Wow you know I've been doing this just
short of 25 years and I have never seen
the kind of crowd that he just drew to a
TV station studio from the staff he's a
likable guy he's very accessible
tomorrow is October 13th and today we
are taking you to a restaurant that has
the number 13 in its name but don't
worry it will not bring you bad luck
in fact this restaurant seems to be good
luck for downtown Pontiac as it is
drawing people in with their delicious
house-made beer and food Michelle
Oliver takes us to dine in the D at
Fillmore 13 brewery you may come for the
beer but you'll stay well we go to a lot
of breweries my wife and I and it's
disappointing when there's no food or
there's very little food I am a big
believer and if you have good beer Laith
has worked at a lot of breweries and
restaurants over the years but Fillmore
13 brewery is the first one he's owned
we thought you know let's uh Australia
downtown Pontiac we haven't been there
in a while we used to come here all the
time before and we came by we looked at
the building was for lease and we fell
in love with the 1920s buildings with a
lot of character they tried to keep with
the times of the building using these
1920's style copper blue lights and
these vintage taps the first thing that
I want you to say is oh my I wanna have
a beer here what a great bed here and we
made it happen the floors not even
nothing was leveled it was very
challenging to work and put together but
we wanted the brewery to be visible and
we accomplished that you know we just
loved the structure of it in terms of
food they have sandwiches pizzas and
finger food well we thought what goes
good with beer and here we are we kept
the simple do we use the beer in the
food we have it in our beer batter we
cook our slow roast of turkey with a
pitcher or two a beer you
same thing with our full court and
obviously the beauties as well but this
place is first and foremost a brewery so
let's make some beer now the whole beer
making process can take over nine hours
they start by pouring molten barley into
this VAT and soak it in hot water to
release the sugars this is our mash as
I'm collecting the liquid off the bottom
I'm also adding water on top it's
essentially just rinsing extra sugar out
so that we can collect all of that we
want every little bit of that that we
can get so you need that much sugar so
that much cheese eats it and it becomes
that alcohol exactly right the sugar
water then goes into this container as
I'm collecting this liquid okay I'm
trying to reach a certain volume with a
certain amount of sugar in that solution
so now we have to take a volume here and
see how many gallons I have in the tank
to do that we need Philomena that's her
name we want to put that inside 10987
I'm at about six and a half barrels once
we get the volume we need we take the
liquids gravity
what's the gravity it's not how much
right gravity is the measurements of how
much sugar is in solution to do that we
need a sample of the liquid this doesn't
smell like beer not beer yet no hops or
anything it's very sweet it always
reminds me of a grape nut cereal I would
say more like Oh brand but I get your
feeling we poured the solution onto this
machine and it measures the gravity I
was thinking this was gonna be like some
kind of doctor tool and I wasn't gonna
be able to tell by looking at it very
clearly this is a color and then this is
a different color
as easy as reading a 13 at this point we
bring the sugar water to a boil and add
the hops then is transferred to these
barrels where the yeast is added and
they make it into beer
[Music]
yum looks really good alright well
joining us today is lathe Ramaiah he's
the owner of Fillmore thirteen brewery
so tell us about your wonderful spread
that you brought here today well we
brought a few things that we didn't
bring last time so we can start with our
charcuterie board calabrese a hot
capicola yet Mediterranean olives there
a little bit of everything
great great plate to share then we have
our Reuben egg rolls which we make from
scratch every day we can keep those in
stock yeah you know it's we use good
quality ingredients and the different
shows and so those are mozzarella bread
a great appetizer to start with we have
our one of our popular sandwiches the
Dagwood full of good stuff hot capicola
shaved ham provolone very popular one of
the bigger items on the menu is our half
pound Black Angus beef burger with a
fried egg on top and cheddar and bacon
and all that there's a shoestring a
little bit of seasoning on there yep
good stuff that is our prime rib
sandwich and it's one of the popular
items on the menu as well slow roasted
shaved prime rib can't go wrong with it
okay yes how many beers do you have on
tap we have 20 beers on tap as of now
and we have seven core beers and the
rest always rotate okay so seasonal
beers according to the season or
according to what the brewer and I like
to make or what the people are asking
for open in March of 2017
it's been great there's been a lot of
movement in downtown a lot of new
companies are coming in and excited
absolutely yes okay sure thing I have
your have a glass of night
this is Oktoberfest lager and there's an
extra glass underneath there reporte
beer right this thing was full all the
way up let's do a toast
yes get you one okay all right well cool
so um let's see you and also have wine
as well
cheers Cheers we also do it is really
really good October fastest professor
yep wine as well we have wine we have a
full line we make some of the fruit
wines ourselves here seven North Saginaw
downtown Pontiac right in the heart of
downtown we're also doing some packaging
as well thanks to a flag star Bank make
it possible we teamed up with powers
distributing and we're in in 15 to 20
establishments right now so get there or
get to us we'd love to see you out
Fillmore thirteen brewery we are giving
away five $25 gift cards for your chance
to win all you need to do is go to the
Live Indie the D Facebook page or the
contest rules for the contest rules at
clickondetroit.com and we also want to
invite you to join our dine in the D
group on Facebook you can see all the
places we cover get suggestions on
places to eat out and share your
favorite meals from local eateries if
you love food we'd love to have you be
part of our group