From airplanes to art: The Gallery offers an artistic take on brews

Jared Green went to college hoping for a career flying commercial airplanes.

Never during his schooling did he expect to open a brewery, but last fall following more than a decade of working in the aviation industry, Green is now co-owner and brewer at The Gallery Brewery in Portland, Mich.

“When I finished school, I couldn’t get a flying job,” said Green, who has worked for airlines and in air traffic control in Florida and Michigan. He also currently works at Michigan Department of Transportation.

His wife gave him a kit a few years ago and his interest in beer took off. Then he had a conversation with his future business partner, Neal Mathisen. Mathisen and his brother, Alan, had discussed opening a brewery for years, however their jobs as air traffic controllers in separate cities — Neal in Lansing and Alan in Peoria, Ill. — had prevented them from capitalizing.

Neil Mathisen’s conversation with Green resparked the interest and they settled on Mathisen’s home city of Portland, inst

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