Meet Jamie Strand, Josh Marenger, and Marc Rea. They are the brains behind A Pint Above, a non-profit organization with the mission to promote Michigan craft beer in the Upper Peninsula, the northern of the two land masses that comprise the state. A Pint Above puts on U.P. Craft Beer Week, which started yesterday (September 1) and runs through Saturday, September 6.
Strand owns White’s Party Store in Marquette. “It’s one of the best craft-beer stores in the U.P., and definitely the best if you’re looking for imports and sours,” says Marenger. Of his other partner Rea’s business, Fitzgerald’s and the Eagle River Inn, “It's an awesome inn right on the shore of Lake Superior that sports incredible smoked food as well as very large and diverse craft-beer and whiskey lists.”
Marenger, known for helping to start the local homebrew club Bay de Noc Brewers, says that U.P. Craft Beer Week was born out of an effort to enhance the local craft-beer scene.