Bottled Michigan: Short's Good Humans Dry Hopped Brown Ale

Beer trends are hard to track. My most trustworthy sources are the brewers themselves; I'm not able to find published data of Michigan beer shipping broken down by style, so in no way can I be sure that IPAs are the most popular current style of craft ales, with sour beers enjoying some major momentum.  I can't be sure, but that's what I've been told by several brewers, and it makes sense anecdotally.  IPAs are huge (even in the frozen December, when my palate turns to browns and stouts to protect me from the wicked cold), and sour ales are becoming ever more available.  Belgian style beers seem to be riding a wave of popularity...

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Sacred Cow Shrimp Tacos

Tacos and Beer: A Love Story This past week has been really cold.  I mean really, REALLY (expletive) cold.  And seeing as though it's only the middle of December, sadly, it's only going to get colder.  Honestly, I’ve already shifted into hyper-hibernation mode, seeking out comfort food in preparation of the inevitable coming months of Snowmageddon imprisonment.  But for some reason last week, I got a hankering for some delicious tacos.. probably because I really just wanted to forget about how cold it was and how hard it was snowing.  To me tacos scream summer time.   Perhaps it's all of the bright...

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Schmohz Brewery -- Ladies Ale Society Beer Tasting Event

Nearly 35 women packed into the brewing facility at Schmohz Brewing Company in Grand Rapids, MI on November 6th.  Around picnic tables and folding chairs, they chatted and nibbled from appetizer and cheese plates as servers poured 15 different samples of the beers available at the pub. Chas Thompson "Swirl it around, smell it, and then take the first sip," Chas Thompson, the brewer and leader of the evening's tasting event instructed us. Yet another wine tasting?  Hardly. The participants were sampling the first delicious brew of the evening: the golden and sweet Valley City Cream Ale. That's right -- beer tasting.  And it...

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Hopcat

For a few years now, Grand Rapids has been home to Hopcat, a brewpub focused on bringing everything I want to the city in which I live. They are a bar focused on Michigan beer that also offers a spectacular selection of American and international beers. They have a robust and ever rotating tap selection. To my knowledge, nowhere in Grand Rapids is there a superior draft selection, and very few competitors even come close. I have yet to discuss beer with a Hopcat employee who was not intimately familiar with the art of crafting and drinking fine beer. And to top it all off, they have a friendly, knowledgeable, and very original crew manning...

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Bottled Michigan: Short's Bloody Beer

Short's likes to keep things fresh. Everyone knows and loves their staple beers, but it is their new and experimental tastes that have made a name for the little brewery in the north. The most recent beer I tried is not for everyone: the Bloody Beer. The beer pours a strong red-copper, with a whole lot of haziness going on. I'm convinced that the haziness, which is thick with small particles that suspend without moving in the copper fluid, are actually pieces of tomato. (this is probably not true.)  The head is thin and off white, colored slightly by the copper hue of the beer itself. Have you ever had a bloody mary before? Not one...

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