It only took one lecture to change the trajectory of Eli Green’s life. The Troy native had been living in New York for several years and working as an actor. He had long been interested in home brewing beer and had tried his hand at a few different varieties. Then a friend gave him an extra ticket to an interesting-sounding lecture on pairing beer and cheese. The lecturer happened to be Garrett Oliver, the respected longtime head brewer at Brooklyn Brewery. His lecture on the benefits of beer paired with cheese led Green down a rabbit hole that culminated in the opening of Stumblebum Beer Co. on West Maple Road in Troy in June 2024.
Green immediately brought veteran brewer Chris Coburn on board. Together they are developing a program that relies heavily on lagers and pilsners, with IPAs and some specialty beers also on the menu. The brewery’s walls are decorated with photos and memorabilia related to trains and railroad history. I sat down with Green to talk about what it took to get started and what his plans are for the future.
What inspired you to start home brewing and become a brewer?
Full disclosure: …It was a bad breakup and I needed something to do. There was a really tiny, run down bar very close to my apartment in Queens. There was brewing equipment and grains hanging on the wall. That was my first exposure to the fact that you can brew beer at home pretty easily. I think it was the next day that I came back and bought a little kit. I’ve been brewing beer ever since.
Where does the name come from? And why all the railway memorabilia?
The textbook definition (of a stumblebum) is a clumsy or inept person, and I carried that nickname with me throughout college. It has become an alter ego of mine, a gentleman vagabond. He may be unassuming at first glance, but he is a gentleman. I had a vague idea that was meant to hark back to the days of hobos. It wasn’t until my logo designer came up with a design concept with this idea of a tying stick and a hop plant that I really got serious about it.
There’s a lot of cheese on the menu: grilled cheese sandwiches, cured meats. Why is that?
I feel like wine doesn’t wash away cheese, but a nice, crisp, sparkling beer does. When you have cheese in your mouth and it’s all on your tongue and you take a sip of beer, it washes it all down and you feel that flavor mixing with the beer. It’s about the protein in the hops and the acidity.
What do you recommend regarding the combination of beer and cheese?
I think the star is the witbier. We’ve tried it with Irish cheddar and with blue cheese and it seems to hold its own against those strong flavors. My palate isn’t the same as yours, so the rules I play by may not agree with yours. There are a million different combinations.
This story originally appeared in the August 2024 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail store. Our digital edition will be available on August 6th.
