OT Hello: Founders Dirty Bastard
being spoken of? Kalamazoo?
It's in Portage on Portage Road I want to say between Center and Milham, but may be a little bit further north.
I know that area well, as I used to live a couple blocks from the intersection of Portage and Milham a couple decades ago. Should be easy to find from your description...
Michigan is VERY spoiled with its craft breweries... with that said Bells is a good brewery but Founders is probably top notch when it comes to quality brews, I'd put Shorts Brewery number 1 in Michigan for creativity with their beers. IMO Bells has been overrated the past few years. It seemed like their Hopslam and oberon were alot better two three years ago.
Go Blue
If anyone cares, here is my general opinion on a lot of the MI Breweries... As you may be able to tell, I have a serious affliction when it comes to good beer.
Founders: Have some of the most highly regarded beer in the Midwest when it comes to their limited releases but also have consistency from top to bottom.
Bells: Still makes a bunch of good beer, but I think their expansion efforts have hurt the quality of the beer. However, I still think Two-Hearted is one of the best American IPAs in the country. Their entire IPA lineup is really good. Try: Two-Hearted, the Oracle, Hopsolution, and Hopslam.
Darkhorse: Has a fairly limited lineup of beers. I dont think they make any bad beers, but outside of Plead the Fifth, I wouldn't call anything amazing. Although, if you like Dirty Bastard, try Scotty Karate. It is very, very good.
Shorts: Shorts does an amazing job of releasing new beers at a torrid pace. They have seasonal, limited release brews that are all pretty good/interesting. This year, I really enjoyed Freedom of '78 IPA.
Greenbush: I think this is one of the more undderrated breweries in MI. I really enjoy their Brother Benjamin DIPA and a slew of other beers.
Perrin: Outside of Founders, I think Perrin makes the best beer in the state overall. However, their distribution is awful, and you can't get the stuff anywhere. Their raspberry beer is phenomenal.
These are obviously just a small, small number of Michigan breweries, but they were the first that came to mind.
I like Perrin a whole lot as well. I've never had it outside of their brewery, but what I've had there is delicious.
and Ms. ND Sux lives five minutes from that place. Nice taproom but always packed. Whoever does the hiring has a good eye, if you know what I mean.
CJ's in Commerce (Haggerty at Richardson Road) has an damn good IPA (Vat 33) that is relatively unknown. Growlers are $4.50 on Tuesdays, $5.50 for IPA...cheapest ANYWHERE, and you don't have to be a mug club member to get that price. Also, M-F is half off appetizers from 3-6 PM. That puts the awesome nacho plate at about $4, and it's piled nicely.
Mug club is only $50 lifetime, and you get a 25 oz mug of IPA for $3.50 during HH...only $3 for the others. Great food there too...highly recommend. Hiring manager also has good vision.
I really enjoy some Greenbush brews like the one you mentioned. I think Perrin is a really BIG up and comer, I was there recently and they have some real nice quality brews that can rival any in Michigan.
nice taproom, good food and service. I mentioned being a homebrewer and the brewmaster gave me a tour on the spot. They also have a cool setup where people can come in and brew their own batch of beer for a fee. It's IN the taproom too, which is cool.
Went to Perrin a few months ago for the first time and had 5 beers, and was honestly blown away by every one of them. Like you said, they have a WAYS to go in terms of marketing/distribution, but I'd make a trip there every week to have the Malted Milkball Imperial Porter - it had some of the best chocolate flavor I've ever tasted in a beer, w/o being overwhelming. Love Perrin.
It's about an 40 minutes from where I am in Romulus, but the runs up to Kuhnhenn on Chicago in Warren are definitely worth it. On the occasions that I've been able to end my day downtown, I have run up there before heading home and I find the Anneliese Amber Ale is one of my favorites. If anyone here is in the Detroit area, I would definitely recommend this and some other beers in their particular array.
Thank you! I was logging on just because I hadn't seen anyone mention them yet. Kuhnhenn is my favorite brewery and DRIPA is my favorite beer of all time.
Delicious and much easier to find than Founders' KBS. It is my favorite stout.
Ugh, went to Right Brain last year with a few friends while on vacation in TC, and it was one of the worst breweries we've ever been to. A lot of their stuff was bad, as I think they're trying too hard to make really creative beers without having good base recipes to work with. Not only that, but some of their beers had that 'buttered popcorn' taste that tends to be indicative of an infection via not thoroughly cleansing their brewing equipment.
My favorite brewery we stopped at in TC was The Filling Station. They may not have the best array (at least as of last July), but each of what they had was very good. Of course, we stopped at Short's, which was fantastic, but not exactly TC.
also pleasantly surprised with Brewery Terra Firma, and Bravo Zulu was terrific as well. The Traverse City area is another brewery hotspot, with more opening all the time. Short's is maybe 30-40 minutes from town too.
Dragons Milk
Short's certainly is good, but the only ones above it I'd consider inferior would be Revolution (good selection, but nothing really jumped off the page at me when I was there a few weeks ago), and maybe Goose Island (though their Bourbon County stuff is astounding). New Glarus is much like Short's, in that they don't distribute outside Wisconsin, but I would highly recommend picking up some of their stuff if you make it to Cheeseland.
Also, Three Floyds is an experience. Drove back from Milwaukee with my wife last Sunday from vacation, and we decided to grab lunch there since it's on our way. Death metal blaring out of the speakers, we got to watch a subtitled Planet of the Apes on the TV. But holy hell are their beers great. Apocalypse Cow is pretty much the best DIPA I've ever had.
Oh man, y'all are missing out on Toppling Goliath. This has nothing to do with the greatness that is Michigan breweries but TG is so freaking outstanding. When you come to Iowa next (in what, 7 years is it now?) make a detour and head to Decorah, Iowa and pick up some growlers/bottles from the brewpub.
I love Founders. But I dont love DIrty Bastard - too much caramel and sugar for me. But Red's Rye and Breakfast Stout are the bee's knees.
Devils Dancer is out now. I was in Boyne City for the weekend and found it for $13.75 for the four pack! I thought I was in heaven..lol I've never seen it lower than $19.00/4pack
Jered, Northern Provisions in Boyne City, right in the downtown area. They have a very good selection of brews there.
I live in Grand Rapids and I'm proud that we are Beer City, USA. SO many good breweries…I just went to a new one here called Osgood’s (pretty sure Chris Osgood owns it) and it was excellent. West Michigan does it well.
The Livery in Benton Harbor? They've been cranking out some absolutely outstanding beers, ales, stouts, porters, etc., for several year now. It's just a small operation and I've been begging them, every time I stop in there to refill my growler, to make their brews more widely available. Something tells me they're happy being a small local operation, though...
So I may be a little biased, but I think Founders my favorite place in the world. Everyone who works there is like family to me, and Dave and Mike (co-founders) treat everyone as equals. It's really great. The amount of free beer I've been able to consume there is mind-boggling.
All of this being said, Backwoods Bastard (the barrel-aged brother of Dirty Bastard) is my favorite beer there. It's complex, and sweet, and very well balanced. And if you aged it for a while, it is a completely different beer.
Double trouble (a double IPA) is also one of my favorties. You really get the hoppy flavor, but it is balanced very well by the malt.
And I will take a centennial over a Two-Hearted any day of the week. Although Two-Hearted is also outstanding. But as I stated, I might be a little biased...
Cool to hear from a brewery guy, Founders at that. What do you do there?!
I actually work in the deli. Luckily they do a great job educating all of the employees on the beer, going so far as to provide classes on beer styles, the brewing process, etc.