Lake Charlevoix Brewing

Street parking, the brewery is a bit hidden under a small grassy park near the water, Tall steel chairs, basement feel, bartender was nice and so were the beers. Fancy logo for the look of this working man's brewery.

 

 

This was stop #12 on a 6-day pub crawl that would take my wife and me to the Brewers Guild UP Beer Fest and back. This brewery has only been open a couple of months but is seeing good success. It is located in the rear lower level of a retail business that fronts on the main highway through town, so the brewery fronts on the harbor at the back of the building. However, being that its setting is in the lower level, a masonry retaining wall along the patio unfortunately blocks the view of the water.

We stopped here only to try their beers, although they are also a restaurant. We decided to sit at the bar, and were able to view the brewing equipment that is located in the area behind the bar. There were 8 beers on tap so we ordered a sampler flight of all of them. Each was brewed very well to style, and no flaws were noted in any of them. The brewer has his recipes well tweaked and dialed in to the new equipment. We gave an overall score of a B- to the beers, with three of them standing out as notable – The Flying Warrior IPA, the Brite Concussion Imperial Red IPA, and the Hot's Double Cookie Stout (a true dessert beer). However, the scoring for all of the beers was pretty close.

Besides the brewery's beers, there is limited wine and liquor available too. The patio looked inviting for a meal, but we had other stops to make. But I'll stop here again when in the area and enjoy a meal outdoors with some great beer.