Michigan Beer & Vacation Recap

The blog’s been a little quiet, which I’m hoping won’t become a trend. Reason being, I finally took a vacation. If you don’t know already, I’m a transplanted Clevelander – originally from West Michigan. The adjustment wasn’t too difficult – moving from one area ripe with craft beer to another. For my extended Fourth of July weekend, I headed back to my native land for a lot of lakes, laughs, and oh yeah…beer.

Foolishly, I didn’t stock up for beer before heading to Michigan. This may seem like no big deal because Michigan is so well known for its breweries. However, I was headed to Harbor Springs, Michigan – way up at the top of the Lower Peninsula. Luckily, I was saved by some stroke of grace. Just as the words had left my travel companion’s mouth about how we’d never find good beer in such a remote area, I saw a sign from heaven. Or from the beer gods, anyways. “DRAGON’S MILK” it proclaimed. I nearly gave my co-pilot whiplash as I swerved into the parking lot of The Fort of Ponshewaing – a quaint little store boasting over 275 varieties of beer.  I fully plan on going into more detail about my experience there in a future post, so I’ll press onward by saying that I found some great Michigan beers, as well as some out-of-state favorites.

Harbor Springs was beautiful and gave me an opportunity to knock back a few brews, including the Oarsman Ale by Bell’s, Dark Horse Raspberry Ale, and a few others. Nothing really says summer for me quite like sitting around a campfire with some friends, sipping some quality brewed beer. That is, unless you tempt me with 80’s music and darts.

My journey took me just there. After departing from Harbor Springs, I headed back to Grand Rapids, where I hail from originally. That is where my love of craft beer began. Situated so close to Founder’s, Bell’s, and New Holland, its hard NOT to fall in love with beer.  Immediately upon arrival, I met up with my favorite home brewer, affectionately called The Yeti. He and I peeled through a few beers while we danced like fools to 80’s music and attempted to play darts (I’m awful, for the record) with another fellow beer lover. It was an exciting chance to show The Yeti some Cleveland-brewed beer that he can’t get at home – Indigo Imp’s Blonde Bombshell. In exchange for my gift from Ohio, I was allowed a few sips of Founder’s Devil Dancer, a delicious triple IPA that packs quite a punch and flies off the shelves. If you can find it near you, I strongly suggest you pick up a bottle or six. 

Next, I headed back to The Yeti Cave to check out a few beers that he had brewed with his roommates. While I wasn’t able to try anything he brewed himself, I did have an amazing oatmeal stout. Nearly as impressive as the beer was their Kegerator, which is pictured on the left. Seven taps of homebrewed goodness flows on the regular in the basement. If any of my readers have a kegerator of their own, I’d love to hear about it (or try it out!). But seriously, if you own a kegerator, you should consider entering this contest.

The weekend sailed onward with more outdoor fun, a trip to the local artisan’s market, and a delicious treat from Short’s Brewery – the Black Licorice Lager. Let me preface this by admitting my biases – I personally dislike the taste of black licorice. Furthermore, lagers are one of my least favorite styles of beer – typically because there isn’t much to them. However, as usual, Short’s took an interesting idea with tons of potential to fail and made something truly beautiful. The lager is lighter on the anise – the flavor that turns me off to black licorice candy, and had great notes of the chocolate mint leaves they used for flavoring. It was refreshing, not too sweet, and certainly one of my favorite lagers to date.

As the vacation drew to a close, I knew I had to get some fireworks in. Sunday, a good friend was kind enough to invite me along to a family get together on Big Pine Island Lake. There, I enjoyed some delicious food and beverage, including a Moose Drool Brown Ale from Big Sky Brewing. Even more fortuitously, I got to enjoy the brew while viewing the sunset pictured at the right. 

The last thing I did on my way out of town was stop at my former local beer store, which has recently expanded. I’m hoping to cover that more once I can snap some pictures, but let me just say (again) that I highly recommend stopping into Siciliano’s Market if you ever want anything beer, wine, bread, disc golf, cigar, or tea related and are even remotely near the store. I’m mentioning them now for a few reasons other reasons. First, they are hosting the kegerator contest I mentioned above. Secondly, they not only have one of the best beer selections around – but they have homebrew supplies as well. And lastly, they have a greatly expanded book selection – where I finally bought one of my favorite beer reads, “Tasting Beer” by Randy Mosher.

Anyways, I’m now in somewhat of a post-vacation depression, but at least I have a nice selection of rare beers in my fridge and some great memories of my travels. Cheers!