GTMW Part 1

Beerfest Resume:
List of Accomplishments – Vermont Brewers Fest, San Diego Strong Ale Fest (and various Stone and Lost Abbey events), Boston Extreme Beer Fest, and many fests in the Philly Area from the Kennett Square to the Real Ale festival

Future Goals – GABF, Oregon Brewers Festival, Knoxville Brewers Jam, and Brewgrass Festival

But this year I succeeded in scoring tickets to the Great Taste of the Midwest, no easy feat as they are as readily obtainable as winning the Powerball jackpot. 6000 tickets were distributed this year, half sold locally and the other half doled out in a mail lottery that required the entry postmarked on one particular day and including a self-addressed stamped envelope and a check void of any “unfair influences” which I assume to be cash bribes, smiley faces, or lewd pictures after a night of beer pong. So what’s a girl to do with a ticket to a beer fest states away other than make it a road trip. Beers aren’t generally offered in TSA approved 3 ounce containers and it’s also cheaper to drive out there than fly and spend a few hundred dollars shipping beer back hoping the individually bubble wrapped and double boxed bottles make it back safe- and full! Just have to find a route that adequately traverses each brewery and brewpub in my route’s vicinity like a complex connect-the-dots puzzle.

The first night of my nomadic adventure (beer hunter and gatherer?) was a stop in Cleveland, Ohio to visit Great Lakes Brewery, Buckeye Beer Engine, and Brew Keeper. Brew Keeper brews their own beer and had a fairly vast selection, but besides a few decent IPA’s and the Infra-Red, nothing blew me away and some actually tasted pretty infected. Buckeye had an extensive tap list (including some of their beers like a 76 IPA which was good), late kitchen hours (with many veggie choices for you carnivore skeptics) and a large bottle list including some uncommon finds and a nice Belgian selection. Great Lakes was jam-packed, especially for a Tuesday night. They have a large outdoor seating area, indoor dining, and a basement bar which was closed. The ESB (roasty malt) and Burning River Pale Ale (citrus and piney Cascade hops) quenched my thirst. The prosciutto pizza was delicious, made with homegrown fresh ingredients that balanced the saltiness of the prosciutto with the sweetness of the figs and nutty fontina cheese.

Wednesday- onto Motor City! This was my first visit to Detroit, the city that’s given us celebrities such as Jimmy Hoffa, Eminem, and Kwame Kilpatrick, the only mayor in the history of Detroit to be charged of a felony while in office, involved in scandals from extramarital affairs to corruption to murder. The view from the highway included huge abandoned apartment buildings and dilapidated factories and to be honest, I expected to have the same reaction stepping foot into Kuhnhenn Brewing Company but was kinda blown away. Kuhnhenn brews both beer, mead, and that awful alcoholic grape sap sommeliers study. This space used to be a hardware store until one of those behemoth ladder-pawning box stores (Lowes) moved in down the street. They had always sold some homebrewing equipment out of the hardware store so they flipped the business plan and opened a seven barrel microbrewery and brew-on premise shop. The sampler platter included 15 or so of their beers, including the Crème Brulee Java Stout, which is a less over the top version of the Southern Tier one, and the Loonie Kuhnie Pale Ale (one of their most popular) which had a nice light caramel flavor and good citrus hop. And since most of their beers aren’t distributed, they can get away with names like Penetration Porter (should be a stout…) and Cherry Panty Dropper.

If you’re running short on time, Michigan Brewing Company is a good place to skip. They offer a lot of beers but I not a single one was worth finishing. You may recognize the Celis White, a revival of the Hoegarden recipe, but I was never a drinker of the original recipe and its gone downhill from there. Kid Rock even has a signature beer here called Badass Beer. While the construction workers nearby drank pitchers of this for their liquid lunch, I can only say they got the name right: it was bad and tasted like ass.

Spend more time at Bell’s Brewery (Eccentric Cafe), an amalgamation of coloful eye candy with decorative stained glass and floor tiles, eclectic signage and masks, and a piano that looks like it was mounted on the wallby a freight train, which coincidentally passes through town just next to the café. The food menu is diverse enough with your typical pub fare accented by a wild game sandwich or funky daily specials. I ate a grilled cheese with pineapple slices and olive tapenade which I’m still not certain what to make of it, but it was worth a taste. They had a lot of rye beers on draft, from Golden Rye to Smoked Rye (my choice) as well as Wild One, a spontaneously fermented refreshingly tart American Wild Ale.

Onto Grand Rapids, where you’ll find (if you’re lucky) Hideout Brewing Company. I say that because it really is like playing hide and go seek with the front door hidden by overgrown greenery. This is definitely a locals’ favorite beer spot with a mug club and a Cheers atmosphere. I wasn’t feeling most of their beers but I think I picked an off time (brew-wise) to visit. The Gangster IPA sounded right up my alley, but I didn’t get that in your face hop I was expecting. Founders Brewery was the next spot, packed with locals eating and drinking and featuring the indoor/outdoor atmosphere only some roll up garage doors could provide. I enjoyed the Spite Pepper Pale Ale, a cracked black pepper that leaves your mouth with a lingering heat.

Next, my favorite stop on the tour- Hopcat in Grand Rapids. This beer bar (and technically brewpub as they make some of their own beers as well) has a beer selection pulled together by (yes, this is his official title) Chief Beer Geek Steve. This is one of those places that you can tell a lot of time, thought, and money went into the design and menu, both beers and food. You can get samples of whatever beer is on tap- not just their own- and the menu includes Crack Fries (no joke), Killer Mac & Cheese, and “carnylicious” Corndogs, featuring additive free, grass fed beef dipped in a homemade cornmeal batter and fried in that way that doesn’t require paper towels soaking up a greasy mess. Great, now my mouth is watering… Steve extended an invitation to his inner sanctum, the basement where all the magic happens. Open Door #1 and you walk into a frigid room holding all the kegs the tap lines are running to. Door #2 opens to the future draft selections. Door #3 is a warehouse of bottles. Door #4, more of the same. Steve brought up three bottles of beer I’ve never had before (Leelanau Petoskey Pale Ale, Short’s Brewing Imperial Carob Stout, and Baird Red Rose Amber Ale- all good!) to sample upstairs. Arriving at Hopcat the day before their Goose Island event, Steve started swapping out kegs a few hours early so I could sample delicacies like Raspberry Matilda and Pappy van Sherry, beers the bartender at Goose Island a few days later had never even heard of! Amazing. You’d be an idiot to visit Michigan and not go here. And don’t plan on going anywhere afterwards! The Park Inn is within walking distance, cheap (check Priceline), and recently renovated though if you spend as much time at Hopcat as I did, you’ll only pass out in a hotel bed for a few hours!  More photos:

Hope you guys don't get stage fright while breaking the seal. Don't ask how I got this photo...