Soo Brewing Company Spotlight: Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

The Soo Locks handle roughly 80 million tons of cargo each year, moving massive freighters between Lake Superior and Lake Huron through a system of engineering that has been in operation since 1855. Watching a thousand-foot ship rise or sink in a lock chamber a few hundred feet from where you are sitting with a cold beer is an experience available at exactly one brewery in Michigan.

Soo Brewing Company is located at 140 Water St in downtown Sault Ste. Marie, within easy walking distance of the locks visitor area. The taproom looks out toward the waterway, and on a day when ship traffic is moving, the view produces the kind of involuntary quiet that happens when people realize they are watching something genuinely remarkable.

The brewing program produces a rotating lineup of craft beers built for a range of preferences, from lighter lagers and wheat beers to darker offerings suited to Upper Peninsula winters. Seasonal releases reflect the character of the place and the time of year, with local ingredients worked in when the timing is right.

The Sault is Michigan’s oldest city, a border community with Canada just across the International Bridge, and a city with a character shaped by shipping, the locks, and the rugged beauty of the eastern Upper Peninsula. Soo Brewing Company is a natural fit for a city that has always been defined by its location at the meeting of two Great Lakes.

Michigan Small Business Spotlight is proud to feature Soo Brewing Company as one of the Upper Peninsula’s most uniquely situated and welcoming craft beer destinations.