ALPENA — Summertime has arrived in Northeast Michigan and Austin Brothers Beer Company is bringing its customers new beers to try this summer.

Co-owner Blake Austin said along with all the new beers that will be coming out, the brewery has seven core beers that are year round and cater to different beer drinkers.

“We try to make it so for whoever is coming, we have a beer for every profile that someone might enjoy,” Austin said.

The way the brewery decides what new beers to make is by following the trends, Austin said. He said they look at the most highly-consumed beer categories and gear beers toward that market.

Austin said each region has its own style of beer. New England IPAs are very popular in this region and that has lots of popular versions.

“We come up with a new New England about every month or so and I think we’ve done quite a few for the last couple of years,” he said.

While on vacation, Austin said he samples different beers to get ideas. He said he makes sure to go and try the latest and greatest beers from any of the breweries in the area where he’s vacationing. Inspiration is taken from certain beer styles to help Austin Brothers come up with its own beers.

“We’ll mash them into our own version,” Austin said.

When combining the different styles together, Austin said it’s about figuring out what works well together, what flavors will complement each other, and what will complement the hops since hops have characteristics to them that a lot of people drink.

“We’re blending the hops together to try to hit a profile,” he said. “We’ll gear to what’s available to us in season and we can get a hold of the fruit and then we’ll ship it in and brew with that.”

In the summer, Austin said they have beer that leans toward the summer character that fruits add. He said one of the most popular beers in the summer is Cherry Bomb, which uses Montmorency tart cherries from Traverse City.

Austin said a couple of beer series that people should try when they come out throughout the summer are the merci series and the smoothie series. Those are two different variations of IPAs and new ones come out every month. He said since a new one comes out every month, they’re making them as fast as they can.

“When we have an empty tank and we have an idea, we’ll just throw a beer out there, so that’s kind of how it works,” he said. “We don’t have a set list, we’ll kind of look at the brewery and where the markets are going and we’ll brew a beer.”

For other beers, Austin said new ones that people haven’t seen before are going to be coming out every week this summer.

“We have new beers coming out non stop,” he said.

Austin said when an idea comes, they call their ingredient companies to see if they can get the ingredients and if they can get the ingredients, they’ll make that beer.

It’s really busy during the summer for Austin Brothers and the locations where they send their beer around the state. With tourism high in lots of areas, it’s a way for the brewery to experiment with new beers.

Austin said there are around 30 different beers for people to choose from at different locations throughout the state. He said they specifically brew beers for specific regions. He said trying to find the right beer that fits the geographical location takes a lot of coordinating.

“In Muskegon and Grand Rapids, we sell our Amber Ale very well and there are certain pockets where we don’t sell it at all, so we gear beers towards certain pockets,” he said. “There’s regional flavor profiles that people actually go towards. We make beers towards the audiences.”

Julie Goldberg can be reached via email at jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5688.