On July 29th at 10:00 p.m., The History Channel will premiere a reality TV series that goes behind the scenes at Dark Horse Brewing Company in Marshall.
Dark Horse creator Aaron Morse says the series will of course be about brewing beer. But it's also about the inventions he and his employees dream up every day to make the brewery work on a small budget.
"Obviously there are companies that make things that make the brewing industry much nicer for us, make the process much easier," says Morse. "But a lot of times those things are very very very expensive. So some things that we may design and build are things that we can get the same process out of, but it's something that we can actually build in-house for way way less money than if we went out in bought it."
Morse says these projects are what sets Dark Horse apart from other Michigan breweries - that and the sometimes immediate way Morse approaches them.
"I'm not a wait person. I'm very much a 'now, right now'," says Morse.
This makes the job interesting for Cabe Churchill, the brewery's head of maintenance.
"Every day, I could come in and 'You know, I've got to work on the forklift.' But no, hold on, Aaron's got to do who knows what - side the side of the building handmade pieces, I don't know," Churchill explains. "So it can go from typical work to 'Get in the truck, we're going to go somewhere.' So yeah, I never know what the hell I'm in for really. So it's an adventure for sure."
Dark Horse Brewing Company has been around for about 17 years and now distributes to 12 states. Despite success, Morse says he doesn't feel the company has outgrown his hometown of Marshall- a town of only about 7,000 people.
"We're growing fast. And we're adding on and buying chunks of property all around us and definitely becoming one of Marshall's biggest businesses," he says. "But I think it's a good thing. You know it helps put Marshall on the map and get people to Marshall. Marshall's a great little town."
