If things keep going the way they are, it appears beer could overtake gravel as the product Oxford is best known for.

A third microbrewery is looking to begin cranking out craft suds in the village.

Addison Township couple Ben Schnurle and Morganne Matheis are seeking local and state approvals to open One Drop Brewing Company inside a 3,600-square-foot building at 130 Oakdell Dr., just east of M-24.

“I’ve been working on my beers my whole life,” Schnurle said. “I’m really excited to bring them to market.”

The proposed brewery will be addressed at the 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16 village planning commission meeting.

Although the property is zoned industrial, which allows for breweries as a permitted use, One Drop wants to have an on-site taproom where folks can purchase and imbibe its beers, a feature that requires special land use approval from the planning commission (see public notice).

Bringing One Drop to life is truly going to be a family affair as the building – located where Oakdell Dr. deadends, just past the BP gas station and We Buy It store – belongs to Morganne’s father, Addison Twp. resident Ken Matheis, owner of The Complete Companies in Orion Township for 34 years.

Ken is providing all of the brewing equipment as well because he also owns the Orion-based Craftwerk, which has been manufacturing brewing systems and stainless steel tanks since 2009.

Craftwerk has supplied equipment to a number of microbreweries in the area, including Falling Down Beer Co. in downtown Oxford, Griffin Claw in Birmingham and Rochester Mills Beer Co. in Rochester.

Schnurle and his fiancee will be supplying the expertise.

“We’re definitely categorized as beer nerds,” said the 34-year-old Schnurle.

He’s been brewing beer for himself, family and friends since his college days and has a degree in environmental science.

As for Morganne, she has practical experience from working at both The Complete Companies and Craftwerk, plus a degree in biology.

“She understands fermentation at a level that probably most brewers don’t,” Schnurle noted.

Between Ken’s building and brewing equipment and he and his fiancee’s knowledge and love of craft beer, Schnurle said, “It was a good time and a good fit for our family to work (together) on a project like this.”

“Ever since my dad opened Craftwerk, we’ve dreamed of having a brewery,” Morganne said. “It’s something I’ve been looking forward to for a really long time. I’m not as skilled at the brewing as Ben is, but I enjoy the inner workings of the brewing business.”

One Drop will utilize a three-and-a-half barrel brewing system capable to producing 108-gallon batches. One barrel contains 31 gallons. One Drop will also have five fermentation tanks and five serving tanks.

“We want to start small and work our way up . . . prove ourselves to the community,” Schnurle said.

When One Drop opens, the plan is to have five beers on tap. They will represent the recipes Schnurle believes he’s “perfected.”

When asked what those beers will be, Schnurle coyly replied, “I don’t want to leak that quite yet,” but he did note, “I’d say my specialty is pale ale.”

Schnurle said he’s spent years developing his recipes and “people have always really liked my beers.”

“Ben’s beer, so far, has really stood out in my mind,” Morgan said.

Schnurle believes strongly in using only the highest quality ingredients from the best sources to produce beer flavors that are vibrant and robust.

Given beer is typically comprised of 90 to 95 percent water, the combination of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen is the most important ingredient in the bubbly beverage.

That’s why Schnurle obsesses over it.

“I’m very focused on water chemistry,” he said. “I take water quality very seriously.”

He puts all of the water he uses for brewing through the process of reverse osmosis to “completely erase all (of) the mineral content.”

“It makes the water a blank slate,” Schnurle said.

He then “rebuilds” it to “reflect the style” of beer being brewed by adding salts and minerals “to mimic (water from) different regions of the planet.”

“Not a lot of breweries do that, even locally,” Schnurle said.

In the future, Schnurle would like to see One Drop bottling and canning its beers, but for now, it will be content to serve customers in the taproom and fill up half-gallon growlers, pony kegs and standard kegs for to-go orders.

As far as interior design goes, One Drop plans to have an industrial vibe with lots of stainless steel. The taproom itself will be a place for visitors to socialize and be entertained, not just stare at a television while they drink.

“We don’t want our brewery to be centered around watching TVs,” Schnurle said. “We’re going to try and have live music as much as possible. We’re considering (having) a pool table and some other fun games.”

Even though One Drop is not planning to serve food, the owners want to maintain a family environment, given they have a 1½-year-old son named Theodore Kenneth and another baby due in December.

“We understand parents’ need for craft beer more than anyone,” Schnurle said. “We’re going to have family nights where people can come and enjoy a beer, and wind down with their kids.”

“It would be awesome to have an environment where kids are encouraged to be there,” Morganne said. “I would love to have a ‘moms brew group’ where they come learn (about the brewing) process and have their kids with them.”

Schnurle is looking forward to joining the ranks of Oxford’s other two microbreweries – HomeGrown Brewing Co., open since April 2017, and Falling Down Beer Co., which opened earlier this year.

“We’re excited to work with the other breweries in town to create kind of a synergy,” he said. “We think that we’ll complement the beer scene in Oxford.”

Unlike the other two microbreweries, One Drop will not be  prominently situated downtown on M-24 where it can be easily seen by the thousands of drivers that travel the state highway every day. Although the building is near M-24, it’s not visible from the road.

But that doesn’t bother Schnurle a bit.

“I always said if I was going to get into brewing (commercially), I didn’t want a brewery on the main drag. That was never something I aspired to,” he explained. “I kind of like underdog businesses that have to start up where the opportunity presents itself. That’s definitely us. We’re going to work with what we have.”

To him, if people enjoy the beer, the location doesn’t really matter because “a community will rally around better product.”

One Drop’s name embodies that spirit.

According to Schnurle, a brewer named Nick Lub once told him, “The only thing that matters is that your beer is good and you can tell whether beer is good from one drop. It doesn’t take one glass.”

“I always remembered that,” he said.