Biercamp: Ann Arbor’s Myriad of Meats

Photo courtesy of Biercamp

Walt Hansen and Hannah Cheadle are no strangers to the business of perfectly smoked and cured meat. Their highly acclaimed retail shop, Biercamp, in Ann Arbor, Michigan is a testament to that.

In fact, the meat business is in Hansen’s blood – both his father and grandfather were butchers. “When I was 10, my dad put me in the meat room of his grocery store in Michigan. I made sausages and hot dogs and trimmed meat,” he tells Fox News. As an adult, Hansen put his culinary background to use at New York’s luxury Italian restaurant, Del Posto before moving to Michigan with Cheadle.

In 2011, the duo opened Biercamp. Situated at 1643 S State Street, the full-service meat shop specializes in small batch, farm-sourced charcuterie. Whether it is local pasture-raised pork from EMMA Acres Farm or quail from Hickory Oak Farm, Biercamp’s offerings are of the highest quality, and are rooted in integrity – meaning no antibiotics, hormones, artificial ingredients or nitrates.

Though Biercamp’s centerpiece goods are the humanely-raised cheeses, meats and eggs found in the shop’s display cases, Hansen and Cheadle are also pursuing something unique to the butcher shop space: microbrewing.

After acquiring their microbrewer license in 2012, the duo decided to sell their small batch beer alongside house-made sandwiches. With just three beers on tap at any given time, brewer Teo Watson-Ahlbrandt tells the Detroit Free Press that Biercamp’s IPAs are something special, “One of the advantages of being such a small brewing operation as Biercamp is that we are able to sell our IPAs at the peak of freshness — where the aromatics truly shine, a trade-off for quick turnover due to small batch volume.”

The small-batch brew can be enjoyed with one of Biercamp’s 16-hour pulled pork or smoked beef brisket sandwiches – both of which are served on Detroit-made buns and topped with sliced pickles and onions.

Now that’s local!