Breaking Trail
How a trio of enterprising transplants changed the way Utahns (and beyond) eat, drink and shop.
by Melissa Fields photos by Mike Schirf
Wasatch Beer’s
Greg Schirf Some saw the difficulty of getting a drink as a threat. Schirf saw opportunity and started the Utah liquor revolution.
n 1974, days after graduating from Marquette University, Greg Schirf’s mother did what any good parent would do to support their child’s post-graduate wanderlust. “She drove me to the Interstate and dropped me off,” says Schirf, who from there stuck out his thumb. His destination wasn’t completely random, however. His brother, Skip, had already spent a few years in Utah and, with promises of living in the next Sun Valley, convinced Schirf to join him in Park City. But when he arrived what he found was a
I
Schirf has earned as much of a reputation for poking fun at Utah laws and culture as for brewing beer.
town more akin to Appalachia than Aspen. “That was fine with me,” Schirf says. “I became Skip’s carpenter’s assistant, working a little but spending most of my time living out an extended adolescence.”
Over the next 10 years Schirf cobbled together a living, dabbling in the newspaper business and real estate. Then a 1985 visit to friends in Seattle, where the microbrewery concept was just taking off, sparked the idea of brewing beer in Utah. “Of course my mother was kind enough to point out that I was choosing to start a brewery in the state with the lowest per capita consumption of beer versus my home state, Wisconsin, which has the highest,” he chuckles.
The application for getting a brewery license was fairly easy. Where Schirf got push back was when he went back to the state
Mac McQuoid, former Park City Mayor Hal Taylor, original brew master Mellie Pullman (blocked from view) and Greg Schirf tap the first keg of the original batch of Wasatch Premium Ale, Oct. 25, 1986.
to get a brewpub permit, which at the time was nonexistent. “I needed a revenue source and a way to introduce people to my beer in a more direct way than the liquor store. Other states were doing well with brew pubs and I knew it would work here, too,” Schirf says.
Teaming up with local attorney Gordon Strachan, Schirf approached Coalville legislator Glen Brown about sponsoring Utah’s first brewpub bill. Though Brown thought the idea was good and promised to support it if introduced during the next session, he declined sponsorship. Brown did say he knew of one legislator just “crazy enough” to sponsor the bill, Democratic Senator Mike Dmitrich from Price. “When we went to talk to Mike, the first thing he said was ‘Who sent you?’” Schirf said. Dmitrich agreed to sponsor the bill if Strachan and Schirf wrote it. Serendipitously, that same year Brown was named Speaker of the House. “Unlike a lot of politicians, Brown was true to his word and supported our bill. And since he had the authority, no one said no to Glen Brown,” Schirf says. The bill passed and in 1989, Schirf opened the Wasatch Brew Pub at the top of Main Street in Park City, where it maintains a popular following today.
Since then Schirf has earned as much of a reputation for poking fun at Utah laws and culture as for brewing beer. Evolution Amber Ale is a jab at one lawmakers attempt to include intelligent design as part of public school science curriculum. And Schirf coined First Amendment Lager in protest of a bill proposing a raise on Utah brewers’ excise tax.
Later this year, Wasatch Beers will release Alta Ale, a brew celebrating Alta Ski Area’s 75th anniversary. The brewery is also working on its first non-alcoholic beverage, a root beer tentatively titled Brigham’s Brew.
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