Michigan Brewers Guild Winter Festival 2018

That was some serious beer.

I went with a group of friends to the Michigan Brewers Guild Winter Festival this past weekend. It was supposed to be a week earlier, but the weather didn't cooperate. They've held this festival in freezing temperatures and blizzards in the past, but this year a rising river forced a delay over flood concerns. (Good thing, too, since I hear there was a couple of feet of water in the area last week.) The weather was awesome this past weekend, though. And the delay didn't thin out the attendees much...it was still plenty crowded!

Our group took a car service up to Fifth Third Ballpark where the festival was held. I highly recommend this approach, if you can get a group together to split the cost. No crowded public transport, no waiting on cabs or Uber, no worries about surge pricing. And you can easily contact them if you happen to lose something, which I did - left my phone in the car on the way home. Got it back easily enough, which probably wouldn't have happened with a bus or cab!

This festival is a big one, with dozens of breweries and hundreds of beers. (At least - the ads actually say thousands!) I tried around a dozen, almost all browns or stouts, and the majority were great. A few weren't, but that's to be expected with such a huge variety. I was particularly impressed with the number of barrel-aged brews. I'm used to thinking of those as premium, limited-edition runs that aren't generally available for long. But they were plentiful at this show!

With so many breweries to choose from, I had to narrow it down somehow. So I tried to focus on places away from Grand Rapids, since I can always visit the nearby ones at other times. There were still plenty of choices! If I had to pick one favorite beer from the afternoon, I think I'd go with One Well Brewing's Scheming and Plotting - a bourbon barrel aged chocolate imperial stout. But honestly, there were probably half a dozen that were so good that it's hard to choose.

It took me a few hours to recover after all that beer, but again, the car service was great for getting out of there after the festival. Spent a while on a considerate friend's couch and ended up no worse for wear. Next year I think I'll have more food - I only ate a bunch of pretzels this time. Which were fine, but a burger or two would have balanced out the beer a bit.

All told, the Winter Festival was a great time and I'm definitely going to keep it in mind for next year. Can't expect the weather to always be as nice as it was, but even if we'd had to deal with snow it would be worth it!

Ada Chili and Beer Festival 2017

Chili and beer, sounds like a good Saturday afternoon to me.

Every year, folks from the Community Church in Ada and Ronald McDonald House organize a chili cook-off. Most of the entrants are from local restaurants and brewpubs, who also bring their beers and ciders along.

Doing an outdoor event so late in the year in Michigan is a bit risky, but the weather cooperated this year. No major snowstorms and it wasn't even all that cold. Though with as many people as were crowded into the big tent, cold wouldn't have been an issue regardless. Nice to have the option of wandering around outside a bit, though.

I didn't come close to trying every chili or beer option, way too many choices! About a half-dozen of each, I think, before I was too full to keep going. Everything was good, though! I look forward to another round next year.

Grand Rapids Race to the Bar Crawl 2017

Here's a terrible idea: run 3-4 miles, stopping at five bars along the way to drink a beer at each. So of course I did it.

The Race to the Bar Crawl event is the last in the Grand Rapids Beer Flight Running Series that Trivium Racing started this year. I'd already run in the Growler Gallop Atwater 5k at the end of April, HopCat Extra Time 5k in May (no blog post on that one), and New Holland Pub on 8th 8k in June. Those first three were regular races, mostly about the running, though you did get to drink a beer at the end.

This time the event was much more about the beer. We went to five different bars around downtown Grand Rapids, and had a beer ticket for each. You didn't have to drink them all, or do it while running...some people went back afterward, some just walked between the bars, others didn't drink at all. But you did have to go to each bar, where a volunteer would give you a sticker to show that you'd made it to that checkpoint.

There was no official course, just the start/finish location and five bars. There was a suggested route, but you were welcome to find your own path, as long as you obeyed the traffic laws. There were no streets closed, so we all had to watch out for cars! According to my GPS tracker, I ended up going a total of 5.9 km. I never really got lost, although I did nearly run past one of the bars since I ended up approaching it from the back instead of the front - fortunately they had a sign! I ended up jogging along the river for quite a bit of the run, which was nice.

Being a moron, I both ran and drank at all five bars along the way. That's four and a half pints (City Built Brewing had a smaller size glass) in 50 minutes, which is a lot by itself. Add in the running and I was certainly feeling a bit rough around the edges! I enjoyed it, though. They had plenty of water and snack food at the finish - both pretzels and similar bar food, and granola and bananas and other post-run food. I stayed there for more than an hour, talking with other participants and cheering the award winners, and by the time that was all done I felt fine.

All four of the Beer Flight Series races were a good time. I'll be keeping an eye out to see if they're doing again next year.

America on Tap Beer Festival in Grand Rapids 2017

I enjoyed last year's America on Tap Beer Festival enough that I decided to go back again this year.

The event was in the same place as last year, Calder Plaza in downtown Grand Rapids. We arrived a bit earlier this time, about 15 minutes before the gates opened, which meant we weren't quite as far back in line this time. It still took a good half hour to get in, though, and plenty of others were waiting behind us. Definitely a popular event.

The America on Tap folks know how to organize this kind of event, in start contrast to the terribly organized Tots and Beer event that I went to earlier this summer. No long lines for beer - I think the longest I had to wait was just a couple of minutes. Around 3 dozen different breweries represented, with plenty of space under a couple of long tents. Live music and several food carts if you'd like a snack. My only complaint was that they only had a couple of people checking IDs at the entrance, but once you got inside everything was set up well.

The weather was just about perfect, plenty of sun but not too humid and a bit of a breeze to cool things down. Like last year, quite a few of the beers I tried were lighter fare since that goes with the weather better than heavy dark stouts. I did try a couple of the latter as well, though. Just about every kind of beer you can imagine was represented, as well as plenty of mead and cider.

As long as this festival is making stops in Grand Rapids, I'll try to make it out. Good fun with a friend or two, and plenty of excellent beverages to try.

Grand Rapids Tots and Beer Festival

The idea of sampling craft beers and eating interesting preparations of tater tots is a good one. The execution could use some work, though.

This festival was held in downtown Grand Rapids at Ah-Nab-Awen Park, right by the river. A friend and I drove down, found parking easily, and walked over to the park. Nice area, and there was plenty of room fenced off for the festival goers. Couldn't ask for better weather - sunny with occasional cloud cover, upper 70s, bit of a breeze off the river.

There were eight beer-serving stations, with about 30 beer options. Unfortunately, they needed about twice that many for the number of people who showed up. Compare that to last year's America On Tap festival, which had a couple of dozen serving stations. The problem isn't overcrowding - they limit the number of available tickets - so I can only assume the organizers simply didn't plan properly.

With so few places to get the beer, the lines were ridiculously long, running 20-30 minutes to get one sample. Obviously there's no way to sample every beer at that rate, or even a third of them. I ended up trying three, but no more - couldn't bring myself to stand in line any longer. I had a brown ale that was pretty good, but the others were forgettable.

The food part wasn't nearly as busy, no more than a couple of minutes wait. There were about a half-dozen stands that served a few tater tots with various toppings. Nothing amazing, but nice snacks to have in between beers. My favorite was the jalapeno popper version. They even had some dessert choices, but fried potatoes with powdered sugar or chocolate didn't seem like a particularly good idea, so I skipped those.

I like the idea of this festival, and despite the lines my friend and I had a pretty decent time. Still, I can't recommend that anyone go to this particular festival. There are enough others that don't have the organizational issues and long lines that it's kind of silly to spend money and time on this one.

America On Tap Beer Festival

The America On Tap Beer Festival made a return visit to Grand Rapids this weekend.

Everyone gets a nice little double-shot glass for sampling.

They held the event downtown, at Calder Plaza. Not quite as nice as last year when it was held just outside John Ball Park Zoo, but the location worked out well enough. Grand Rapids is small enough that getting downtown isn't a major hassle.

The line. You can just barely see the tents way up ahead on the left.

No question that this was a popular event - the line to get in was evidence of that. I arrived just a couple of minutes after the official open time of 3 PM, and then proceeded to spend the better part of an hour waiting in line. They only had a couple of people checking IDs at the entrance, which explains the bottleneck.

One of many sample tables.

Fortunately, lines weren't much of an issue once you got inside. There were two big tents with around a dozen tables in each, plus a few booths around the outside of the event area. Most of those were set up with two or three drinks to sample. I say "drink" rather than "beer" because there was quite a bit of variety: beer was the most common, but I also saw a lot of cider, some wine, and even one table with mead.

Another sample table. We saw everything from coolers to ice buckets to full kegs.

The beverages on display came from all over. I'd say about half were local to Michigan, or at least the Midwest US. There were plenty from further away, though, both elsewhere in the US and international. Some familiar corporate names were present - Sam Adams, Guinness - and so were plenty of smaller breweries.

Plenty of attendees wandering between the tents.

Normally I gravitate toward heavier dark beers, and there were a good number of those present, but not on this occasion. It's hard to sample more than one or two of those, especially on a hot summer day. Instead I mostly tried ciders and lighter ales, especially the ones with a fruit flavor. There were some really good grapefruit drinks, for instance. I suspect if I ever go to one of these festivals in the winter months, I'd be much more likely to go for my usual stouts and other darker beers.

Joe and I outside the tents, in between drinks.

After spending a couple of hours trying out samples, my friend Joe and I headed over to a nearby restaurant before heading home. We spent an hour or so drinking water and lemonade and snacking, letting the buzz die down before heading home. I'd guess that quite a few local downtown restaurants did a pretty decent business that afternoon from other festival goers doing the same.

Plenty of open space outside the tents, so it didn't feel too crowded.

If you enjoy a good beer or cider, I recommend giving a festival like this a try. Grab a friend or two, and spend a couple of hours trying out samples. You're almost guaranteed to find a few that you like.

Cranker's Brewery (GR)

Met a friend for dinner at Cranker's Restaurant and Brewery on the south side of Grand Rapids recently. It's decent, but I've had better for a similar price.

The building for this Cranker's location looks more like a fast food joint than a sit-down pub, complete with drive-thru. (Probably it used to be exactly that.) An attempt has been made to upgrade the interior with wall decorations and a better class of booth-tables, but it still looks fairly low-class. The service was spotty, too. There weren't many customers, but our waitress was still slow to come by our table. Several of the things we asked about on the menu weren't available, and the food took quite a while to show up. Overall it just didn't seem very professional.

The good news is that both the beer and food were pretty good. I usually like dark beers, but on hot summer nights something a bit lighter is nice. So I had a Bulldog Red Irish Ale as a kind of compromise...not too dark and heavy, but still has some body to it. No complaints on the beer front, enjoyed my pint of the Bulldog.

My meal was a pulled pork bacon cheeseburger, which is just as huge as it sounds. In retrospect, probably three different meats on the same sandwich was overkill, but it certainly tasted good. It came with sweet potato fries, which were ok, although not on the same level as the ones I had at Tip Top during my Origins trip. I wouldn't say the food is likely to win any awards, but it tasted fine and there certainly was enough of it.

I'm not sure I'd go back to this Cranker's location - it wasn't bad, exactly, just not as good as other places in the same price range. I might try one of the others if I'm in their area, though. Some of the other beers looked interesting and may be worth a try.

Happy National Beer Day

On April 7 1933, people could legally buy beer for the first time since Prohibition began. Sounds like a good excuse to celebrate!

By happy coincidence, some friends and I met for beers last night out at Hudsonville Pike 51 Brewery. Three of us had beers, anyway, and the fourth tried a few wines. Which was easy enough to do since the same location holds the Hudsonville Winery also (same ownership).

I had two sets of four sampler flights. Began with a couple of different cream ales, neither of which did a whole lot for me, but my friend Joe liked them. My taste runs to darker beers, so that wasn't a big surprise. The other two beers in the first flight were the Q-Hut Red and Knight's Brown, both of which were a little more bitter than I like, but not too bad.

Then I moved on to the darker beers. A honey wheat stout, a coffee-infused stout, the Sinister Kid imperial milk porter, and a special blend wild ale. All four of these were good, but the last two really stood out. Supply of the wild ale was limited since it's apparently pretty complex to make, but I was able to fill up my growler with the Sinister Kid porter.

Good times with the fellas, and some good beer to take home. That's the way to celebrate National Beer Day!

Osgood Brewing

Wednesdays are often beer night for me, usually in conjunction with card and board games. We're on a bit of a break on the gaming front, though, so today I met up with some other friends at a local brewery.

Osgood Brewing is over in Grandville, about a half hour's drive from home for me. This was my first trip there. It's a nice roomy place, with lots of space both at the bar and at tables. Lots of windows, too, which made it easy for us to watch the heavy rainstorm outside. Better than walking in it.

I was meeting some other Rose-Hulman graduates for one of our semi-regular get-togethers. There aren't a lot of us up in the Grand Rapids area, but we usually get 3-4 people for our gatherings. And occasionally someone from further afield who makes the trip. Just three of us locals at this one.

As far as beer goes, Osgood Brewing has a decent selection. Several of each major type, such as stouts and IPAs. I tried four of them: the Oakestown amber, Notely's porter, Sol Seeker wheat ale, and Big Springs stout.

The Oakestown was by far my favorite. Nicely balanced between a smooth and strong taste. The others were less impressive, especially the Notely's, which has a very strong bitter taste. The Sol Seeker was good, but the lighter ales aren't really my thing. And the Big Springs seemed a bit watery, although that might be just the after-effects of that Notely's affecting my perceptions.

Osgood Brewing has food, too. I only had a small appetizer as I wasn't all that hungry - pretzel bites, which were just fine. My friends had a pasta bowl and a sandwich, both of which they were happy with.

It was a good first visit to Osgood Brewing. I'll have to go back, to try some other beers that looked interesting, and give the food menu a real try.

A Visit to Rockford: Beer, River, Toys

Earlier this week, I took a quick trip north to Rockford to sample some beer and walk around a bit. It's only about a half-hour drive from Caledonia, though you do have to get through Grand Rapids, so it's a good idea to avoid busy traffic times.

My excuse for going to Rockford was sampling beer at the Rockford Brewing Company. Not that I need much of an excuse to sample beer, but there was a special deal on. Nice little pub right in downtown Rockford, with kind of a log-cabin feel to it - plenty of wooden furniture and decor. I got eight 5-oz samples for under twenty bucks, not bad for craft brews.

Some good stuff in there. I particularly liked the Sumatra Porter and Cernunnos Irish Ale. Both of those are dark and heavy, which is my favorite beer type. The rest were pretty good, too, although the Cask Ale was a bit watery and the Paradigm was way too bitter for my taste. I'm sure they're perfect for someone, though!

After 40 ounces of beer, it's not a great idea to drive straight home. (Even with the half-hour spent drinking water at the bar after the last drink.) So I spent some time walking about Rockford downtown. The Rogue River is literally right across the street from the bar, so I walked along there for a bit.

There were a bunch of fellows out fishing in the river. The last couple of days have been really nice weather, so I guess that prompted them all to come out with the fishing poles. Can't say I totally understand the appeal, but as long as they're having fun, more power to 'em.

Walked around the rest of the Rockford downtown for a while as well. Stopped by a fairly large toy store for a bit, Aunt Candy's Toy Company. All kinds of games and toys, including the pictured school bus. Kind of nice to see a small business in the toys and games industry. Guess they're far enough away from the big chains of the world to make a go of it.

I've only been through Rockford a few times in the past, mostly when there's a run going on. Kind of nice to just wander around without a huge crowd. Nice place to visit, especially for the beer!

Butcher and Beer

I got a flyer in the mail last week for a new local business. This isn't all that unusual, but the business in question isn't something I'd seen before.

My initial thought was that it must be a kind of deli/brewpub. I expected a little dining area, maybe sandwiches or brauts, and beers on tap. This was not the case.

When they say "Meat Market and Growler Station", that's exactly what they mean. It's a pretty standard butcher's counter, with a tap station behind the register. No dining, no deli, just the meats and a place to get your growler filled. I've obtained a lot of beer from a lot of places, but a butcher shop is a new one on me.  I didn't let that stop me, though. Especially since they were giving me a free growler. (The container. Still had to pay for the beer.)

That's a BBQ chicken breast along with the growler. I cooked it up on my counter-top grill and was pretty happy with the result. Went nicely with a bowl of rice for a couple of meals.

As for the beer, it's a cherry IPA that I've enjoyed, although the flavor is a bit on the bitter side for my taste. Well worth a try, though.

Good luck to the folks down at Campau Corner with their Meat Market and Growler Station. It's an odd mix of businesses, but you never know what may work out!

Harmony Hall Brewpub

I took a trip downtown earlier this month to meet some friends for dinner and beers at Harmony Hall in Grand Rapids.

The downstairs bar area is fairly small, but as you can see it's got some interesting decorations. (I think there's more room upstairs, but I didn't check.) They have some interesting chairs, too - the back of the one I had was made from what looked like a fallen tree branch or maybe driftwood (nicely polished, of course). Nice little touch, and it wasn't any more uncomfortable than most bar chairs.

There were five beers on the menu on the day we went. I'm sure the list changes over time, as with most small brewpubs. I couldn't be bothered actually choosing one, so I got a sampler flight of everything.

All the beers. Left beer is the top of the list, moving down the list to the right, and the last one in the back.

I'm a dark beer person, so I expected to like the first and last one best, and that was mostly the case. The Brownson (front row, leftmost) had a coffee and chocolate taste which was good, but not something I wanted too much of, being a non-coffee person. The Albius (back row) was outstanding, though. The bourbon and vanilla flavors really came through. At 7% ABV, it's a sipping beer, which works well with the fairly strong flavors.

I wasn't a big fan of either the Fiddlestix or Grand-Daddy Rapids Lager, though IPA fans would probably like them just fine. I did enjoy the Grapefruit Moon more than I expected, as the grapefruit juice cut the flavor of the IPA just enough for my taste.

We got dinner, too, in the form of various types of sausages (in buns). Mine was a Polish sausage with sauerkraut, onions, and mustard. Good stuff, though it was huge. I managed the whole sausage, but some of the bun and the chips that came on the side had to be left in the basket.

Harmony Hall is definitely worth a visit if you're going to be near downtown GR. The parking lot is a bit small, but you can probably find space a bit down the street if necessary. Try the Albius and the sausage!