Ann Arbor/Chelsea recommendations?

Fraisers is great! I totally forgot about it. havent been in years. we used to go watch games there all the time. glad u got to go. it wasnt much of a beer destination tho back when i would frequent. altho that was at least a dozen years ago.

 

Side tracks in ypsilanti has about 20 taps of great beer. Happy hour is after eleven on the weekends (3$ for 25oz pours). Their burgers were featured in esquire magazine and they're incredible.

The wurst bar in ypsilanti has a better beer selection but is more expensive. Great brat wurst though.

 

I'll organize an expedition.

 

Heading to Ann Arbor next weekend with my son to visit the school and will definitely check some of these places out as I have never had any Shorts or Kuhnhenn beers. I assume most of the places mentioned have the typical bar food? And if anyone can recommend where to stay maybe just outside of AA, it would be appreciated as it's a football weekend and hotels are crazy but we are not even going to the game. Sorry to use BA as my travel guide but i always get better info here than from Tripadvisor.

 

I wondered about that -- only been to Ashley's once, just last month. Had a Founder's Red's RyePA that tasted way off. I suspected dirty lines or a really old keg. The New Belgium Transatlantic Kriek seemed less damaged, but I've never had that beer anywhere else.

 

The brewpubs all have good food that could generally be described as 'typical' bar food, but I thought that the pizza at Jolly Pumpkin was a couple notches above what is found at most places. I've been to Blue Tractor only once, and I think that I recall that they had a selection of BBQ that was very good. (I may be mixing that place up with somewhere else.)

As for hotels, on a football weekend if you don't have reservations yet, then you're going to be staying a good distance away from AA. Your best bet is to go online and see what is available on a website that allows you to move the distance from AA outward until you find a place that you like at a realistic price.

 

The pizza at Brown Jug is some of my favorite in town. Not the best craft beer selection, though, but they'll have Two Hearted.

 

I guess I dont think of the food at Jolly Pumpkin as typical bar food...That is more upscale bar food to me.....

Blue Tractor has some pretty decent BBQ and beer....Grizzley Peak is also there and typical food and decent beer..More on the English side of things..

Not sure how far you want to venture outside of Ann Arbor but Witchs Hat Brewing Co in South Lyon has a really good tap list right now...About a 30 min drive from downtown AA....

 

I think Ashley's is your best bet for finding Kuhnhnen in A2, they seem to have either DRIPA or Fluffer on maybe 1/3 of the time. Other than that, it's really rare around here, though you could always go to the brewery (50 minute drive from A2.)

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I actually booked a room in AA but rate is 2-3X what it probably normally is due to game (which I can't even go to) so may move east to Belleville since we may hit a Tigers game on Thursday or Friday night. Will definitely check out Jolly Pumpkin & Ashley's though.

If I can leave AA saying I had DRIPA and/or Huma-Lupa-Licious I will consider it a successful trip. And since we don't even get Bells in NJ, I am fine with some fresh Two Hearted.

 

I always liked the food at Arbor Brewing Company. Whitefish and Chips!

 

The problem with Arbor is the beer...Unless we are talking about their sours which are fantastic

 

Just updating the thread on my trip , so thanks to everyone for the suggestions. And I was only really in AA 1 night so hit Ashley's. Not sure you can do better than that as it was a great tap list with a good mix of styles with both local, east coast, and west coast offerings. As the saying goes, "A picture is worth 1,000 words".