Burn ‘Em Lights Up For Public, Debuting To-Go Shop In Michigan City

By Guest Indiana On Tap Contributors Noah Amstadter & Jennifer Stojanovich

Craft beer fans in Northern Indiana have a new destination to purchase fresh, locally brewed ales. Burn ’Em Brewery’s Burn ’Em by the Beach TO-GO shop opened to crowds of thirsty customers on Saturday, May 9th. The Michigan City brewery began selling kegs, cans, and bottles throughout northern Indiana and Indianapolis in 2014, and they have been brewing, bottling, canning, and kegging out of their location at 718 Freyer Road for more than a year. But without public hours, fans had to follow the brewery on social media to track Burn ’Em’s weekly deliveries to local bars, restaurants, and package stores.

Until Saturday.

Located less than five minutes off of I-94 just south of Indiana State Road 212, Burn ’Em by the Beach will initially be open on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 am to 8 pm. This is a to-go shop, not a tasting room — the brewery offers small samples of the day’s draft offerings, but no flights or pints to consume on premises. In addition to selling the brewery’s cans and bottles, the to-go shop offers Burn ’Em’s beers, including limited, draft-only offerings, in 32 oz. plastic howlers and 64 oz. growlers. The brewery has their own branded bottles in both sizes available, but is happy to fill howlers and growlers from other breweries — co-owner Rob Austin simply asks that you bring your own cap if your bottle is different from theirs. Austin stressed that the brewery’s choice to offer plastic howlers and several of its beers in cans is to serve beach-going customers — the brewery is less than two miles south of the Lake Michigan shore, where glass is not allowed.

Situated in a unique building zoned for business that looks like a large home, parking for Burn ’Em by the Beach is across Freyer Road from the brewery. Customers walk up a wooden ramp/deck and enter the two-room public space, with windows and space to stand and enjoy samples on the south end and a window into the brewery and the counter on the north end, to the right of the door. In addition to tanks and cans, customers might notice several barrels from nearby Journeyman Distillery in southwest Michigan, a sign of some exciting barrel-aged offerings to come.