Trip up Michigan West Coast

Here's a great resource to find breweries http://www.mibeer.com/find-mi-beer

How many days do you have? Would it just be one brewery per day?

 

Are you determined to stick close to the coast routes? Grand Rapids (and Founders along with some great bottle shops) is not that far from US-31, time-wise. Otherwise, give us some clarification of how many days, cities to be visited, etc. and we can narrow down our recommendations.

 

If you make it through Grand Haven check out Oddside Ales. They usually have quite a bit on tap and often have at least one barrel aged offering. Personally this is one of my favorite breweries in Michigan, mainly because they aren't afraid to try new things. If you're heading further north I've heard Shorts is pretty nice. They also make some pretty killer beer too.

 

If you can't wander over to Grand Rapids, then my recommendations for the best breweries along the coastal route that you will follow would be: Greenbush, The Livery, Odd Side, and Stormcloud. In TC, my favorite is Jolly Pumpkin. You'll have to check the hours that these places are open and whether they will be close to a meal time. Each place that I listed has food except for Odd Side.

I'm not up on the best bottle shops that are in the same towns as those breweries, but a guess would be one of the places in TC would be your best choice.

Edit: each of the breweries that I listed has bottles except for Stromcloud, so anything in styles that you like can be found in most good bottle shops. I'll also add Short's Brews to the list to beers to purchase. Their seasonals are always outstanding, but not always easily found unless you hit the bottle shop on the right day. Beers from Dark Horse are always a good choice too.

 

with this info i will offer some suggestions. Oddside Ales in Grand Haven and Stormcloud in Frankfort should be two places you make time for on your drive. while in TC id check out Hop Lot for sure which is just 10 minutes or so outside TC. Workshop, Terra Firma, Ferment, are all cool places with some good beer. Jolly Pumpkin is awesome. Shorts is about a 45 minute drive from downtown TC and is worth cutting some other places out if you have to. 7 monks is one of the best taprooms you'll ever go to. The Beverage Company is the best bottle shop in TC but there are some other good ones as well. my must stops on your route would be Oddside, Stormcloud, Hop Lot, Shorts and JP.

 

I would also go with Oddside and Short's. Short's is the #3 brewer in Michigan per sales volume in 2014 against very stiff competition (and behind Bell's and Founders, obviously) and they only sell in Michigan. You won't go wrong visiting these two brewpubs.

 

If you are stopping for lunch on a work day, beware that the 4 places that I recommend are in downtown GR, so the office crowd could make the places busy. But, then again, each has great popularity so that lunchtime on a weekend may also be busy.

If you've never been to Founders, you gotta' do it when you're this close. Take a look at their website to see what is on tap to help you make a decision, because sometimes they mainly have their beers that are also bottled. Their food is really good, but is pretty much deli sandwiches.

Within walking distance from Founders is HopCat (about a half mile), which brews some of their own beers, but this place makes its reputation for being an excellent beer bar because of their tap list and bottled beer list. Their food is probably a notch above Founders, and the crack fries are notable.

Just a block away from HopCat is Grand Rapids Brewing, which is an organic brewery (which really isn't important for this recommendation). The beers are always good to very good, but their food choices and quality are better that the first two places.

If Belgian-inspired beers are something that you like, Brewery Vivant is a wonderful experience (it's located inside a chapel of a closed funeral home, so you expect to see brewing monks hanging around). It's about a mile or so east of the other three above. The food is excellent (the duck nachos on the appetizer list are a meal in themselves), and so are the beers. They also have some sours and barrel-aged beers, so you'll be looking at a beer list that is different from the normal. If you don't think that you are into Belgian beers, I will also say that the beers are not too 'Belgian-y' and many others have made that same comment in these posts here.

Edit: If the timing for lunch in GR is not right, then I'll also recommend The Livery in Benton Harbor. I don't know their hours for lunchtime on a weekday, so take a look at that.

 

I agree with goose in that if you are in Grand Rapids, you need to visit Founders. I think you will have regret if you don't.

If you have kids, I recommend lunch for them at HopCat. My 13 year old daughter insists we go to HopCat for crack fries if she knows we are going to Grand Rapids. Check out the menus online for HopCat, Founders, etc... to see what they like ahead of time.

Downtown Grand Rapids has meter parking, parking garages and many parking lots between HopCat and Founders that requires a fee. My recommendation is to park at Founders (no parking fees), walk to Hopcat for lunch and then walk back to Founders. It's about a 5 to 8 minute walk between Founders and HopCat.

 

Harmony brewing has good beer and killer Neopolatan style pizza.
Mitten brewery has some really good beer and good Pizza.

Not the usual suspects,must had to say it.

 

Glad you had a good trip man! Y'all come back now, ya hear?