Detroit Trip Questions

I'd stop at Clubhouse BFD in Rochester Hills; they have BCBS on draft right now! They also have a nice draft and bottle selection.

 

I just realized that you said you aren't going for a couple of weekends yet. They said that they had 6 1/6 barrels, so maybe you'll get lucky and they will still have some left!

It's def worth checking out either way.

 

Check in the general store at Bell's to see what the current 750ml bottle is, Dark Horse doesn't usually have to many bottles to go, but you can always grab a growler.

As far as Kuhnhenn, their Summer Solstice party is on6/20 so if you are coming after that you might catch their Michigan Wheat Wine and Weizen bock in bottles. Out of BB4D right now.

 

Kuhnhenn definitely. Get some Creme Brulee if they still have it. I'd check www.seekabrew.com to see what we get here that you don't get there.

As far as BFD...after the crap they pulled when they had the KBS night, I'm not giving them any of my money. They could have PtY on tap and I still wouldn't go there.

 

Shorts, Shorts, and more Shorts for things you can't get in Chicago.

As for your trip, you've nailed the three brewery suggestions I was going to make. But you should also plan on hitting Slow's BBQ in downtown Detroit for some beer and BBQ. Great food, 30+ taps, and an awesome atmosphere.

 

Kuhnhenn has the following beers available in bottle right now:
4D
Winter Wonder Lager
Vintage Ale
Nine
Prometheus
Braggot

They also have various meads, wines and draft beer available to go.

 

Short's beers and Slow's are musts! Good thinking!

 

Slow's quickly turned into one of my favorite beer spots of all time in my few months living up there. Just can't beat great beer and great BBQ!

 

You won't find many Kuhnhenn bottles on the shelf at any stores, so stop by the brewery and get some growler fills. For stores, check out Fairway Drugs in Eastpointe, Champane's in Warren, Holiday Market in Royal Oak and Merchant's in Dearborn.
As far as other cool places, One Eyed Betty's in Ferndale, Atwater in Detroit, Big Rock in Birmingham, Rochester Mills in Rochester, etc etc etc...the list goes on and on.
You can't get Short's outside of MI, so hit up any of the aforementioned stores for some great varieties. Fairway has an awesome singles selection.

 

If you go to Kuhnhenn, def try the DRIPA.

 

You could also check out Dragonmead. They aren't far from Kuhnhenn. I've never been there yet but I've drank many of their beers!

 

You can get better BBQ than Slows in Chicago IMO, but I'm not sure there's a BBQ place here that also carries the beer selection Slows does, so many of the good BBQ places in Chicago have no beer at all actually. If you're downtown and don't care about eating the BBQ (Slows is really popular and you're likely to wait a long-ass time unless you can swoop in on a bar seat), Grand Trunk has a lot of Michigan beers available as well.

If your friend is in Detroit proper rather than the burbs, have lunch in the Eastern Market area. Or go to another unique-to-Detroit thing (or at least I haven't seen it elsewhere), the ham joints, like Mike's Famous Ham Place (you better like ham if you're going to one of those though, as their menus are with ham what the menu is in the Monty Python "Spam" sketch). I send people to Hamtramck too for Polish but totally unnecessary coming from Chicago as there's lots of that here. Cadieux Cafe is a long-standing Belgian place well east of downtown but still in the city, they don't have a ton of taps but they have Belgian beers in bottles and Belgian food (mussels a few different ways, and some other dishes) and featherbowling (they claim to be the only place in the US that has it).

Kuhnhenn is certainly worth a stop, but I'd also stop at Dragonmead (also in Warren) simply for the novelty of a brewery that has 35-40 taps entirely of their own beer. They're constantly making really small batches of beers (i.e., they don't have that number of taps by serving you old beer), and you can pick your own 5-beer samplers off that huge selection. Nothing is particularly mind-blowing, but rarely have I found one that wasn't at least decent either, which given the number of brews is pretty impressive. Big Rock in Birmingham makes some good beers as well but eating there is quite expensive, so probably just want to stop in for a beer or two there.

 

If you're going to do Big Rock, I'm told their Happy Hour is the way to do it.

 

Their Bourbon Barrel Aged Flying Buffalo Imperial Stout is amazing IMO!

 

I remember having it at the Summer Beer Festival last year and thinking it was good, but not amazing. I did have one of their sours at the same festival that I thought was incredible. I know they are often talked about as one of the "unknown gems" in Michigan.

True story: while I was living up there, I lived literally AROUND THE CORNER from this place, but never once stopped in. Fail...

 

I def second going to Slows. Fantastic BBQ and good taps. Be careful when/if u go. I've been there a few times on a fri and sat night during peak dinner hrs and the wait is usually 2-2 1/2 hrs. I would imagine ur best bet would b to go during non-peak hrs. Maybe someone else could shed a little light about that.

 

8 Degrees Plato in Ferndale has Kuhnhenn's 4D in bottles......

 

Dark Horse will likely not have anything special in bottles available, but if you stop on a weekend be sure to take the tour. $7 gets you a tour, a logo pint glass, and tastes of everything on tap in the VIP room.

Not necessarily beer, but if your around Ferndale on Friday or Saturday you can stop at B Nektar for "free" tastings (they will charge for their top shelf offerings). They should have tastes (and bottles) available of 4 or 5 different meads, plus whatever their current carbonated offerings are (Zombie Killer, Evil Genius, maybe Naughty Ginger).