July 2021 Vacation

I finally got around to sending myself the pictures from my vacation back in July. The plan was relaxation, exploring Michigan and trying new beers in celebration of Mr. C&M’s birthday. He’s a big craft beer fan so he did a lot of drinking of beers he’s never tried and beers that we just can’t get in our area of Michigan. He says the birthday was a huge success and now he doesn’t want to drink any beer for awhile lol.

You don’t want/need pictures of all the breweries we went to so here are some of the pretty points of the trip:

Tahquamenon Falls in the Upper Peninsula – Highly recommend.

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Mackinaw Island – We didn’t take a lot of pictures outside as it was pretty rainy half the day. This was the big beer goal. Inside of the Grand Hotel is a bar called The Cupola, Short’s Brewing Company does an exclusive beer that you can only get at this location so of course, Mr. C&M just HAD to have it. The Grand Hotel requires you to pay $10 per person if you’re not a guest of the hotel just to walk around it. With the right swagger, acting like you belong there, no one questions your presence and you can get in for free. At least, that’s how we did it. He says Big Porch Ale is totally worth it. The butterfly house is a lot of fun too.

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Sunset on the Mackinaw Bridge.

A whole day was dedicated to the dogs having fun. We hit a lake for swimming and followed that up with ice cream for everyone.

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My dad bought me an informational book about the Upper Peninsula for more places to check out. I’ve done some traveling in the U.P. as we Michiganders call it, but a lot of it was when I was much younger so I want to get back up there and see what other adventures we can get ourselves into. Honestly, just driving place to place in the UP is fun as the scenery is just breathtaking pretty much everywhere you go.

It was a much needed getaway from day-to-day life and helped refill the gas tank so to speak. It also reinforced my desire to just sell everything, get a camper and travel. :3

Pumpkin Beer Bread – FAIL

Of course I go to use WP and it’s functioning like crap. I’m having to put in far too much effort to check my comments and go to other people’s blogs, BUT I’m nothing if not stubborn!

This recipe was a hard fail. I’m not 100% sure as to why. It LOOKS perfect but had a soapy taste to it. The only things I can think of are 1:) It was the wrong beer to use with it. I’ve never used a low calorie beer before or 2:) that is FAR too much baking powder. I don’t recall ever seeing a recipe that called for an entire tablespoon of baking powder.

So that makes this a try-at-your-own-peril recipe. D:

Recipe here.

Founders Taproom Detroit – Brewery Review

Most people who are not from Michigan (and maybe some who are) probably think that a night out in Detroit is a horrible idea. What a lot of people don’t know, is that Detroit is hard at work reviving itself and the results have been pretty great.

Founders Taproom in Detroit is a great place for a night out.

The food was fantastic with the second best beer cheese I’ve ever tried. Prices were very reasonable for brewery food. There was nice seating both inside and outside. Outside even had giant heaters and fire pits which was fantastic as it was a chilly night.

The Chronic pale ale. 5.2 %. My husband rated it 3.5 stars.

The bell of the ball for my husband was getting to have KBS 2018 on tap.

KBS imperial stout 2018. 12.2%. He rated it 5 out of 5 stars.

Overall, it was fantastic. We definitely recommend giving it a try if you’re in the Detroit area.

Brewery rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Riptide Brewing Co. – Brewery Review

While on vacation, Riptide Brewing Company served as the almost nightly relaxation retreat. Mr. Cupcakes & Machetes and my uncle both love craft beer, I don’t personally drink anything carbonated because of my weird tongue (carbonation hurts) so I played DD most nights. This makes the atmosphere of a brewery almost as important as the beer itself when you’re hanging out there nightly.

There was a variety of styles of beers to choose from and an event calendar on the chalkboard as well. They have a trivia nights like most breweries, food trucks almost every other night and an ugly Christmas sweater party that we would unfortunately miss. There were a few snack items available to munch on such as; swordfish + kingfish dip, pretzels & a beef stick.

Having spent so many nights at the brewery, I believe the boys managed to try every beer on the menu. Pictured in the flight we have: Struck by Thunder DIPA, Kraken DIPA, Wishmaker Raspberry Blonde (charity brew for Make-A-Wish, empty) and Kabana Kolsch (empty). In the pint glass is Drop Anchor IPA, which was a definite favorite.

They make the top of the list for best mascot at a brewery so far.

The only real complaint is the poor quality of their growlers. Both growlers purchased broke in the exact same manner, around the bottom. Both broke while not even moving. There appears to be bubbles in the glass. This was a major bummer as we were excited to bring Florida beer all the way back to Michigan to share but alas, we had to purchase bottled beer from other breweries in the area. (I mean that isn’t exactly a hardship but the boys wanted to share their love of Riptide.)

Nevertheless, we highly recommend you check out Riptide if you happen to be in the Naples area. Riptidebrewingcompany.com.

4 out of 5 stars

 

 

 

Road Crew – Beer Review

Name: Road Crew

Brewing Company: Arcadia Brewing Company (For U.S. distribution)

Location of Company: Kalamazoo, MI.

Style: America IPA

ABV: 6.2%

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Description: Perfect amount of bitterness mixed with crisp, clean flavors. Refreshing. One of those beers that you’d drink a 6-pak before you know it. Get it while you can!

MUST LISTEN TO MOTORHEAD WHILST DRINKING.

Jackalope Brewing Co. – Brewery Review

Michigan may be the mecca of craft beer, but that doesn’t mean that other states don’t have skin in the game too. Whenever we travel out of state my husband (and my boss) have to find the local breweries and try as many beers as possible.

We began one of our beer adventure nights at Yazoo Brewing Company. All beer tried was mediocre and the service was bad. They must be doing something right though as they’re available at almost every restaurant in Nashville. Unimpressed, we took our little adventure a short walk down the road to Jackalope Brewing Company.

Here’s one brewery you definitely do not want to miss when you hit Nashville. It had a great laid back atmosphere. The staff was incredibly friendly and made us feel welcome. The most important component being, they had great beer. Mastering good merch for people to take home is almost a different trade all in itself. Jackalope mastered that too. We took home several stickers for our own in-home bar.

Another great thing that we noticed Jackalope doing; promoting charities. At the time we went, a portion of the proceeds of their beer, Lovebird, went to charity.

Lovebird. Strawberry/Raspberry Heifeweizen. 4.4% ABV. 12 IBUs.

You can find Jackalope canned at a few restaurants in the area as well. Also tried and approved of; Thunder Ann (American Pale Ale) and Bearwalker (Maple Brown).

These 3 images are from Google as I did not think to take proper pictures while we were there.

 

If we could have found a way to bring beer home on the plane, something from this brewery would have made it’s way back to Michigan.

4 out of 5 stars

Snowbelt Brewing Company – Brewery Review

Brewery Location: Downtown Gaylord, Michigan.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

It’s been a hot minute since my husband has done a beer review, so while we were in the great, white Northern Lower Michigan we stopped at a couple of breweries. Why not rate the entire experience? (Note: 1 of the 2 breweries we were so excited about we didn’t remember to take pictures or rate anything.)

Now we had only heard mediocre things about Snowbelt and thus went in not expecting too much. Maybe a decent beer and some half way decent food. Turns out, it was much better than expected. (Always a pleasant surprise!) They had pretty damn good beer and pretty damn good food.

Downtown Pumpkin Brown, Rolling Belt, Sunnyside Hop & My Chest Hurts.

Soft Pretzel bites with beer cheese and beer mustard, both of which were great.

The winning beer of the night was the My Chest Hurts IPA. ABV: 7.2% IBU: 100+

The atmosphere was laid back with classic rock and 80’s ballads playing on a Friday night. It wasn’t packed but it deserved to be. This will be a new must-go-to stop when we are in the area from now on.

You can sneak a peek at where the magic happens as you walk out the back door.

Recommendation Level: Do it. 

12th of Never Ale – Beer Review

This isn’t a Michigan beer, but good craft beer is good craft beer and LaGunitas is one of my husband’s favorite beer companies.

Name: 12^th of Never Ale

Brewing Company: LaGunitas Brewing Co.

Location of Company: Petaluma, CA

Style: Pale ale

ABV: 5.5%

IBU: 45

Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Description: Standards LaGunitas with a grapefruit smell on top. Super thin pale ale. Poundable. Everything about bitter beer people like without the ABV.

Beer Style Guide

Here is a small introduction to the world of beer styles. These are among the more popular and for any that we come across in our brew review adventures that are not included on this list, I’ll explain on that specific review.

Ale – Sweet, full-bodied, fruity in taste. Brewed using a warm fermentation process. (Brown, black, red, and cream are just a few examples of the variations of ale.)

Pale Ale – Amber-gold beer with fruity, fresh citrus aromas. Relatively low alcohol.

India Pale Ale (IPA) – Hoppy beer style within the category of pale ale. (Double, triple and black being a few variations.)

Sour – Acidic, tart or sour taste.

Stout – Dark beer using roasted malt or barley, hops, water and yeast.

Lager – Conditioned at lower temperatures than ale. Pale, golden, amber or dark.

Porter – Dark beer developed in London from well-hopped beers made from brown malt.

Pilsner – Light straw to golden in color, it is a type of pale lager.

Late Night Session – Beer Review

Okay, okay, I know. I said I’d do a beer style guide first BUT I’m too pumped from a fun night out so that will come next time.

Name: Late Night Session

Brewing Company: Stony Lake Brewing Co.

Location of Company: Saline, MI

Style: Pale Ale

ABV: 5.2%

IBU: 38

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Description: Light, sweet nectar. Hoppy deliciousness.