Latitude 42 hops forward with Portage, Michigan's first microbrewery

by Zinta Aistars
Published in Southwest Michigan's Second Wave
August 8, 2013

ADAM STACEY, EXECUTIVE CHEF, LEFT, AND SCOTT FREITAS, MASTER BREWER, FOR LATITUDE 42 BREWING COMPANY (photo by Erik Holladay)

Two kids sighted their future dreams down the road. One on a bike, zipping by a brewery in California, on his way to school, and the other on a stepping stool in his mother’s kitchen, preparing a seven-course Thanksgiving meal for his family at the ripe old age of seven. 

 

Those two boys are today the men who are making Latitude 42 Brewing Company, at 7842 Portage Road in Portage, Michigan, just north of East Centre Avenue, an instant success. The boy on the bike was Scott Freitas, master brewer, and the boy creating a seven-course dinner was Adam Stacey, executive chef.    
 

Freitas is one of three owners. He co-owns the new brewery with Todd Neumann and Joe Stoddard, previously at Zazio’s in downtown Kalamazoo. That is, the group of founders is in the process of buying the microbrewery from Ruth Stoddard, who has invested in giving her son and his partners a running start.

 

Stacey comes to the pub and restaurant after 25 years as executive chef at Bravo’s, a popular fine dining restaurant in Kalamazoo that in recent years had begun to serve its own beer. Not only was Stacey creating the menu, but he had learned the craft of brewing from a brewing kit he received as a Christmas gift.

 

Stacey laughs. "It’s true. But I learned about quality beer as an army chef for four years in Germany," he says. 

 

"If you go to Europe, there are breweries everywhere," Freitas adds. "It’s all about embracing your local beer. We are going back to the roots."

 

Doors to the new microbrewery open seven days a week, onto 11,000 square feet of space that includes ...

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