Recently took a trip to MI with family and friends. Consistently amazed by Michigan’s beer scene. Bell’s and Founders have been available in my area for years and both are absolute favorites for quality and consistency.
On the way up we hit Three Floyd’s in Muncy, IA. The lines at this place were wild. I found it to be just okay. People were dropping 100’s on cases of stuff though like nothing. The Gumballhead wheat beer was talked up to be somehow “more than your average wheat beer.” It was absolutely your average wheat beer. It did, however, make the best Shandy I’ve ever had. Their Alpha King pale ale is close to an IPA in IBUs and was pretty good. The Man-O-Awe was very good. They had a barrel aged porter (at $30 per 750!) that smelled like straight rum and tasted about the same. Maybe it will settle down in a few months but we only bought one and most found it to be too much.
Stopped at Founders, which has an amazing facility these days. Much expanded to include a fantastic outside area. Menu is purely sandwiches though, not that exciting. The draft selection on my visit was also rather ho hum. It was warm though and their dark beers are my favorite, so chalk some of my reaction to weather incompatibility. I had a barrel aged Spite, described to me as a Pepper skin ale. It was too much barrel, covered all the pepper flavor. I was told that the non-barrel aged version is much stronger with the pepper flavor.
We also hit Mitten in Grand Rapids, on recommendation from a bartender that it has Michigan’s best IPA. I’m inclined to disagree. It was fine, and the beers were solid, but nothing exceptional.
A spot we meant to stop, in Sawyer, MI, on our way back home, was Greenbush. They didn’t open in time though. We did try their beers and found them to be excellent.
However, for me, the highlight was Brewery Vivant. This place was awesome. I like sour beers, I like Belgian beers, I also like duck. I like this place. First I should note that nothing they had was a “sour” but that several of their beers had a tart or sour component that I loved. Their Saison was absolutely stellar to my taste. Draft it poured extremely cloudy and was very tart. Their Abbey brown was also great, again slightly tart. Really surprised to check BA and Ratebeer and see that people aren’t that impressed. Me and the group I was with (admittedly more of beer guys than I am) were very, very impressed.
The food was great too: duck confit and brie nachos, fennel crusted bone marrow, excellent poutine, and all is local. I highly recommend this place.
One last beer I tried at a pizza place was a Dragonmead Trippel. Dead ringer for a quality Belgian trippel, though with a distinct (and long) honeyed finish. Seem to have nailed the yeast.
Anyway, wonder if anyone has tried any of these places and what they think.
