Big 'O' Brewery

This is stop #1 on a week-long pub crawl for my wife and I. This brewery is located in a rural setting that is well west of Northport on the Lenawee Peninsula (it’s actually closer to the west coast of the peninsula). This operation is mostly a winery that also brews beer, and the country farm setting for the brewery has sort of a French farmhouse appeal that is fitting for sitting and drinking the wines and the beer.

The brewing operation is small in comparison to the winery’s output, and typically they have only three beers available; however, at the time of our visit there were only two beers available – a Belgian triple and a stout. The triple was very tasty, but the stout left something to be desired. The brewer/co-owner was also tending bar that day, and he said that he was trying to brew the stout without the amount of roastiness that is found in a typical stout, so essentially this was a black ale that was a bit weak on flavor. Usually they do not brew the same beer twice, so these two beers may not show up again. That’s okay if the stout doesn’t come back, but we liked the triple so much that it would be a shame if it wasn’t repeated.

We didn’t try any of the wines here, but if we are in the area again we’ll go back to do that, as well as to see what is on tap to further evaluate the brewery’s varied offerings.

(By the way, the "O" in the brewery's name is for organic, which is how the beers and the wines are classified via the origin of all of the ingredients.)