Arbor Brewing Company: Corner Brewery

The Arbor Brewing Company’s Sacred Cow IPA and Phat Abbot Dubbel are the first two Michigan beers I remember drinking, years ago. Back then, of course, I had no idea why that made them important; I don’t think I could’ve told someone the difference between an ale and a lager, let alone the difference between a tiny local microbrewery, a famous and established import name, and the Rice Lager mega-corporations from which most of our beer comes. But it was perhaps because of this early experience that I have such a fondness for Arbor Brewing Company’s beer; I even think their label is pretty sweet.

Laura and I paid a visit to their distribution center and pub located in Yspilanti recently. Their Corner Brewery has the exact type of architecture I love in a brewpub: it’s open and noisy, with taps everywhere, bottled beer in the fridge, and large tables encouraging family style seating.

Unfortunately, due to a random coincidence, lightning had struck the bar’s power generator. This means that all the refrigeration units in the building had been disabled until about an hour before we arrived. . .so all the draft beer available and all the food had to be thrown out.

But there were still bottles!

The atmosphere was great, considering there was no food and no draft beer.. The seating encouraged people to talk with strangers, and in a local brewpub there’s always something to be had in common with your fellow patrons. There was no wait staff working when we visited, but there was a large amount of well trained bartenders, who knew exactly what types of beer to offer those with timid, eclectic, or experienced palates.

Additionally, the Corner Brewery is instrumental in the local Ratfest Tasting event, held annually in celebration of Michigan homebrewers. In fact while we were there, the Corner Brewery was letting some brewers use the facilities. I did not taste their Sweet Potato Pie beer, but I smelled it and never have I smelled a beverage so closely resembling the food it was intended to represent. Tickets to attend the Ratfest are 25.00, and that smell alone is almost worth the price of admission.

Liquid gold. Sweet Potato Beer Gold.

I can’t really rate this brewery fairly: I tried neither their draft beer nor their food. That said, I had a wonderful experience in their spacious and inviting brewpub, and I’m excited to return.

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Night Tripper Stuffed Tomatoes

Summer: the season of the tomato. The beautiful, juicy orbs are everywhere -- roadside stands, farmers' markets, grocery stores, and for the lucky group, in their home gardens (assuming you don't have fungus ruining your entire crop like I do). There is no shortage for the uses of this versatile "vegetable." You can serve them sliced, sprinkled with coarse salt, and drizzled with a hint of balsamic vinegar. Of course, they're always a great addition to any salad or sandwich, too. There really aren't many dishes that can't be improved by adding a little tomato. The recipe here, however, shows that they can also be the star attraction.

Today's recipe was inspired by an appetizer served at one of our favorite local restaurants, Graydon's Crossing. For this colorful and flavorful main dish version, roma tomatoes are scooped out, filled with a goat cheese and sausage mixture, and baked. After baking, the tomatoes are drizzled with a warm sauce made from Night Tripper imperial stout from the New Holland Brewing Company.

To get started, here is what you'll need:

3 roma tomatoes

1/4 pound fresh bulk sausage

4 ounces goat cheese*

1/4 cup whipped cream cheese

1/4 teaspoon curry powder

1/8 teaspoon coriander

1/4 cup New Holland Night Tripper imperial stout

*I used goat cheese that contained Peppadew. Peppadew is the brand name of sweet piquanté peppers grown in South Africa. They both taste and appear sort of like a cross between a pepper and cherry tomato.

1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cut the tomatoes in half lengthwise, and scoop out and discard all of the seeds and insidey parts. Remove any excess juice inside the tomato with a clean towel or dry paper towel.

2) Brown the sausage in a small frying pan over medium heat until it is cooked through, crumbling into fine pieces as it is cooking. Remove the sausage from the pan and drain off any excess grease.

3) Transfer the sausage to a mixing bowl, and add the goat cheese, whipped cream cheese, curry powder, and coriander. Stir until combined.

This is about what your mixture should look like.

4) Divide the sausage-cheese mixture evenly amongst the six tomato halves. Move the tomatoes to a baking sheet (I didn't grease mine, but you may want to just to be safe), and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese mixture starts to brown and the tomatoes just start to soften.

The tomatoes before baking

5) Now it's time to make the imperial stout reduction*. While the tomatoes are baking, add the 1/4 cup of stout to a small sauce pan, and cook it on medium heat until it is reduced by about half (or, more simply, looks like only half of what you added is left in the pan).

6) Remove tomatoes from oven and drizzle with the Night Tripper reduction.

*Reductions are just liquids (wine, stock/meat dripping, sugar syrup, vinegar, etc.) that are simmered to cook off the water and concentrate the flavors. Stout is quite similar to balsamic vinegar in that it has quite a bit of sugar, which makes the resulting sauce sweet and as thick and black as molasses.

Be well advised, though, that when you are using beer for a reduction, the hops bitterness will also be greatly concentrated. It can be difficult to balance the bitterness in food once the bitterness level gets too high, but it's not really a concern in this recipe, because the sweetness of the roma tomatoes and the tartness of the goat cheese really mellows the bitter beer, and boosts the flavor combination to heavenly.

I served mine over a bed of lentil pilaf, and violà! Toss that in your munchy cave and eat it.

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Legal Rant: Beware the Strength of Distributors!

As a huge fan of the flourishing microbrew market, the law that's skimming through Congress right now has me more than a little worried. Effectively, lobbyists for the huge alcohol distributors across the nation are attempting to put forth a law that will allow states to ban certain types of alcohol sales. Issues raised include:

• opening the path for banning direct-to-consumer shipments of beer/wine. Many small wineries in California rely heavily on direct shipments to survive.
• allows distributors to have more freedom in what they carry, giving them little incentive to move small batch markets like craft beer or artisan liquor. Translation: you might not be able to drink Dogfish Head ever again, unless you move to Delaware.
• higher prices in general: the article mentions that by having to compete with direct-to-customer prices, retail outlets have been forced to lower prices.
• States may be able to change legal requirements for alcohol. Most disturbingly, this law makes it legal for States to re-define bourbon as something other than 51% corn aged in charred new oak barrels. Or any other alcohol, for that matter.

The three tiered system has degraded such that distributors have an amazing amount of power vs producers and retailers. Even with the combined might of lobbyists from wine, beer, and liquor makers, they match maybe half the federal dollars spent in lobbying from the Distributors' lobby. The National Beer Wholesalers Association alone made direct contributions to over a third of the bill's co-sponsors within 30 days of of them agreeing to sponsor it.

The Distributors are using the argument that the right to ban alcohol sales and increase prices should be given to the states. They also argue that direct-shipped alcohol increases the risk for minors to come into possession of alcohol. I'm uncomfortable with both of these points. First, I don't think the state of Michigan has a right to dictate what state supplies my beer. They tried once in 2005 and failed. Second, I remember being 19 with a shiny new credit card and looking at web sites offering to ship small batches of expensive beer/wine to my parents' door. It was and always will be easier for minors to procure alcohol through other methods than through direct shipments. Furthermore, banning the sale of all alcohol via direct shipments in order to limit beer to 18-21 year olds is like using a shotgun to hunt a housefly.

I don't see this bill getting much traction -- it's just in the House right now and the House passes stupid, useless bills all the time. But it's noteworthy that it's gotten as far as it has.  Keep an eye on this one, folks.  If you love your craft beer and wines, this bill is completely against your interests.

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The Michigan Brewing Company

Not many people make Webberville, Michigan, a stop on their tour of the state that Tim Allen loves so much. It's a tiny, sleepy town surrounded by farms and factories. The landscape is flat and green and unremarkable – unless you find irrigation machines exciting.

sign says "PUB," perverts.

And tucked away, 30 seconds from the highway offramp, is the Michigan Brewing Company.   Note, for the discriminating of eye, that we visited the Michigan Brewing Company's actual brewing location: not their pub in Lansing. It's still furnished with a fine pub, however, complete with fresh beer selections and a great (although limited) kitchen. Which doesn't bother me in the least:  I'm certainly no fan of kitchens that offer 7 pages of mediocre and unoriginal dishes; when you can make a fantastic pulled pork sandwich, don't bother trying to expand beyond what you know.

I...I ate several fries before remembering to shoot a picture.

The service was friendly and knowledgeable and very attentive. Our waitress was relatively new, but didn't hide her lack of knowledge with bluffing; when we had questions about the beer, she promptly got someone who could answer our questions. The food was very good, although admittedly I wouldn't drive across the country for it. It was bar food, and it was better than I expected. The high point was by far the sweet potato fries (pictured above with my pulled pork, cole slaw, and pickle sandwich). 

I'm not really confused as to why sweet potato fries are not more popular: done wrong, they are soggy and have no taste beyond the seasoning thrown on them minutes before served to the victim.  These fries, on the other hand, don't have any of those problems. Thick and crispy like potato wedges should be, with the extra flavors only sweet potatoes can provide.  These sweet potato fries are not only some of the most tasty I've eaten, they're up there with some of the best sides to a bar sandwich I've ever had.

Never have I been happier with my choice of samples than when I ordered the Celis beers.

The nachos, similarly, were very good: covered in chili, home made salsa, and all of the toppings one expects on nachos. Crispy tortilla chips generously covered in cheese served as a base for this fine dish. I should probably mention that the picture above is a half order. Michigan Brewing Company doesn't screw around.

Optical illusion aside, that is not a glass of IBC root beer.

The beers were fantastic, although I have to admit their strongest contender is one I've reviewed here before. I've yet to find a Michigan IPA that's as simple and as drinkable as the high Seas IPA. Their Celis Raspberry, on the other hand, we avoided. Their standard Amber and Porter were good: well balanced but not quite as perfect as the Grand Rapids Brewing Company. We had a chance to add the Celis white to the beers we've tried. . . also not a great addition to their stable. A belgian white is, apparently, a more difficult beer to make properly than I had assumed. In my experience, few breweries can compete with Jolly Pumpkin's offering.

The Michigan Brewing Company's atmosphere, food, and beer selections are more than I would've expected from a tiny town halfway between Lansing and Livonia, and a trip well worth making if you're visiting either town. I rate this brewery as a 20 mile brewery; if you're taking I-96 to Detroit, or heading back west to visit Grand Rapids, it may be worth the stop.

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Bottled Michigan: Short's Nicie Spicie Wheat Ale

Clearly, I do not have a problem with experimental ales or experimental breweries. I've had beer that tasted like a band aid, like pop tarts, like rotten apples, and like sour milk. There's some flavors that just don't sit on my tongue. . .and there's some flavors that sound like they should never be put into an ale but end up being absolutely fantastic.

Put your hands together for Short's Nicie Spicie; a wheat ale flavored with black peppercorn.

That's a brig on my mug.

Prediction: half of the people reading this are probably thinking that black peppercorns are a terrible way to flavor a beer. Wheat ales are light, fruity, sensible beverages, often heavy on the citrus. If they have spice at all, it's fun little spices that prance around like wood elves: coriander, clove, cinnamon. No one puts heavy tastes like black pepper in a beer like that; black pepper goes into mashed potatoes and on top of a rare cut of filet mignon. Cmon, Short's brewing; stop being that guy.

In truth, this is by far the best ale I have had to pair with red meat in recent memory. It's the best compliment to a summer steak pulled off the grill.  The pour is light and effervescent, with a manageable white head that dissipates quickly. The color is that of sunshine on a hot summer day; hazy and golden with a tinge of orange. The beer is more carbonated than many of its wheat ale brethren, and long lines of bubbles dance from the bottom to the top of the glass.

The smell is deceptive; every flavor I expected in a typical wheat beer showed themselves immediately: a strong citrus, a pleasant but understated malty sweetness, and the wheat gave it the predictable and pleasant bready smell. The only spice I was able to discern immediately was that of coriander, something I was expecting. The only thing that set this ale apart from other wheat beers was a dry herbal scent lingering in the background.

Take a taste, though, and exhale. The beer is sweet/spicy at first, delivering on the aroma's promises. It's light and refreshing, owed in part to the extra carbonation and in part to the orange, lemon, and coriander that lead the flavor. But there's meat to this beer. It finishes with a punch of black pepper that cleanses the palate and balances the sweetness perfectly. The robust punch isn't overwhelming; instead it makes the flavors of the beer mix with flavors of food much more easily. I would drink this beer with anything pulled off the grill.

Short's, this more than makes up for your Smoked Apple Lager. Thanks for this one.

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