I'm looking for feedback on our plan for this weekends beer procurement tour.
We are headed to Ypsilanti Saturday for the 13th Annual Summer Beer Festival in
Riverside Park.
http://www.michiganbrewersguild.org/events.asp
Apart from this, the detailed plan calls for:
Saturday:
Lunch at the Side track (across the river from the festival) for America's 19th best burger!?
Afternoon at the Beer Festival and
Evening at Jolly Pumpkin
Sunday
Our planned drive to Grand Rapids includes:
Dark Horse
Arcadia
Bells
Founders and
Hopcat for dinner and volume tastings to end the day!
Monday
Will be taken up with sleeping in, taking stock of our haul and crawling back to Waterloo. We're thinking about lunch or dinner in Port Huron at Quay Street Brewing www.quaybrewing.com Anybody been there? I saw one mention from Len in Jan.....
What did we miss?
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Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!
Michigan Weekend
Well, I was just in Michigan the beginning of July, so I may be able to help seeing as I went to Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, and Detroit.
Sidetracks has great food, and quite a few good beers. We just passed through Ypsilanti, and actually went to sidetracks twice. Great Happy Hour deal too, between 4-6pm (I think), 25oz beer for i believe it was $2.90!!!
In Ann Arbor we went to Jolly Pumpkin which was great, and we went to a nice restaurant/bar called Ashley's, if you're looking for great beer, I'd definitely go here. The Ann Arbor location has over 70 taps, and a lot of bottles.
If you want a great bottle shop, Merchant's Fine Wine in Dearborn was fantastic, we stopped at Ryan's Party Store as well, but found selection and pricing better at Merchant's.
Here's a list of what was consumed on day one, between 2 of us (we were in Michigan July 5-7)
Sidetracks (we did flights here, so each beer was about 4oz)
Bells Oberon
Bells Two-Hearted Ale
Founders Reds Rye
Shorts Huma-Lupa-licious
Frog Island Amber Ale
Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald
Jolly Pumpkin
Bam Biere
Golden Manatee Belipago
Luciernaga
Calabaza Blanc
Oro de Calabaza
Bam Noire
Tortuga Ale Company chocolate stout
Ashley's Bar (these were all bottles, very hard to choose because of so many great options, some of the more rare bottles are quite pricey though.)
Dogfish Head Raison D'Extra
Stone-BrewDog-Cambridge Collaboration Juxtaposition
Kuhnhenn 4th Dementia
St. Bernardus ABT 12
Sidetracks has great food, and quite a few good beers. We just passed through Ypsilanti, and actually went to sidetracks twice. Great Happy Hour deal too, between 4-6pm (I think), 25oz beer for i believe it was $2.90!!!
In Ann Arbor we went to Jolly Pumpkin which was great, and we went to a nice restaurant/bar called Ashley's, if you're looking for great beer, I'd definitely go here. The Ann Arbor location has over 70 taps, and a lot of bottles.
If you want a great bottle shop, Merchant's Fine Wine in Dearborn was fantastic, we stopped at Ryan's Party Store as well, but found selection and pricing better at Merchant's.
Here's a list of what was consumed on day one, between 2 of us (we were in Michigan July 5-7)
Sidetracks (we did flights here, so each beer was about 4oz)
Bells Oberon
Bells Two-Hearted Ale
Founders Reds Rye
Shorts Huma-Lupa-licious
Frog Island Amber Ale
Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald
Jolly Pumpkin
Bam Biere
Golden Manatee Belipago
Luciernaga
Calabaza Blanc
Oro de Calabaza
Bam Noire
Tortuga Ale Company chocolate stout
Ashley's Bar (these were all bottles, very hard to choose because of so many great options, some of the more rare bottles are quite pricey though.)
Dogfish Head Raison D'Extra
Stone-BrewDog-Cambridge Collaboration Juxtaposition
Kuhnhenn 4th Dementia
St. Bernardus ABT 12
First - thanks kish84 - Ashely's was a highlight!
And the Hopcat in Grand Rapids is worth the drive.
The festival was fascinating from a Canadian's perspective
- Over 9800 people in the park over the two days
- 400+ Michigan beers
- 54 brewers
A steamy hot day and a growing mud problem by 4pm inside some tents. The "swamp gas" smell was a bit off-putting in some corners of the park but always overpowered by some fanatasic beers. We tried over 30 beers and never actually used more than a few of the 15 tokens each - no one seemed to care.
As an OCB drinker it seems to me this is what Session could have been from an attendance perspective. The product here in Ontario is just as good. I don't have any answers but it seems to me we should be able to have something similar here.....maybe in a few years.
The OCB might consider investing in a face to face with the Michigan Brewers Guild and have a discussion on lessons learned over 13 years of running a major festival like this? I'll drive!
Well done Michigan!
And the Hopcat in Grand Rapids is worth the drive.
The festival was fascinating from a Canadian's perspective
- Over 9800 people in the park over the two days
- 400+ Michigan beers
- 54 brewers
A steamy hot day and a growing mud problem by 4pm inside some tents. The "swamp gas" smell was a bit off-putting in some corners of the park but always overpowered by some fanatasic beers. We tried over 30 beers and never actually used more than a few of the 15 tokens each - no one seemed to care.
As an OCB drinker it seems to me this is what Session could have been from an attendance perspective. The product here in Ontario is just as good. I don't have any answers but it seems to me we should be able to have something similar here.....maybe in a few years.
The OCB might consider investing in a face to face with the Michigan Brewers Guild and have a discussion on lessons learned over 13 years of running a major festival like this? I'll drive!
Well done Michigan!
Having just returned from a Michigan weekend, being much smarter this time, thanks to all who steered me correctly.
I noticed that Kroeger and Meijer stores, maybe not all, seem to have a great craft section now. I dont know whether its a summer thing or what, of course Walmart sucks.
I saw:
Stone
Bell's
Atwater
Shorts
Michigan Brewing Company
Great Lakes
Founders
Leinenkugel
Flying Dog
Magic Hat
One from Rochester NY maybe Roc?
Many different varieties and many 12 bottle samplers. Never saw this before, usually had to go to a specialty store.
I noticed that Kroeger and Meijer stores, maybe not all, seem to have a great craft section now. I dont know whether its a summer thing or what, of course Walmart sucks.
I saw:
Stone
Bell's
Atwater
Shorts
Michigan Brewing Company
Great Lakes
Founders
Leinenkugel
Flying Dog
Magic Hat
One from Rochester NY maybe Roc?
Many different varieties and many 12 bottle samplers. Never saw this before, usually had to go to a specialty store.