From Crafting Brews to Crafting Boards

Inside Savard Beer & Board’s unique brewery concept, from the couple behind Wilmington Brewing Company

By Katie Schmidt  »  Photos by Madeline Gray

If you’ve ever sipped on a Tropical Lightning from Wilmington Brewing Company and thought to yourself, “This will change the trajectory of my day,” you are not only not alone, but in good company with the creators themselves, John and Michelle Savard.

“Tropical Lightning is a day-changing beer,” Michelle says. That day-changing, 7.4% ABV IPA also changed the days (and therefore cumulatively: lives) of John and Michelle, who recently opened Savard Beer & Board on Front Street. One of the main distinctions at the new brewery? Lower alcohol volume.

“As I get older, I like to drink lower alcohol,” John says. “I can have four pints of a blonde ale from Savard that is 3.7 ABV and be completely normal. We wanted to hit a different market with our new location.”

Even with a different market, different brand, and different part of town, Savard Beer & Board is reminiscent of the vibe at Wilmington Brewing and feels very John and Michelle. Which is fitting as it shares their last name. 

Bringing Beer Culture to Wilmington

John and Michelle are both Wilmington locals (Michelle would likely want me to mention that since John moved here when he was two, she’s born-and-raised; he’s just raised) who moved back after spending their college years at UNC Asheville. Spending those four years in what is now commonly known as “Beer City USA” had a long-lasting impact on the couple that the city of Wilmington benefits from today.

After graduating and moving back to Wilmington, the couple had some brewing experience but no luck finding gigs in the early 2010s job market. “John had been brewing beer in Asheville,” Michelle says. “He loves to create stuff, and I’m more logistics-oriented. He’ll get this big idea and I like to — not squash it but — make it a reality.”

“The freedom of starting something myself always seemed appealing,” John says. And when they were not getting any takers of their resumes at pet stores and retail corporations? “I just wrote a business plan for a home brew shop out of necessity,” he says, “We thought maybe with the end goal of a brewery someday. We obviously didn’t know how big it was going to get.”

And so in 2012, the Savards embarked on their first official beer venture: Wilmington Home Brew Supply. The 800-square-foot home brew hobby store provided customers with the ingredients and tools they needed to make their own beer. “There was definitely a void in the community for beer culture at the time,” John says. “Certain places had good selections, but nothing like it is today, and so we knew there was a niche and we could go bigger.”

“It’s crazy because we were early to the local beer scene, which I’m thankful for,” Michelle says. “John always says, ‘better lucky than good…’”

“Right, but enough things in a row, we probably did something right,” he adds.

For the Savards, going bigger meant opening Wilmington Brewing Company in 2014. Currently located at 800 S. Kerr Avenue (right next to their previous location and production area), the brewery is one of the first to help establish Wilmington as a beer town. At the time, according to John, brewers in places like Colorado, San Francisco, or even as close as Charlotte would not expect much from a “beach town beer.”

“It was weird because outside of Wilmington, we had to raise the expectation of what to expect out of a beer from a coastal town,” John says. “And inside Wilmington, we had to change the perspective that local beer wasn’t a thing.”

Out of the gate, Wilmington Brewing served three beers — one dark beer, one light beer, and an IPA. That IPA would take on a life of its own, a little lightning-in-a-beer-can known as Tropical Lightning. In those early days, when the Savards would assess their sale numbers, they’d see Tropical Lightning taking up 60% of their sales. They’d tweak the other beers…Tropical Lightning 70% of sales. Even as they’ve developed a large variety of beers (there are currently about 20 available in the taproom at Wilmington Brewing), Tropical Lightning reigns supreme. 

“Tropical Lightning, for me, is — that could be my dessert island beer,” John says. “I wouldn’t survive very long on the island, but I’d have a blast swimming around with my Tropical Lightning.”

The New Brewery & Its Beachy Twist

Thanks to the success of the home brew supply shop and the brewery, the Savards were able to do something very few people could say they did during 2020 — they could dream. 

They purchased the building at 121 S. Front St (what would eventually become Savard Beer & Board) during the summer of 2020. “Tropical Lightning paid for this place,” John says while gesturing around the new brewery. 

The new space is a lot like John and Michelle themselves — bright, hospitable, and open. John had started kicking around the idea of a second location, originally envisioning it more as a sister site to Wilmington Brewing. But eventually the idea started to crystallize to explore a completely different brand to, as Michelle puts it, “be a little more creative, a little more funky.” Part of that funkiness? The “& Board” of it all.

“That was a COVID thing,” John says. “I was bored out of my gourd and started watching YouTubers making surfboards. I just started thinking, ‘I need a hobby, let’s do something creative.’”

“Everyone else was making sourdough bread, he started making surfboards,” Michelle adds. 

John recalls getting together with friends over a couple of beers and making surfboards together, then coming home and watching surfboard-making videos. “I’d have Michelle and the kids come in to watch some,” John says. “They’d think it was cool, just watching it. It’s almost therapeutic. You take this foam, cut it down, glass it, and then you have a surfboard. So, I was like, ‘Let’s just do it live. Beer and a show.’”

At Savard, there are two “board rooms” (Michelle calls them the aquarium) where guests can observe the tailoring of custom surfboards. One room is for shaping, which is essentially cutting foam into the shape of a surfboard, and the second room is for glassing, which is adding color. 

“The surfboard part is what got me excited,” Michelle says. “Not to negate the beer, but I’ve been in beer land a long time. For me, it was a little like, ‘another tap room? I already have a tap room…’ But then he had the surfboard idea, and I thought it was so cool, the idea of having people watch and see that it’s not intimidating. You know, home brewing used to be intimidating, and we taught people how to brew, and that it’s just beer. Surfing is just surfing, and it may be scary to try, but we’re trying to get the veil down.”

Since opening in June of this year, Savard has already found a loyal and consistent customer base. “It’s so different being downtown as opposed to Kerr Avenue because there’s walk-in traffic,” John says. “Day one, I would see someone walk by and then stop halfway down the windows and come back in. It’s awesome.”

In addition to the lower-ABV beers, there are a handful of cocktails and wines served as well. The couple also has their eye on getting distribution for Savard beers up and running, ideally getting to a place where restaurants have a Savard tap handle or two next to a Wilmington Brewing tap handle or two. 

“We also want to start doing things like trivia and having DJs,” John says. “Everything before [on Kerr Ave.] we wanted to be so controlled, but we’re letting go of a lot more here with this place and letting people who are still hip help us out. Actually, I don’t know if I was ever hip, but I know I’m not now.”

“People think we are because we have a brewery, but we’re not,” Michelle chimes in.

Savard Beer & Board is open in downtown Wilmington Wednesday-Sunday.