Craft beer pioneer Ron Jeffries, who founded Dexter, Michigan-based Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, has died, his family announced Monday.
“It is with heavy hearts that we remember Ron Jeffries, a loving husband and father, who touched the lives of many with his passion and creativity,” his son Daemon Jeffries wrote on Facebook.
Jeffries and his wife Laurie Jeffries founded Jolly Pumpkin in 2004 as the country’s first “all wild, oak-aged brewery.” The same year the brewery opened, Jolly Pumpkin’s Oro de Calabaza won the gold medal in the Belgian- and French-style Ale category in the Brewers Association’s (BA) Great American Beer Festival competition.
Jolly Pumpkin and Traverse City, Michigan-based North Peak Brewing merged to form craft platform Northern United Brewing in 2008, nearly two decades before the practice became common.
In 2021, Northern United Brewing tapped Bryan Wiggs as director of brewing operations, which allowed Ron and Laurie Jeffries to eventually move to Hawaii, where the family launched Holoholo Brewing.
“In his final year, Ron fulfilled the lifelong dream of moving to Hawaii where he eagerly worked on his family brewery,” Daemon Jeffries wrote. “He was excited about what the future was bringing and what he would be bringing to the world with Hilo Brewing Company/Holoholo Brewing. He cherished moments spent on his lanai, soaking in the Hilo rain with a pint in hand.”
Even before founding Jolly Pumpkin, Jeffries was instrumental in the early days of Michigan’s burgeoning craft industry. He was “a well-known and respected brewer in Michigan’s emerging craft beer scene,” according to Jolly Pumpkin’s website.
Jeffries graduated from the University of Michigan in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in English, according to his LinkedIn profile, and went back to school to study brewing science in 1991 before beginning his professional brewing career in 1995 at Ann Arbor-based Grizzly Peak.
Three years after kicking off his brewing career, Jeffries helped found the Michigan Brewers Guild (MBG), and served three terms on the guild’s board of directors, the MBG wrote on social media.
“Ron’s hard work, passion, and perseverance has been a guiding force in creating the Great Beer State while being supportive of the entire craft beer industry in Michigan,” the MBG wrote.
The guild honored Jeffries with its Tom Burns Award in 2020, which is “given to a person who embodies the pioneering spirit of the Michigan brewing industry.”
In 2023, Michigan had the eighth most craft breweries in the country with 418, according to the BA. It ranks 15th in breweries per capita, and the industry generated $2.064 billion in economic impact last year.