'We Always Want to Do Better:' After 10 years, Hop Lot and Lake Ann Brewing reach higher
June 2025
You’d be hard-pressed to find a pair of breweries that mean more to their local communities than Lake Ann Brewing and Hop Lot.
While Traverse City and its immediate environs have been littered with various breweries for quite some time, Lake Ann in Benzie County and Hop Lot in Suttons Bay were among the first to bring fresh, handcrafted suds to outlying locales.
Their founders figured that folks wanted to get great beer close to home instead of having to head into town. With beer naturally came live music, tasty food and the cultivation of genuine community built around these things.
Now, 10 years after they both opened their doors, their hunch has proven correct. Both businesses are extremely popular and have become true anchors of their towns’ social scenes. They’ve also grown up together, with their owners in regular communication about what works, what doesn’t and how to make things better.
The TCBN sat down with Lake Ann founder and owner Matt Therrien and Hop Lot co-founder and co-owner Drew Lutke to discuss the past, present and future of their hip hangouts.
Humble beginnings in Lake Ann
Therrien had a background in construction and real estate, but was knee-deep in “daddy day care” when he first looked a foreclosed building in the heart of Lake Ann around 2012. He made an offer that was accepted in early 2014, with plans for a “half-assed” brewery. He’d been a home brewer for quite some time.
The build out began, and he and his wife Jennie logged long hours as the business took shape. Jennie eventually quit her job at Munson to devote to the brewery, and the pair steamed toward a mid-2015 opening.
“We did it all. We had no investors, no partners,” Therrien said. “We were all in.”
In June 2015, the place was still covered with sawdust when the first customers got a chance to taste – officially, at least – some Lake Ann beer.
“It was a Monday and we were supposed to get our license, so we were just waiting for the email. But every flat surface had things. Tubes of caulk, coffee cups, tape measures,” Therrien said. “Then we got the email, and I just started texting everybody that I know that we’re open and to get on in here.”
Therrien still remembers the weird feeling of having people pay him for his brew.
“The most surreal thing is the first people that come in and give you money to buy beer and you're like – I can’t believe they’re paying for that,” he said.
It was also a relief to get to that point. Therrien doesn’t fluster easily, but the path to opening had plenty of stress.
“You’re working every day, focused on this whole thing. Construction, pitfalls, does this work? Does that work? Trying to create a product that’s saleable. In the back of your head, it’s like ‘I don’t even know if I can freaking do this,’’ he said. “Then it all culminates and you’re open, and the public is in.”
But Therrien wasn’t ready to rest on his laurels.
“I built houses, and when you were done, it was done,” he said. “But with this, you get done, and you’re just getting started”
Hop Lot takes shape
Hop Lot’s origins lie with brothers Steve and Drew Lutke and Steve’s wife Sarah. The brothers are from Holland and Sarah is from Suttons Bay, but all were living and working in Chicago about 15 years ago when a random promotion planted the seeds of what would later grow into Leelanau County’s most popular brewery.
“This all came from Groupon,” Drew said, referring to the online voucher site. “There was a Groupon for like $30 for a homebrew kit, and we started homebrewing.”
Steve’s schedule allowed him to dive deeper into this new hobby, and before anyone knew it, he was pretty obsessive about it.
“Steve was really getting into it. It got to the point where he wasn’t brewing the beer to consume it, he was brewing it to perfect it. He was getting into the science of it,” Drew said. “And then he was trying to think about some kind of commercial endeavor.”
In 2012, Steve and Sarah got married in Northport, a festive event complete with their home-brewed beer. A family acquaintance at that wedding was impressed by their brew and eventually became an angel investor of sorts, providing initial funding for a brewery. But there were stipulations.
“He said ‘I want my money to stay in Leelanau County,’” Drew said. ‘I don’t want this to go back to Holland where you guys are from. I don’t want it to go to Chicago. I want it in Leelanau.’”
So that covered the where. What about the what? Hop Lot’s entire vibe (an outdoor, family-friendly beer garden) came at least in part from a comment from Drew and Steve’s sister, who by that time already had little kids.
“She told us that she just loved going to spots and letting her kids run. The worst thing is when her kids were getting cooped up in a building and she was getting stared down by other customers or the staff,’’ Drew said. ‘So she said ‘Trust me, build that place where the kids can be kids and the parents can still enjoy themselves.’”
In a way, that gelled with what the brothers were already thinking. They just wanted a place where people could avoid long lines and get a quick beer in a relaxing, outdoor environment.
“It’s the whole reason people come up here,” Drew said. “It’s that vacation mindset. And we wanted to keep the natural, ‘Up North’ vibe. Coming from Holland, coming from Chicago, that’s what we would want.”
The team eventually found a roughly five-acre wooded property on the south end of Suttons Bay along M-22 and got to work. As with Lake Ann, the opening came fast in the spring of 2015.
“It was a Saturday morning, we're still painting, we're moving stuff out of the way, and my brother says ‘We're doing this, we're opening up in like three hours,’” Drew said. “So he puts out a social media post and is texting people, and the taps were pouring. I think we did $1,000 that day.”
Going strong
Ten years later, Therrien and the Lutkes are proud and honored that their respective communities have embraced what they’ve built.
Lake Ann Brewing “It helps that there was no place to be [in Lake Ann] before, so we sort of filled a void,” Therrien said. “But we’re certainly grateful … it’s not even possible without these people. I’m totally indebted to the people who love us.”
“Seeing the same faces continuing to come back – and the families; we really do have a focal point on the families – has been really gratifying,” Drew added. “It’s what we set out to do.”
The vibe is a little bit different between the two joints. Hop Lot gets way more tourists than Lake Ann by virtue of its placement on M-22 and probably a few more hits in the news (it’s been recognized twice now by USA Today as one of the best beer gardens in America).
“People always say, ‘Well, if you go to Traverse City, you gotta go to Moomers. You gotta go to the Hop Lot.’ I'm like, screw these guys – they’re hot,” Therrien said with a laugh. “We’re definitely more of the dive bar brewery, like the local contingent sitting at the bar drinking their beers and just hassling the waitstaff.”
Drew points out that Lake Ann has built quite a following in its own right.
“I feel like every time I'm at Meijer, I always see Lake Ann Brewing merchandise on people,” he said. “They love the vibe, and they love what Matt’s created there.”
Ultimately, Therrien and the Lutke clan believe they’ve tapped into the fundamental customer desire for a cold beer in a cool place with virtually no wait.
“I think that you can boil [our appeal] down to simplicity of what people want to do. I want to drink a beer. I want to not get hassled. I want to not have to explain myself when I get there. How many people do you have, stuff like that,” Therrien said. “Can I just have a beer? Can I just sit wherever? Can I maybe just stand somewhere?”
They’ve both also taken steps to get involved with their local communities.
“I’m like 157 feet from the church, Lake Ann United Methodist Church, and those old church ladies have our back. They had their Christmas Eve service during COVID outside at the brewery, on the stage with heaters and stuff,” Therrien said. “You have to be a part of the community.”
Looking ahead
For the Lutkes and Therrien, it’s not enough to be satisfied with their current popularity. Quite the opposite, in fact. There’s constant pressure to improve.
“I really don't even look at where I'm at – I'm always looking at where I want to be,” Therrien said. “Because this is a tough business. If you’re not looking ahead you’re staying the same, and if you’re staying the same, you’re getting worse because everyone else is getting better.”
Having that wiring is a big part of the reason they’ve got this far, the two owners say.
“Success is indicative of never being satisfied,” Therrien said. “Customers come in and say ‘This place looks great,’ and all I can see are things that need to be fixed.”
Drew said the Hop Lot garden is finally getting close to what they envisioned when they started all those years ago, but he’s never quite satisfied. His feelings toward the customers that have been loyal to Hop Lot over the years are what drives this constant desire for improvement.
“The reason why we keep expanding and innovating and updating is we feel like we owe it to these people to provide a better experience than the last time they came,” Drew said. “We always want to do better."
The business isn’t easy. Drew is extremely envious of Therrien, who doesn’t make any food (Lake Ann’s neighbor Stone Oven handles all that). Hop Lot didn’t want to do food but realized they had to, and now it’s their biggest headache by far. Part of that is (you guessed it) a very hard time finding staff.
“There can be 300 people in here, and they can get a beer in a minute. But the food is the biggest challenge for us,” Drew said. “Staffing the kitchen is 100 percent our biggest problem.”
Therrien and the Lutkes still speak on a regular basis – they have since their earliest days – to share ideas, commiserate and troubleshoot.
“It’s a coin flip on who’s cheaper, these guys or me,” Therrien said. “They’re Dutch, but I’m a real tightwad myself.”
On the horizon for Hop Lot is a better way to facilitate large groups and the introduction of distilled drinks, which it now makes on site. Lake Ann is working on a permanent, four-seasons music venue which will replace its music tent. They’ll both also have 10-year anniversary parties this month (see sidebar).
They hope to keep growing their businesses while staying true to what – and who – made them special in the first place.
“You can get anybody to come one time,” Therrien said. "It’s the people who keep coming that pay the freight.”
Hop Lot 10-Year Anniversary Party
Saturday, June 7
Noon - 9pm
BBQ, giveaways, drink specials, live music from Mike Moran, Levi Britton and Empire Highway
Lake Ann 10-Year Anniversary Weekend
Saturday and Sunday, June 13-14
2pm-10pm
Giveaways, drink specials, live music from Mike Moran, Broom Closet Boys, Rock Hat and more
