Mikerphone Brewing: Craft Beer Inspired by Music

Just outside of Chicago lies Elk Grove Village and within that village you’ll find Mikerphone Brewing founded and owned by Mike and Lisa Pallen.

We jumped at the opportunity to sit down with Mike to highlight Mikerphone Brewing and the stories behind the beer and the music.

By: Living a Stout Life

Malteurop Celebrates Craft Breweries During American Craft Beer Week

The annual nationwide event of American Craft Beer Week, May 16-22, 2022, celebrates small and independent craft breweries throughout the U.S. Malteurop (MMC) is proud to highlight just a few of these remarkable breweries through their stories behind the beer. Let’s raise a glass to salute the resilient and extraordinary community that is craft beer!

About Mikerphone Brewing

Growing up outside Milwaukee, Mike’s dad worked at Miller Brewing, so he was around beer starting from a young age. His dad, being in the beer industry, had some sound advice for his son, though. “Don’t do beer. Go to college.”

And being the good son, Mike went to college. Unbeknownst to him at that time, a botany class he took as a fun elective sparked a passion for homebrewing. Although it would be years before he acted upon it.

At that time it was just fun. “Being a college kid – 21 years old – I figured, ‘Heck let’s make our own beer.’”

After college, the homebrew hobby got tucked away as Mike focused on his professional career in music and marketing. Tucked away until 2010, that was, when he bought a house in the Chicago area with a basement. Let the homebrewing begin.

Around that same time Pipeworks Brewing Company was looking for volunteers to help can, brew, and package. Mike was all in, and whenever he showed up to help, he brought along his homebrews to share. His confidence boomed when others liked what he had made.

But Mike’s homebrew was not like most homebrews. With a background in music and marketing, he couldn’t just simply brew. He had to have a name for his brews and a logo. Mikerphone Brewing became a reality in 2010, albeit without a taproom or a business for that matter. But Mike slapped his name and logo on glassware and t-shirts and sold these goodies out of his basement, nonetheless.

Everyone thought Mike and Lisa had their own brewery, but it was all just a basement dream.

Until they both decided to go for it and actually open a brewery. In 2015 Mikerphone Brewing was officially a brewery, albeit still without a space. Mike got a job as head brewer at SlapShot Brewing Company (now closed). During the day he brewed for SlapShot. During the off hours, he brewed for Mikerphone.

And his perseverance and patience was rewarded. Before even having a physical space Mikerphone was winning awards: Best New Brewer in Illinois from RateBeer and One of the Best New Breweries of 2015 from BeerAdvocate, to name just a couple.

Moving on from SlapShot, still contract brewing, but now out of Une Année Brewery, the couple persisted in their journey. Mikerphone Brewing finally had a home, opening in Elk Grove, Illinois, in March of 2017.

“It’s been an evolution of growing. It’s mind blowing that this little hobby out of the basement has become our life.”

The Story Behind the Name

Before opening Mikerphone, Mike’s career was music and marketing based. And his biggest passion in music was always trying to discover a band. His dream was to work for Capitol Records in LA. While he didn’t make it to LA, his career still helped young artists get to their next level. It was rewarding, and so when he transitioned into brewing, music had to play a role at the brewery.

Welcome to Mikerphone Brewing where music and beer come together seamlessly. Walking into the space, you can’t help but feel the musical vibes. They are everywhere. From the beer names to the taps surrounded by amps, to the music posters and records on the wall. Backstage vibes will greet you along with a large marquis announcing events and beer releases. And yes, there is of course, live music.

“The cool thing about music is that music will put me in a moment in time. We’re building stories with both music and beer. The soundtrack to our lives.”

A Passion for Brewing

From growing up around beer to learning to brew in college, graduating to basement brewing to a full on brewery of his own, Mike has always had a passion for the art of brewing. And when it came time to determine what beer to brew at Mikerphone, the initial idea was to fill a void.

Mike had friends that would travel and loved to bring back the beers that you couldn’t find in the Midwest. From this he and his friends realized something was missing. Meaning they were missing out on some good beers that were elsewhere.

“So what wasn’t here, we started brewing to fill that void to have beers that we wanted to drink, to not have to travel to get it.”

The Future of Craft Beer

Craft beer, like social media, is not stagnant. However, while craft beer is continuously growing, reaching more and more consumers, social media access to these consumers has become more difficult. The algorithms and “pay to play” ads have resulted in reaching less beer drinkers than when it first became the mainstream.

What this means for the future of craft beer at Mikerphone is more personal connections. They’re going back to their roots. By sending out weekly email blasts, handing out flyers in the neighborhood, and creating partnerships within the community to cross brand and cross promote, they’ll reach more customers and create a shared love of community.

“Consumers are great at telling other consumers what they should be drinking. We have an awesome fan base that helps marketing in that way.”

Adjunct Heavy to Traditional Brews: Quality Driven

Mikerphone started in 2015 with four beers: a wit beer, a peach berliner weisse, a double dry hopped double IPA, and a maple stout. Fast forward to today, and there are 30 beers on tap from lagers to Belgians to IPAs to barrel-aged beers and everything in between and above and beyond.

But what Mikerphone Brewing is really known for is their willingness to create unique brews, alongside solid traditional ones.

Unique brews such as what Mike calls a birthday beer. With two kids, every year on their birthdays, they are responsible for creating a birthday beer recipe every year. Beers with adjuncts such as Big League Chew bubble gum, jolly ranchers, chocolate cake (emulating Portillo’s Chicago Style Hot Dogs Cake Shake), and more.

But the weirdest one they ever did was – ”It was one of those moments when you’re sitting around having a good time with a few beers and you’re like, ‘we should turn this into a beer’ and your friends are like, ‘Let’s do it.’” – Chicken and Waffles. Using fried chicken, waffles, maple syrup, and ghost pepper powder, it was actually brewed as a joke, yet got amazing feedback. People wanted it brewed again.

“Anything you can put in beer, we play with it.”

Solid traditional beers such as lagers, west coast IPAs, and Belgians, to name a few.

But the two beers that put Mikerphone Brewing on the map were two of their first beers, Smells Like Bean Spirit and Special Sauce. Smells Like Bean Spirit is a coffee maple breakfast stout. People loved it instantly. Today you can find imperial or barrel-aged versions of this in the taproom, with a rare showing of the original every now and again.

Special sauce was one of the first hazy beers in the region, and like Smells Like Bean Spirit, was an instant hit. This was, and still is, one of those beers that opens the doors for a lot of craft beer drinkers and non craft beer drinkers alike.

Whatever Mikerphone brews, you can count on high quality beers using high quality ingredients.

“Don’t look down on anybody for making weird or classic styles. It’s all part of the game that we call craft beer now. It’s fun.”

Community and Music Driven

There’s so many aspects to beer. And it’s helpful to understand how the industry all works together. This is why community is so important.

When the pandemic hit, the brewing community was torn apart. It was like losing a family. Mike wanted to keep the collaborative efforts brewing, so he created a Facebook group to do just that. A place to chat, to bounce ideas off each other, to navigate through the pandemic, and just say hi.

“It’s not so much about sharing recipes or ingredients, it’s about learning from each other’s backgrounds and stories. It’s continually figuring out ways we can all get better together.”

Music is the same way. And that credit for Mike’s love of music comes from both of his parents. It was constantly playing in the house or the car. And his parent’s love of different types of musical genres such as the 70s or whatever was new on the radio gave Mike his appreciation for all genres.

“Music is my heartbeat.”

Music, just like beer, can be situational depending on the beer. And to be able to appreciate music, just like beer, you need to have an understanding for all styles. This is why community relationships are so important. They bring people together across the aisles, music, beer, or whatever.

Moving Forward with Support

And relationships with vendors are just as important. And Mike speaks highly of Malteurop Malting Company

“They’re the experts, they know what their grains are all about. They’ve been doing this for many many years. Anything we can learn from them and help us increase efficiency and make a better batch is what we’re all about.”

Not having a mill in the past, Mike finally decided to purchase one. With this decision, it was easy to make the switch over to Malteurop. Doing that, their malt efficiency went from 70% efficiency to 90% efficiency.

“It’s those little things we’re trying to get smarter at. Thinking about things on a global scale for us here. And Malteurop has been incredible for us. Plus, some providers of grain will provide you with candy bars, Malteurop sends you Usinger’s Sausage. It’s really the little things.”

While Mikerphone has only just recently switched over to Malteurop, starting with the base malts, they have experienced brewing with a few of their newest malts, too. One, including Munich 5L, which, according to Mike, has been awesome.

And another including Dextrin. “Compared to others, the efficiency is there and we’re using that to get body. It’s been great and efficient.”

Continuing with their community spirit, Mikerphone is also collaborating with Malteurop, along with Utepils Brewing in Minnesota using Malteurop’s French Pilsen.

“There’s so many different malts out there and you can get stuck in using the same ones to provide efficiency but if you really want to pinpoint what that style is you have to use the appropriate grain for it. And so we’re continually looking at ways to start playing with Malteurop’s unique opportunities and taking that from ground zero and building the beer around it.”

Brewing for American Craft Beer Week

Mikerphone Brewing has plans to drop some funky barrel-aged stuff for American Craft Beer Week, so stay tuned. They’re looking forward to letting those barrels shine, showcasing what they’re all about, leaving them naked with nothing added to it.

Getting Personal with Beer

To know the beer you love, you need to know a bit about the brewer you love. When asked about life outside of beer, Mike didn’t hesitate.

“I’m a glorified Uber driver for my kids. It’s nonstop but it’s fun. It’s cool to see them grow everyday. I try to do as much as I can to balance family, work, and friends, but it is a nonstop party.”

Then we wanted to know about how he defines himself through beer, so we asked an awesome question – at least Mike thought it was awesome. If you were a beer, what beer would you be, and why?

“I would be a Spotted Cow. What New Glarus has done with Spotted Cow is an anomaly. To have a beer that has taken over the state of Wisconsin is amazing. It’s enjoyable, it’s light.” For as much as Mike loves Chicago, he claims he will always be a Wisconsinite at heart.

So, if Mike is a Spotted Cow, maybe he will be taking over the state of Illinois. And yes, he is also always enjoyable.

Although, he did go on to explain that he is a total introvert and beer changed that for him.

“I am a total introvert and have severe social anxiety, but the brewing industry forced me to throw all that into the garbage and not be a part of it. It has made me be super social and have fun and expose myself and throw myself out there and be vulnerable to it all. It’s opened doors that I never would have thought of.”

Thank You!

We can’t say it much better than Mike.

“Beer has become a universal language, and we’re very lucky to be a part of this and very lucky to be making beer every day and drinking beer every day and sharing that love of it with everybody.”