Portage Brewing Hopes To Re-Open In Early Fall

It’s been nearly four months since the community favorite Portage Brewing in Walker burned down. The building was officially demolished about a month ago to make way for the rebuilding process.

Portage Brewing is still finishing up the last phases of the demolition. They’re hoping to host their grand re-opening early this fall depending on the weather.

Today, trucks could be seen on site today removing the last pieces of the foundation. The owners of Portage have enlisted the Walker-based company Hidden Paradise Builders to help with the construction. The project will take the whole summer to complete. Portage owners will also be staying busy this summer by collaborating with other breweries – both in the cities and around the Walker area – to make new beers and host fundraisers.

Mark Vondenkamp, Portage Brewing Co-Owner, says, “We will have some beers available that they can sell. We can’t sell it until reopen and everything’s ready for business but throughout the summer we’ll be bringing people up to speed on our progress on the site. Any collaborations that we’ve done. Any beer tasting events that will have beers that we were involved in collaborating on and brewing on but we’ll be busy all summer long trying to keep the brand out there and updating people on what we’re doing.”

The owners of Portage Brewing have set up an Indiegogo page to help cover some of the building costs. You can find the link here.

A cause for the fire that destroyed Portage was never determined. Lakeland News be bringing you updates on the rebuilding project throughout the summer.