.
[:[00:26:36] Pete Sanford: Well, we have a website Steele Street Brewing. we have a Facebook presence. Albeit both of those things. I do not do a great job. I'm okay being sort of the, the hidden gem in Ionia.
[:[00:27:18] Pete Sanford: I understand the importance of that. Yeah. I'm just not, I'm not good at it. But we do have a Facebook, Instagram, and it's all there. Steele Street Brewing. you can find us if you Google it. Perfect. What's your [00:27:30] address? 300 South Steele Street. And I think I, I said this a long time ago. Back when Rex Halfpenny had the Michigan Beer Guide and stopped for a minute and interviewed me, and it's prior to me having a sign out there and I think my quote was, if, if you can't find the brewery on a street that's about two blocks long, you don't deserve a beer. Right. And it might be three blocks, I'm not sure.
[:[:
[00:28:23] Cliff DuVernois: Not a franchise, not a chain, something local, something real.
[:[00:28:32] Cliff DuVernois: A place where everyone knows your name.
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