Anodyne, Adverpoke, other beer geeks, re: upcoming Michigan trip
- Thread starter Marshal Jim Duncan
- Start date
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anon_ph7vrsh7abnty
Guest
Jolly Pumpkin and New Holland (dragon milk) and Dark Horse (Scotty Karate).
They have some mead and cider madness going on that I haven't had a chance to try.
I'd also just use it as an excuse to grab as much from the Midwest as possible.
They have some mead and cider madness going on that I haven't had a chance to try.
I'd also just use it as an excuse to grab as much from the Midwest as possible.
Flying unfortunately, so it'll be hard to grab much, if any. Thank you for the recommendations.
We can get Jolly Pumpkin in Tulsa. I like them, but have not been overwhelmed.
New Holland and Dark Horse would be easily doable. Jolly Pumpkin might be a stretch given our hiking plans; we are staying most of the time in Grand Rapids.
We can get Jolly Pumpkin in Tulsa. I like them, but have not been overwhelmed.
New Holland and Dark Horse would be easily doable. Jolly Pumpkin might be a stretch given our hiking plans; we are staying most of the time in Grand Rapids.
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anon_ph7vrsh7abnty
Guest
I share your sentiment on Jolly Pumpkin. That's why I was unable to list a specific beer that I like. I bet Anodyne or LouKY have some good reccos for some more obscure finds.
Jealous ...
If you go to founders, stay away from the devil dancer. That stuff will wreck you. I know from personal experience.
I've had Devil Dancer, not a huge fan; I liked it OK. I'm looking to try some that aren't widely distributed or maybe taproom only.
I thought it was okay ... Was talking about the alcohol content. That stuff will sneak up on you
Yeah, I gotcha. They currently have a few in their taproom that are taproom only and that Ive never had. Bell has a lot more beers in their Kalamazoo taproom.
It's fully kraeusened!
Though the brands still exist, I believe the Stroh brewery is non-operational, certainly the company is.
Did Stroh's not pay their Detroit water bill either? Someone get the UN on it STAT!
I think it would be worth the drive over to Holland. If you do that, then might as well go a few more miles south towards Fenville for Virtue Ciders (if you like cider, this is the place, if you don't like cider then this place would probably change your mind). The founders of Goose Island started Virtue with some of their millions when they sold out to Bud. Carrollton will know much more about the Grand Rapids scene. There's something like 10 breweries in the immediate area. Insane. Enjoy that drive between GR and Mt P! Midland Brewing had a few good things, about 25 miles east of Mt P. Agree with others that Jolly Pumpkin has gone downhill, got passed up by the upstarts, too complacent in their cushy Ann Arbor digs I guess.
Founders and Dark Horse would be my picks. DH has a double IPA called Smells Like A Safety Meeting that's quite tasty. Their Plead the 5th stout is awesome too. If available, you HAVE to get some Bourbon Barrel Plead the 5th. Only available at the brewery and it is spectacular.
http://www.darkhorsebrewery.com/bourbon-barrel-plead-the-5th
Had thought about trying to make the game but we will be on a houseboat on the lake next weekend.
http://www.darkhorsebrewery.com/bourbon-barrel-plead-the-5th
Had thought about trying to make the game but we will be on a houseboat on the lake next weekend.
We are stopping at Dark Horse on our way up...and probably back too! Thanks for the recs LouKY!
Founders is a must, and Brewery Vivant is excellent if you appreciate Belgian and farmhouse styles. A couple of off-the-beaten-path breweries in the immediate GR area that stood out to me are Perrin and Rockford. These are both in the suburbs a few miles north of town. Perrin really surprised me and is a large facility with a nice selection of beers. They recently were acquired by Oskar Blues out of Colorado.
While not a brewery, Hop Cat is a must. It is a great place to try a lot of Michigan beers and their food is really good to boot. Grand Rapids Brewing Company is basically next door. It's solid but not anything amazing. Stella's Lounge is near Hop Cat and owned by the same people if I remember correctly. Not as big of a beer selection but the food is great and it is definitely a people-watching spot. Hop Cat/Grand Rapids Brewing/Stella's are all right downtown. Of the places I went to that were out of town, Bell's and New Holland were absolutely worth the trip. Dark Horse is a really odd but cool location. Their beers were good but not quite up to the amount of hype I had heard about them. If you do head west to New Holland you should also stop by White Flame Brewing in Hudsonville. Very small brewery with some really good beers (try an Ugly Stick oatmeal stout).
While not a brewery, Hop Cat is a must. It is a great place to try a lot of Michigan beers and their food is really good to boot. Grand Rapids Brewing Company is basically next door. It's solid but not anything amazing. Stella's Lounge is near Hop Cat and owned by the same people if I remember correctly. Not as big of a beer selection but the food is great and it is definitely a people-watching spot. Hop Cat/Grand Rapids Brewing/Stella's are all right downtown. Of the places I went to that were out of town, Bell's and New Holland were absolutely worth the trip. Dark Horse is a really odd but cool location. Their beers were good but not quite up to the amount of hype I had heard about them. If you do head west to New Holland you should also stop by White Flame Brewing in Hudsonville. Very small brewery with some really good beers (try an Ugly Stick oatmeal stout).
Thanks Carrollton! Yeah, Hopcat is on the agenda. I may try to check out Perrin. I'm an Oskar Blues fan.
Thanks for the recommendation to hit Dark Horse. Great, divey little taproom and great beer. We may go back because we were told the ford is really good but we had already eaten a late, big breakfast. so far, we've hit Bell's and Dark Horse.
The food was really good at Bell's. I was a little disappointed in their beers other than ones I'd had before. However, Wild One, was a great sour ale.
At Dark Horse, my wife loved the raspberry ale. I loved the Scotty Karate; thanks Adverpoke. They did not have the Smells Like A Safety Meeting. They DID have Cocoa Bourbon Nibbler, which was a pretty amazing chocolate milk stout.
The food was really good at Bell's. I was a little disappointed in their beers other than ones I'd had before. However, Wild One, was a great sour ale.
At Dark Horse, my wife loved the raspberry ale. I loved the Scotty Karate; thanks Adverpoke. They did not have the Smells Like A Safety Meeting. They DID have Cocoa Bourbon Nibbler, which was a pretty amazing chocolate milk stout.
Final rundown: 7 breweries in 5 days. That includes Hop Cat, which is a brew-pub, but they have a ton of Michigan beers, as well as other beers, mostly from the Midwest and NE, on tap and in bottle. We didn't drink any of Hop Cat's own brews, so maybe that doesn't count. But we did go to both the main brewery and the downtown Holland taproom/restaurant for New Holland. New Holland's main facility is also a distillery, so that's a bonus. We also went to Founder's 3 times.
Here's the rundown of where we visited:
First, my overall impressions of the trip are that people in Western Michigan are overwhelmingly friendly. Or maybe people that are drawn to breweries are. We talked to a guy at Dark Horse who is regional manager for Old Chicago pizza restaurants and he was giving all kinds of tips on places to visit (not just breweries) and was calling his administrative assistant to ask her about breweries because he isn't really a beer geek, but she is. He also talked football with us because this was lunchtime the day of our game so we were wearing oSu gear. Very nice guy. Talked to several other nice fellas there too.
We also talked to a biker dude at the outside bar at Founders who was obviously a well known regular there who gave us a bunch of good tips on where to go (unfortunately we weren't able to hit them all). One of his recommendations that we didn't get to was Perrin, which you guys had mentioned as well.
And the tour guides and everyone at New Holland were all super friendly and really into beer and talking about other breweries. That is really an up and coming brewery.
I really liked the areas we visited too. Downtown Holland is really nice. The area of Holland down by the lakefront was a beautiful place to visit too. It was hot while we were there but Lake Michigan was still fairly chilly, although you could easily still swim. We went to Holland State Park, the Tunnel Park and a giant sand dune with a boardwalk/stairway to the top called Mount Pisgah.
Grand Rapids has really cool areas downtown too.
We hiked about 8 miles yesterday at the Kent Trails, near Grand Rapids. There are trails everywhere in the area. It was pretty dang hot in the area most of our trip, 90 yesterday, and very humid, so that was about all we had in us. In retrospect probably should have planned on trying to go up a bit further north on the coast of Lake Michigan.
We took the northern route across from Mt Pleasant (we stayed there Thursday after the game) back to Grand Rapids, which took us right through the heart of Michigan's Amish country. We saw many horse drawn carriages and several spotsin the road covered in horse crap. It was a lovely, green rural area really, though.
The breweries -
Bells: nice taproom, sort of on the fringe of downtown Kalamazoo. The food is good. As I mentioned before, I was slightly disappointed in their beers, the ones I'd never had. But, they had a sour called The Wild One, that was new for me, that was quite tasty indeed. They have a nice open beer garden in back behind a fence. There were lots of people out there, some families. We enjoyed a beer out there before walking back to our hotel. A good breakfast spot in Kalamazoo, near the campus of Western Michigan, is East Egg.
Dark Horse: a funky joint on the edge of downtown Marshall, Michigan in a sort of industrial area. Very divey, with a great assortment of beers, and they have a few non Dark Horse beers as well. The Cocoa Bourbon Nibbler stout I mentioned before was dang good and so was Scotty Karate (scotch ale, with a kick). We had eaten a late and big breakfast at East Egg, so didn't eat there, but it looked amazing and the guy that befriended us at the bar said the food isreally good. Dark Horse has 4,000+ individualized ceramic mugs hanging from the ceiling in numerical order. Demand for them is such (not to mention space limitations) that they only give out a limited number once a year and one has to wait in line to get one. My wife loved their Raspberry Ale.
Founders: this place is a simply amazing Mecca for the beer geek. There are multiple outside and inside area to sit in. 4 bars, including 1 outside. The food is mostly sandwiches and appetizers but is quite good. They have music most weekend nights, yesterday evening was a great, fun show by the Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra. Wife loved Blushing Monk, another Raspberry Belgian. We had it here in OK in large format bottles early this year or late last. Bartender told her they are about out, first time they'd brewed it in about 6 years per him. They had a taproom only brew I liked a lot called Mosaic Promise. Also liked the Pale Ale which I don't recall seeing in OK. Oh, yeah, they had Centennial on Nitro and it was quite different and very good that way. The bartender said the day we were there was the first time they'd done that particular beer on nitro. I also had several other different beers: Big Luscious, Breakfast Stout, Porter, Pale Joe. My wife also had the Rubaeus on nitro. Most definitely worth a visit, a must if in the area.
Brewery Vivant: we walked the mile + from Founders down to BV ( it was hot too). We got there just as a family of 4 was knocking on the door to attempt to get them to open a 2nd time. Unbeknownst to us, they didn't open that day (Friday) until 3. In the first of several serendipitous moments on our trip, it was straight up 3 PM when we walked up and they opened the doors of the former chapel to let us in. It's a cool place, also with very good food. The chapel setting, complete with huge stained glass window is a good fit with their beers which are all Belgian/country French styles. Their farmhouse, called Farmhand, was outstanding. A pumpkin tart was pretty good. That's not my thing, but I felt compelled to try it for some reason. The staff here were certainly nice enough, but I kind of sensed a hipster superiority vibe with the bartender chick, but she was all right.
New Holland: serendipitous moment #2 occurred here. We had been out at Mt Pisgah and visiting Lake Michigan all morning and decided to go visit New Holland. We thought we were going to the brewery and taproom. We were mistaken. We walked in at the brewery just as a tour was about to start and some other people who were supposed to do the tour had bailed. So, we did it. It is about 1 1/2 - 2 hours and well worth your time. There is no taproom there (it's in the heart of beautiful downtown Holland), but you get to sample 4 different beer styles and as many of their distilled spirits as you want. They are quite generous with extra samples if you want any. I was REALLY taken with this place, thanks to all who recommended it. Their Dragon's Milk Bourbon aged Barrel Stout is EASILY the best barrel aged beer I've ever tasted. It is so much smoother than most beers of the type. You get the bourbon barrel favors, with some nice vanilla, but the beer isn't overpowered by it. For those of you who live where New Holland is available (I don't), they are coming out with 4 different limited bottlings of Dragon's Milk around the first week of this December. Their Monkey King Saison was very good too. Their beer barrel Bourbon was FANTASTIC! We went to the taproom downtown too. Nice spot, with a huge bar. There were other restaurants and breweries in the area. We didn't probably do this place justice. It was busy on a Saturday afternoon. It was a little cooler that day so we sat outside in the beer garden and drank mostly water and a small flight to share. They have AWESOME loaded cheese fries with a coney sauce made of lamb and beef with absolutely no grease.
Hopcat: sweet little spot in downtown Grand Rapids lots of cool beer signs and memorabilia. They do brew their own beer, but it's mainly known for an extensive list of taps and a very extensive list of bottled beers. I got the AV The Kimmie, the Yink and the Holy Gose, because I'd never had it on tap. Tasty!
I went to use the restroom and that's when serendipitous event #3 occurred. I heard some hollering from out in the bar area as I was washing my hands. When I walked out, THE STANLEY CUP was perched on a table next to the bar. Several guys who work for the Black Hawks are from Grand Rapids, including the team's equipment manager, and they had the Cup for the weekend and were in the midst of a whirlwind bar hop around the area with it. Those Midwestern folks were going absolutely bananas over the Stanley Cup. They let anyone touch it who wanted to (no moving it though) and allowed anyone and everyone who wanted to to take a picture with the cup. I heard one college age girl say she was going to straddle it if she could. After about 15 surreal minutes they whisked the cup out the back door and were on to the next bar. I'll see if I can get my wife's pics posted later.
Grand Rapids Brewing: this place is about 3 doors down from Hopcat. It is a perfectly respectable brewpub that would be considered great in many towns in America. Here it was nothing special after what we previously experienced. I tried a Cherry ale because it was brewed from local Michigan cherries. It was good.
So, a great trip (glad we won the football game!). Well worth it for the beer geek and we missed many, many fine breweries in the area. It's easy to see why Grand Rapids bills itself as Beer City USA. On Sunday evening (yesterday) at 6 ish, with the temp at 90, Founders was at capacity, inside and out.
Here's the rundown of where we visited:
- Bell's in Kalamazoo
- Dark Horse in Marshall, MI
- Founder's in downtown Grand Rapids
- Brewery Vivant, south of downtown Grand Rapids
- New Holland Brewing /Distillery in Holland, MI, along with the pub in downtown Holland
- Hopcat in downtown Grand Rapids
- Grand Rapids Brewing in downtown Grand Rapids
First, my overall impressions of the trip are that people in Western Michigan are overwhelmingly friendly. Or maybe people that are drawn to breweries are. We talked to a guy at Dark Horse who is regional manager for Old Chicago pizza restaurants and he was giving all kinds of tips on places to visit (not just breweries) and was calling his administrative assistant to ask her about breweries because he isn't really a beer geek, but she is. He also talked football with us because this was lunchtime the day of our game so we were wearing oSu gear. Very nice guy. Talked to several other nice fellas there too.
We also talked to a biker dude at the outside bar at Founders who was obviously a well known regular there who gave us a bunch of good tips on where to go (unfortunately we weren't able to hit them all). One of his recommendations that we didn't get to was Perrin, which you guys had mentioned as well.
And the tour guides and everyone at New Holland were all super friendly and really into beer and talking about other breweries. That is really an up and coming brewery.
I really liked the areas we visited too. Downtown Holland is really nice. The area of Holland down by the lakefront was a beautiful place to visit too. It was hot while we were there but Lake Michigan was still fairly chilly, although you could easily still swim. We went to Holland State Park, the Tunnel Park and a giant sand dune with a boardwalk/stairway to the top called Mount Pisgah.
Grand Rapids has really cool areas downtown too.
We hiked about 8 miles yesterday at the Kent Trails, near Grand Rapids. There are trails everywhere in the area. It was pretty dang hot in the area most of our trip, 90 yesterday, and very humid, so that was about all we had in us. In retrospect probably should have planned on trying to go up a bit further north on the coast of Lake Michigan.
We took the northern route across from Mt Pleasant (we stayed there Thursday after the game) back to Grand Rapids, which took us right through the heart of Michigan's Amish country. We saw many horse drawn carriages and several spotsin the road covered in horse crap. It was a lovely, green rural area really, though.
The breweries -
Bells: nice taproom, sort of on the fringe of downtown Kalamazoo. The food is good. As I mentioned before, I was slightly disappointed in their beers, the ones I'd never had. But, they had a sour called The Wild One, that was new for me, that was quite tasty indeed. They have a nice open beer garden in back behind a fence. There were lots of people out there, some families. We enjoyed a beer out there before walking back to our hotel. A good breakfast spot in Kalamazoo, near the campus of Western Michigan, is East Egg.
Dark Horse: a funky joint on the edge of downtown Marshall, Michigan in a sort of industrial area. Very divey, with a great assortment of beers, and they have a few non Dark Horse beers as well. The Cocoa Bourbon Nibbler stout I mentioned before was dang good and so was Scotty Karate (scotch ale, with a kick). We had eaten a late and big breakfast at East Egg, so didn't eat there, but it looked amazing and the guy that befriended us at the bar said the food isreally good. Dark Horse has 4,000+ individualized ceramic mugs hanging from the ceiling in numerical order. Demand for them is such (not to mention space limitations) that they only give out a limited number once a year and one has to wait in line to get one. My wife loved their Raspberry Ale.
Founders: this place is a simply amazing Mecca for the beer geek. There are multiple outside and inside area to sit in. 4 bars, including 1 outside. The food is mostly sandwiches and appetizers but is quite good. They have music most weekend nights, yesterday evening was a great, fun show by the Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra. Wife loved Blushing Monk, another Raspberry Belgian. We had it here in OK in large format bottles early this year or late last. Bartender told her they are about out, first time they'd brewed it in about 6 years per him. They had a taproom only brew I liked a lot called Mosaic Promise. Also liked the Pale Ale which I don't recall seeing in OK. Oh, yeah, they had Centennial on Nitro and it was quite different and very good that way. The bartender said the day we were there was the first time they'd done that particular beer on nitro. I also had several other different beers: Big Luscious, Breakfast Stout, Porter, Pale Joe. My wife also had the Rubaeus on nitro. Most definitely worth a visit, a must if in the area.
Brewery Vivant: we walked the mile + from Founders down to BV ( it was hot too). We got there just as a family of 4 was knocking on the door to attempt to get them to open a 2nd time. Unbeknownst to us, they didn't open that day (Friday) until 3. In the first of several serendipitous moments on our trip, it was straight up 3 PM when we walked up and they opened the doors of the former chapel to let us in. It's a cool place, also with very good food. The chapel setting, complete with huge stained glass window is a good fit with their beers which are all Belgian/country French styles. Their farmhouse, called Farmhand, was outstanding. A pumpkin tart was pretty good. That's not my thing, but I felt compelled to try it for some reason. The staff here were certainly nice enough, but I kind of sensed a hipster superiority vibe with the bartender chick, but she was all right.
New Holland: serendipitous moment #2 occurred here. We had been out at Mt Pisgah and visiting Lake Michigan all morning and decided to go visit New Holland. We thought we were going to the brewery and taproom. We were mistaken. We walked in at the brewery just as a tour was about to start and some other people who were supposed to do the tour had bailed. So, we did it. It is about 1 1/2 - 2 hours and well worth your time. There is no taproom there (it's in the heart of beautiful downtown Holland), but you get to sample 4 different beer styles and as many of their distilled spirits as you want. They are quite generous with extra samples if you want any. I was REALLY taken with this place, thanks to all who recommended it. Their Dragon's Milk Bourbon aged Barrel Stout is EASILY the best barrel aged beer I've ever tasted. It is so much smoother than most beers of the type. You get the bourbon barrel favors, with some nice vanilla, but the beer isn't overpowered by it. For those of you who live where New Holland is available (I don't), they are coming out with 4 different limited bottlings of Dragon's Milk around the first week of this December. Their Monkey King Saison was very good too. Their beer barrel Bourbon was FANTASTIC! We went to the taproom downtown too. Nice spot, with a huge bar. There were other restaurants and breweries in the area. We didn't probably do this place justice. It was busy on a Saturday afternoon. It was a little cooler that day so we sat outside in the beer garden and drank mostly water and a small flight to share. They have AWESOME loaded cheese fries with a coney sauce made of lamb and beef with absolutely no grease.
Hopcat: sweet little spot in downtown Grand Rapids lots of cool beer signs and memorabilia. They do brew their own beer, but it's mainly known for an extensive list of taps and a very extensive list of bottled beers. I got the AV The Kimmie, the Yink and the Holy Gose, because I'd never had it on tap. Tasty!
I went to use the restroom and that's when serendipitous event #3 occurred. I heard some hollering from out in the bar area as I was washing my hands. When I walked out, THE STANLEY CUP was perched on a table next to the bar. Several guys who work for the Black Hawks are from Grand Rapids, including the team's equipment manager, and they had the Cup for the weekend and were in the midst of a whirlwind bar hop around the area with it. Those Midwestern folks were going absolutely bananas over the Stanley Cup. They let anyone touch it who wanted to (no moving it though) and allowed anyone and everyone who wanted to to take a picture with the cup. I heard one college age girl say she was going to straddle it if she could. After about 15 surreal minutes they whisked the cup out the back door and were on to the next bar. I'll see if I can get my wife's pics posted later.
Grand Rapids Brewing: this place is about 3 doors down from Hopcat. It is a perfectly respectable brewpub that would be considered great in many towns in America. Here it was nothing special after what we previously experienced. I tried a Cherry ale because it was brewed from local Michigan cherries. It was good.
So, a great trip (glad we won the football game!). Well worth it for the beer geek and we missed many, many fine breweries in the area. It's easy to see why Grand Rapids bills itself as Beer City USA. On Sunday evening (yesterday) at 6 ish, with the temp at 90, Founders was at capacity, inside and out.
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Outstanding recap. Big Michigan fan, here. Your next Midwestern beer trip should be from Madison to Sawyer, MI (Greenbush), with stops at New Glarus, Chicago breweries, 3 Floyds, 18th St in Gary, and Journeyman Distillery.
I've been to New Glarus. The rest sounds amazing! They had a Greenbush on tap at Hopcat and I almost tried it.
