The story of Kuhnhenn Brewing Company goes back to 1972, when Eric Kuhnhenn Sr. purchased Lutz True Value, a neighborhood hardware store in the Old Village of Warren at the intersection of Chicago and Mound. The store saw much success catering to the local community through personalized service and high-quality products.

Fast-forward to the early 1990s, when Bret and Eric Kuhnhenn took over operations of the store from their father. At this time, Eric began homebrewing while in college, and subsequently taught his brother Bret the hobby, and the brothers began brewing at the store and fermenting in their parents' basement.

Around this same time, big-box home improvement retailers began popping up all around the metro-Detroit area, squeezing out the local, family-owned shops. Bret and Eric began selling homebrewing supplies out of the hardware store, and eventually stopped selling hardware altogether. In 1998, they founded Kuhnhenn Brewing Co. as a homebrew supplies store, with the eventual plan to convert into a full-scale brewery.