Metro Detroit: South Lyon’s Witches Hat Brewing Company

What’s the saying? When life gives you lemons make lemonade? In the case of Ryan and Erin Cottingim, when life gave them lemons, they decided to make beer. It was around 2008-2009 when Ryan and Erin both lost their jobs and decided to write the next chapter in their lives. They wrote up a business plan and on December 26th, 2011, Witch's Hat Brewing Company in South Lyon was born. It was in the height of the real estate and banking crash of 2008-2013 and opening a new business had to seem like an insurmountable achievement . . . but here we are 12 years later and things seem to be going strong!

What started as small 1600 sq ft taphouse on Pontiac Trail, in a strip mall in South Lyon, has blossomed into an 8000 sq ft full blown Brewery and Restaurant. They moved to their current location, at 601 S Lafayette, in 2014. Right across the street from McHattie park and the Witches Hat Depot Museum (Formerly known as the Queen Anne Depot) and have been going strong ever since.

They offer a great selection of year round brews that are always on tap, like their Flagship beer Train Hopper American IPA made with 5 different types of American hops, and nice selection of seasonal and specialty beers. We took our friends, Blake and Sara Stilwill, who are major craft beer lovers. They loved it!

The place is pretty large and has plenty of seating. It has a large L shaped bar which is lined with personal mugs from their Mug Club which can be purchased for $75 a year. It gets you 25% larger pours on most beers, $1 off 10 and 16oz drafts, ½ off growler fills T,W and T, a free app and ½ off 2 beers on your birthday and first dibs on all specialty beers. A pretty good deal if you frequent their establishment.

It was only in the past few years that they were able to add on their kitchen and start offering full service food. Their menu has a little something for everyone and is not your typical bar food. They have your typical burgers and sandwiches but also offer unique things you Typically won’t find at most other brewery / restaurants like Beef Birria Tacos, Tikka Masala Chicken Wings and the Chimichurri Buddha Bowl.

We had the Jalepenio Corn Chowder and their Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich but we wanted to try it all, everything looked so good. We also shared a sampling of 5 of their beers in a 5 flight tasting and all were delicious. I believe they are going in the right direction and their future seems pretty bright.