HOMES Brewery

 

Drove out from Cleveland this morning. Add that to cities in the rear views along with Louisville, Indy, & Cincy. Rolling around Ann Arbor now like a boss 2 days before the last game in ‘troit on this beer & baseball tour. Beer & a light bite, a beer bar, a crippling sandwich at Zing Zing (Zingerman’s), and a brewery now to wind down before heading hotelbound eastward. Standalone in a light commercial zone. Up the ramp along the outside seating pen and in…

Light wood plank topped ‘C’ shaped bar with a black plank wood base. Seating for 12 on shiny orange metal chairs. The barback holds 20 logo handles on a stainless barbell tap tower atop a kegerator, and a shelving piece alongside with glassware lined above and shelved below. A wall of glass behind offers views of the brewery back there. Tap selections are printed across the windows on horizontal paper pieces in rows listing beer, style, ABV, description, serving size, and pricing. To go cans are listed, as well. Growlers on the ledge over the glassware, and coolered cans & bottles on the end down below.

Pebbled concrete floors, gray painted cinderblock walls & ceiling, I-beams, ductwork, drop hard hat lamps overhead, clustered drop lamps over the corner of the bar, spots, and mounted lanterns. Flats in some corners, 5 hole triangular sampler racks hung, and mad merch wall behind me.

A pair of annoying-ass stupidly placed bar counter spurs sit just off the bar that make for difficulty in not small people to maneuver there (tell me how you really feel). 6 tables on shared benches 3 & 3 off the bar over my shoulder, and 6 picnics in pairs forward the bar under lime green canopy. And through to the side room muraled; a dozen tables high and low, stooled and chaired, and a bar counter ledge on the end. Roll up panel doors to the porch. 4 tables, firepit action, and wrap around bench seating out there beneath sun shades and strung lighting.

13 beers up (Pool Beer, Pilsner, 5.5%; Surge Coast, West Coast Pilsner, 5.3%; Phosphene, IPA, 6.2%; Same Same Different, IPA, 6.6%; Atmosphere, IPA, 7%; Emanate, DIPA, Bottle Logic collab, 7.6%; Crumple, DIPA, 8%; Lazer Light Show, DIPA, 8.2%; Jolly Green, DIPA, Other Half collab, 8.2%; Backbeat, DIPA, 8.5%; Reign, TIPA, 10%; Blueberry Lemonade Sherb, Fruited Sour, 5.7%; Water Color, Sour IPA, Hudson Valley collab, 6.2%) + a single can (Smooj, hard smoothie, 5%).

It’s a hazy house, true. I mean, 3 IPAs + 5 DIPAs + 1 TIPA = WTF? (that’s just simple math). And 2 Pilsners & 2 sours, otherwise. I will sample the wares (Same Same Different IPA, their flagship, not mad hazy, citrus, tropical, tasty; Pool Beer, Pilsner, pleasant, crisp, clean, a solid Pilsner; Surge Coast, West Coast Pilsner, Nelson, hoppy, resin, yes please; Lazer Light Show, DIPA, big, citrus, dry, very nice). Am thinking Same Same Different & Surge Coast for the wins, but they were all good.

Kitchen to the rear doing an Asian fusion menu. Looks amazing again, we could not get near it on the heels of the aforementioned crippling sandwich that happened just prior to our arrival here. Chill crowd, some good beers, and now off to Detroit we a-go go.

 

 

Pretty good quality beers. You go to the counter for service and find a table inside or outside. Good quality Asian fusion pub food.

I visited HOMES while traveling through Michigan a few weeks ago. When I was there, they had 12 on tap plus a couple can pours: 4 IPAs, 4 DIPAs, a fruited sour IPA, a pale, a coffee imperial cream ale, and a foeder lager. A fascinating selection! I got a taster tray; Jolly Green, a DIPA collab with Other Half, is outstanding. The other IPAs quite good, the fruited sour IPA weird and great, and the coffee cream ale weird and merely good.

The taproom is super clean and modern with the brewhouse and fermenters in full view, which of course I always love. Plenty of indoor and lots of outdoor seating as well. The service at bar is great with lots of good recommendations; great place overall!

*Neutral rating on food because we didn’t have any although we did see it served and looked at the menu; everything looked awesome. “Asian Fusion” is how you would describe the menu.

Quality: 5/5. Clean. Different seating areas. Killer beer. Well done menu items.
Vibe: not necessarily what I’m looking for but this is a personal problem. Music was loud. Hard to talk to the wife. Sports were on, no big deal, but; you pack 100 football fans into a room and give them a few beers and you can imagine the sounds that were afloat. If you like to get loud and party, this is your spot. Not so much for me.
Service: service was good. You have to get all your food and drink orders in at the bar. They will bring the food out to you and pick up empty glasses regularly. Definitely a lot of bussers on the floor keeping things picked up.
Selection: IPA, fruited beers, sours, seltzer’s, lagers, barrel aged beers. They have it all. Selection is not of concern here. You and all your company will find something to enjoy.

Overall, I liked it here. I’m not a rowdy person and I prefer an atmosphere with a touch more ambience but I’ve been enjoying beers from here to go for the better part of a year as was glad to finally visit. I would definitely stop in if I was ever in the area again.

 

Visited for a bottle release, stayed for a flight and lunch. They are known for haze and fruit and bright colors, and they delivered -- the beers were quite good, and the food was even better.

Hodgepodge warehouse slash beergarden/patio, somehow feels roomy yet cluttered all at once. Everything fried is decent for the price, although the Asian fusion was disappointing, and not worth the price. Beers were delicious, and that’s what’ll bring me back again.

 

 

Visited the HOMES Brewery in Ann Arbor on a summery, Sunday night. Really enjoyed it. Sitting on a corner property with decent parking, the interior looks affects a dark, repurposed industrial share space and opens seamlessly onto bright outside seating. Entry in the rear, the bar is immediately to the left and basically self serve (I believe the food is brought to the table, although we didn't eat). The selection consists of about a half dozen beers, with an emphasis on "big flavor" beers, e.g. sours, IPAs, porters/stouts. There are also bottles from previous batches, mostly available for in-house consumption, although some also for purchase. I basically went for the sours and was somewhat disappointed to find only one on the menu, but the beers were very good, so I can hardly complain.

 

Visited HOMES during a Michigan vacation with my family. This place was hopping - early evening on a Tuesday, and we had a scramble to find a table for 4. Good vibe - I expected it to lean heavy on University of Michigan students but there was a pretty diverse crowd there, in age and other demographics. I didn't feel out of place as a 59-year-old guy with his wife and early 20s son and teen daughter. The beers were fantastic - had Shades, Same Same Different, and Tubes. All were great. The food is good - I had the pad ew, was a bit salty but still went well with the beers. Had a minor issue with the kitchen losing track of my wife's dinner order but the place was crazy busy, and they made up for it with a free beer for waiting so long. I tried finding a cooler with some to-go cans but if there was one, I missed it. Great place, hope to make it back some day.

One of the best breweries in Michigan. Nice energetic, vibrant atmosphere, TVs for sports throughout, great beers (selection is mostly hops and sours), and fantastic Asian fusion food. A bit pricey, and hardly ever cans to take home (they'll have a couple sour bottles available) though growler fills are available, but definitely worth a visit when in Ann Arbor/Detroit. My favorite brewery to go to in Michigan, making my favorite IPAs and kettle sours.

 

This place was planned out very well for handling relatively large, energetic crowds for a small brewpub. There are numerous spaces with totally different feels to them, some enclosed and more private, while others are more open, closer to the bar, and others still spilling out into the patio and the open air when the weather is fine. It almost has a darker, night club feel to it, with splashes of those brighter, geometric neon paintings they're so fond of.

They have a very well trained and caring staff, and they were seemingly all hands on deck during Nucleate Festival weekend. Staff to bus tables, staff to deliver food, staff to deliver beer, and staff to take orders at the bar, or orders at the merch and food station. It was like a well-oiled machine that has been doing this for decades, constantly keeping everything moving with extreme efficiency--which is all the more impressive considering how young they are.

All the beer we ordered was fantastic, and the in-house bottle of Composition 1 we capped our evening off with was exceptional. The selection mostly consisted of hazy IPAs and sours--whether the approachable sour IPA, milkshake or pastry style sours, or more complex barrel aged sours.

On top of all of this, the food menu leans strongly Asian, and is executed at the highest level. We had the gochujang wings, which were unbelievably scrumptious and some of the best chicken wings I've had anywhere. The kimchi fries were absolutely delicious as well. The steak bahn mi was a unique take and still tasty, and the fermented eggplant bao buns were perfectly prepared, with a fluffy soft feel you don't often get in an American restaurant.

What are these guys thinking? They're going to burn a hole through the Earth in Ann Arbor if they keep up this heat.

 

I heard about Homes from my HOMEboy. ha. The space is super cool. The crowd was a surprising mix of people. Not what I normally see but this is Ann Arbor. Serendipitously reconnected with someone from my past. The manager hooked me up with some good sour beers and some cans. The prices are what the Ann Arbor market will bear. That said, HOMES is a little pricey on food and beer. If I lived in Ann Arbor - or near by - I would frequent HOMES for sure.

 

 

Having now been two months since moving away from Michigan, I find that HOMES is the thing I miss most about Ann Arbor. Somewhat on the pricey side, but the experience delivers, from the atmosphere to the food to the most important part for a brewery: the beer. I've been there dozens of times and never come away disappointed.

Vibe - The best parts are the long bar that is overlooked by several large tanks in the brewhouse and the ample outdoor space between a large rock patio and a covered patio that can be sealed up in colder weather. The colors are bright and fresh and the music is modern, but not too loud to impede conversation. The place is kid-friendly for the right time of day.

Quality - nothing negative to say here. The ingredients always look to be top-notch and are always cooked properly. The beer I've had from them is consistent and without flaws.

Sevice - Order food and drinks either at the bar or a walk-up line, so no true table service, but the food runners also bus tables. Every time I've been, the tone has been professional, efficient and friendly.

Selection - the food selection is all Asian street food, but skews to various Asian cultures. The beer is dominated by hops and kettle sours, both of which they do well. There are a few other styles they hit as well--stout, porter, coffee cream ale, etc, but hops and sours are what they do best.

Food - The one thing I typically mention to people I tell about HOMES is the fact that their beer is really fantastic, but that their food menu may be even better. The menu rotates seasonally, but always consists of a mix of Asian street food. Bulgogi fries are a favorite of mine, and they always have some kind of bowl and a few different types of bao on the menu.

Overall, I like HOMES because it's a very professional operation. They have a clear vision of what they want to be and are doing that extremely well. Highlights for me are the new Bahn Mi, the pork belly Bao and the Bulgogi fries. I can't really pick a favorite beer, but some of the best hops are Same Same Different (their flagship), Crumple and Laser Light Show and some of the best sours are the Guava Sherbet, Double Cherry Sherbet and Blurb.

Nicely done medium size location. Rookie run it seemed. Beers OK, with some winners. Worth a stop if you are passing through. Their hoppy stuff become sought after.

 

this place is really neat, one of my favorite breweries we hit while we were in michigan. its got a vibe all of its own, a cool aesthetic with their logo, glassware, and obvious attention to detail, and are making the most on trend beers possible, including fruited sours and hazy ipa types. go figure. i like the space a lot, a good sized patio on the back side where you walk in, a smallish bar, and then a couple of separated seating areas. its a bit of a funny arrangement, you kind of feel like you are in the way immediately when you walk in, especially if its busy like it was when we went in, but we posted up at the bar and felt comfortable there. the beer is awesome, not a huge list, but a nice mix of sexy styles. i loved the dub mango gose, as well as a couple of the hoppy ones. it seems the haze craze has hit michigan pretty hard, everywhere we went they were making them, but the ones in here stood out to me. solid service for how busy they were, a little impersonal, but whatever. the food side is killer too, a small but well curated asian menu, things like kimchi flights and spring rolls, unconventional but superb beer fare, a little something different and i dig that. overall i like the high energy of this place, the general stoke of everyone in here drinking their beer, and the very impressive beers. i had never heard of these guys before, but i bet word about their brews gets out pretty soon, this is what everyone seems to want right now, so it wont stay quiet for long. i had a blast here and will be back for sure!

My first 5 rating for food on beer advocate. It was the Bulgogi fries. Cue Homer drooling.

Great beer. Only had 6-8 beers on tap while I was there for the first Blurb Sherbet release. Pretty long line, went by fairly quickly. They have servers going around while you are waiting in line so you can have a beer while you wait for your allotment. This was great, but its limited to the line that is technically inside the building. Despite it being a busy release time, we found a spot to eat and have a drink at the bar. There were also tables available.

This place will no doubt continue to grow in popularity. Each beer they do is pretty well done and the Bulgogi fries are to die for.

While their sherbet sour series isn't quite up to par with the best (Burley Oak), they are doing a damn good job.

Did I mention to get the Bulgogi fries?!?!

Location removed from downtown craziness. Plenty of seating indoors and out. Smells of Korean food tempt the senses. I didn’t partake in food on this trip but the menu looks appetizing. The two beers I tried were up to par for your basic neck beard hipster brewery.

Stopped in here with wife and kids for a couple beers, and ended up getting a flight. Nice vibe, and they had the windows open and patio open on a hot day. Beers were all solid, and the food is definitely not your regular brewery/bar food, but we knew that going in. They did appear to have some kids options for food (e.g. grilled cheese), but we didn't take advantage of that. Wife and I just shared a bao order, which was good.

This is the fairly new and exciting spot in A2, MI

Casual, indoor/outdoor kinda space, friendly and efficient staff

Churning out the new school NEIPA influenced juicy brews, along side some great takes on Asian street food...the Pho was mighty tasty as well as all the chow we sampled...if you like juicy IPA and fresh, bright and flavorful Asian chow this is a great spot for a bite or a meal in town...I wish we had had time to go back for another more of all they are offering....

 

 

 

Fantastic food, great service, and outstanding beer.