Michigan Brewery Tour

My buddy's Michigan brewery tour bachelor party is tomorrow. We have a hotel in Kalamazoo and our agenda is going something like this starting at 11am;

Shoreline Brewery in Michigan City, IN. > Greenbush in Sawyer, MI.(where we'll have lunch) > Paw Paw Brewing Co. > Bell's in Kalamazoo > Dark Horse in Marshall, MI. > Arcadia in Battle Creek > Olde Peninsula in Kalamazoo. Then either stay there or go back to Bell's to finish the night.

Our one friend doesn't drink at all so he's driving a few of us. A couple others are driving out and only hitting the first couple of breweries with us. (their loss.)

I anyone knows something we're overlooking around that area please let me know. We're driving out on 94 from Chicago to Kalamazoo and are open to any stops on the way. Particularly if there's anything else around Shoreline and Greenbush or between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek.

Three Floyds?

The Livery in Benton Harbor

http://liverybrew.com/

stevez wrote:Three Floyds?

He actually wants to bypass them since we get down there pretty often. He's got 4 different Three Floyd's beers for the reception. Definitely a solid suggestion though.

The Livery looks like it will fit into our agenda perfectly! I'm going to run that one by him.

Thanks and keep them coming if there's any more that come to mind.

Strongly second The Livery, especially for barrel-aged beers.

Can't wait to hear where you ended up. I spent a couple of hours at Paw Paw Brewing on Saturday afternoon and really enjoyed myself. Didn't have a clunker in anything I tasted there. They had a test keg of a beer that tastes like a bloody mary. It was interesting, but not my favorite.

We made it to 7 out of the 8 breweries we wanted to hit.

We started off at Shoreline in Indiana at 11:30am. This place was not worth stopping at imo. Their beers were very thin tasting and most had almost a pilsner-like aftertaste. I started off with 3 - 5oz. glasses of their Benny's American Pale Ale, Beltaine Scottish Ale and their Singing Sands Oatmeal Stout.

They all had a very similar aftertaste which wasn't good. The Oatmeal stout was the same consistency as the other 2 beers. Very thin and watery with not much other than color to distguish it from the others. A couple of people I was with were saying they liked the Samual Jackson's Black IPA so I finished with a 5 oz. of that. While it was better than the other 3 I tried we all agreed it still wouldn't make this place worthy of a return trip. I will add that the waitress was very nice and service was good. But, that's not enough to get me back in there.

Next up was Greenbush. This place was packed when we got there. Fortunately we were able to grab a table right up front within a few minutes.

I started with 3 - 6 oz. glasses of their Dunegras IPA, Anger Black IPA and a Penitence Rye Stout. All 3 were a welcome change over what I tasted at Shoreline. The Dunegras was good but a little on the lighter/less hoppy side for my tastes when it comes to IPAs. Still a good beer. The Anger was good and very drinkable. Penitence was the one beer of theirs I'd had before and it was fantastic just like I remembered. This beer has great depth and body to it with a nice carmel aftertaste that lingers on your palate.
I bought one of the last 6-packs of this they had on hand before we left.

We ate at Greenbush as well. Their smoked brisket sandwich had a really nice hickory flavor to it. However, it was pretty dry. I had to keep adding sauce to eat it. The flavor and texture were both good but it just was on the dry side. Still a decent sandwich for 8 bucks.

We moved on to The Livery from there. This place, like Shoreline, is located in a pretty run-down area. The bartender was spinning Phish the whole time we were there which totally works for me. He let us drag the "bags" boards outside so we could throw a couple of games.

They didn't have sampler sizes so I got a 16 oz Danimal Hopped Up American Red Ale on hand pull. They had this and their Triumphant either on tap or on hand pull and I tried them both on hand pull. The Danimal was a very very good beer, one of the better ones I had throughout the entire day. The Triumphant English IPA was good as well but paled in comparison to the Danimal. Definitely worth the stop at this place. Cool people, good music and good beer. Perfect for a Saturday afternoon.

Paw Paw Brewing Company was next. This place is pretty small but it was easy to get in and grab a table. I had 3 - 5 oz. glasses of their 2 Paw IPA, Black River Oatmeal Stout and their Gus Meister Amber. All 3 were very tasty beers but the 2 Paw IPA was one of if not THE best beer I drank throughout this entire trip. It was definitely the best IPA and I'd rank it near the top of my favorite IPA's I've had. Very crisp and hoppy with a slightly bitter, smooth finish. 2 guys I was with bought growlers of this. I would have if I thought I would drink it in the next couple of days but figured I'd need a little break from beer after this trip. I did get a full pint to enjoy before we left.

Again, really nice people, good service and very good beer. I will be going back to this place for sure.

We headed to our hotel in Kalamazoo after that. We lost an hour going from Chicago to Michigan so we were a bit behind schedule at this point. We decided to head out to Avery but skip Dark Horse so we'd still have time for Bell's and Olde Peninsula.

Arcadia is a pretty big place. I liked the IPA that I drank there but I don't remember the name of it offhand. I just remember thinking that the beers I had there were all good drinkable beers. There just wasn't any particular one that stood out or "wowed" me. I'd still go back to try more of what's on their tap list.

We also ate here and our waitress was very accomodating to my lactose intollerance. Once we ruled out a few things on their menu that would cause me issues I decided to go with another brisket sandwich. This one was not smoked (that I could tell) but did have a nice flavor to it. It was a little on the dry side but not as dry as the one I had at Greenbush. Again, a good sandwich for 8 bucks.

Avery also has a brick oven that they were cooking their pizzas in. One of the guys had a pizza and said it was really good. It looked and smelled good.

Next up we headed back into Kalamazoo as we only had a couple of hours left before all of the places closed (most at 1am.)

We hit Bell's and had their This One Goes to 11 Ale. It's a 11% Imperial Red Ale. This was a very tasty beer though it did have a barleywine aftertaste to it. That's not unexpected from a beer that high in alcohol content but I do like beers like Hopslam or Haymarket's Mathias that are 10% and don't have that distinctive barelywine aftertaste. I'm certainly not complaining about it though. This was still a tasty beer and good way to lead into the end of the night.

Finally we headed over to Olde Peninsula. They had a great deal on a flight of 8 beers for 11 bucks. I went with that as it allowed me to sample all 8 of their own beers they had on tap. The beers here were good and drinkable. Nothing jumps to mind as standing out other than maybe their pumpkin ale. But, that only stands out because it was different than most of the beers I'd had throughout the day.

Again, we had a really good server and this place had a nice atmosphere to close out the night. I would go back to this place again as well.

Overall this trip was a great success. I feel like we timed everything well and got to take in the atmosphere of each of the places we visited. Of course there's ones I'd have liked to linger at longer but the variety and pace of the day went really well. The bachelor was very happy with how it all turned out and that's what really mattered.

Been to The Livery many times over the years. Had the best beer I have ever had there yesterday, Maillot Rouge, a sour oak aged biere de garde with raspberries. So awesome, had a second. Also enjoyed the vegetarian burger the house salad, and pizza of the day, 'Pick a Peck'.