From a long line of bakers and brewers, we were looking for a way to put our stamp on a family tradition. Distilled spirits was the answer. Then, the real work began. Recipes were developed to get the target taste profile from each spirit. Bottles were ordered, labels designed, knuckles were scraped. The dream became reality. We now produce an expanding line of spirits, beer, wine, and spirit-inspired wares. Cheers!
Bier Distillery is a family-owned company located in Comstock Park, Michigan, about 3 miles east of the LMCU Ballpark and just north of the White Pine Trail. Owned by Sara and Joel Bierling, with the help of their children and their small but mighty staff, we celebrated 10 years of business in 2026.
What started as a dream for Joel Bierling in 2011 became reality when he agreed to partner with Cellar Brewing Company (now Brick Haus Brews under new ownership) in Sparta, MI. In exchange for the use of the space and the liquor manufacturer license, Joel would provide premium spirits to add to the not so premium spirits already offered by Cellar. With his foot in the door, Joel began to deveop his product line with clear spirits, such as moonshine, vodka, gin, and an unaged rye whiskey. This is where our JusttheShine Moonshine, Mum’s Ruin Gin, Heartcut Vodka, and Sole Cry Rye Whiskey began. (In the background of this page you can see our original bottles that were double branded both Cellar Brewing and Bier Distillery.)
By 2015 Joel and Sara realized that they needed a space of their own and began the arduous task of finding a building large (and tall) enough to accomodate our distillery equipment and with space to store barrels for aging. We purchased the building at 5295 West River Drive in March of 2016 and began retrofitting the former transmission shop into a working distillery and tasting room. When we opened in August of 2016, we served craft cocktails and spirits and sold our spirit bottles out of our store front. Beer sales started a few months after. We also added wine and small food bites made right at our tiny bar. In those first few years we had a few employees but it was mostly Sara and Joel you would find behind the bar. Joel worked at the distillery full time while Sara continued to toil as a children’s book editor during the day while switching to bartender at night.
In 2019, expansion was begun to move into the supplementary space in our building previously occupied by a tenant. A full kitchen, additional seating areas, and an office and storage area were added. We opened our kitchen in March of 2020. We did not expect COVID to hit or that the state would tell us we could not serve people inside of our newly renovated facility for which we had hired a bunch of new workers. We pivoted to take-out food only. We innovated by offering cocktail kits and bulk soup and other foods to go. And then the hand sanitizer frenzy began. The was a shortage of sanitizer, and people began attempting to make their own. Who better to manufacture an alcohol-based product but a distillery trying to protect the business they had built while also helping the community find a solution. So we made hand sanitizer. Slowly at first, we offered it out of a jug by our front door. But we soon realized the demand was greater than we thought. We ramped up our production and began selling gallon jugs of sanitizer to postal workers, first responders, businesses, other restaurants, and the every day customer. We got so busy that we never had to let any of our employees go (unless they chose to) and had our children competing to see who could fill more bottles. One of our regulars came and hung out with us every day. The servers mowed the lawn. It was a wild time, but it kept us in business.
And we’re still in business today. 10 years of distilling, brewing, and cooking has made us what we are … a family-owned business invested in our community and hoping to meet new people every day. We hope you’ll visit us soon.