Glad to see this place finally opened. They've been working on it for a few years. Few beers on tap (esb, scotch, porter, ipa, black ipa). Setting is super comfortable and food comes from Johnny Bs next door. Great setup!
I am a touch surprised that they put on an esb and black ipa before a common lager and a stout. I think thet if you want to try and pull the BMC drinkers that you have to put an aproachable beer on your menu and i dont see anything that the lager drinkers would like. I am not a lager fan but stil think it would be a good idea to have at your grand opening. Just my 2 cents. This brewery does give me a valid reason to go to yesterdog tho...
They actually have an agreement with Johnny Bz that will deliver to your table and allow you to pay cash or on an iPad. As for beers: I agree the initial offering was rather "regular." I don't think they need a lager as the ESB was very sessionable. For one thing, I thought they were all higher gravity (esb is 6.8% I think and goes up to the Black IPA at like ~11%...) Very relaxing and intimate spot. A bit loud I thought but it always takes places a few months to install the acoustic buffers anyways... Thought the strongest was their Scotch Ale. Very good, heavy malt backbone. Very sweet and masks the booze exceptionally well. I did notice that their was only 5 taps installed. Not sure if this is something they expect to add-on but I think they'll need to either turn their beers over very quickly or add a few more specialty handles to keep patrons coming back. Couldn't be more excited! Has a very "neighborhood brewery" feel to it.
Mitten doesn't have many more than five, do they? They seem to turn them over fairly quickly. I happen to be in GR today, so if opportunity permits, I'll try to pop in.
We went last night around 10ish and it was packed. Got a table after a few minutes. Had the ipa. It was not bad but it also was not something that made me say "damn thats a good ipa" like some places around town do. I did not think the hops jumped at all and was a bit watery. I dont say this to be mean but it tasted like normal homebrew. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I think they need a few months to really get things to a higher level. I will go back in a few months and hopefully it will be a bit better.
I stopped in with some friends last night, wound up rather disappointed. They have a really nice space, I like the set up, but that is about as positive as I can get. Things started poorly when one of the beers they listed on the tap list could not be served because the keg was currently being used as a table leg to hold up the other kegs. I did order a flight, the Porter was the best of the bunch, the rest of the beer was quite mediocre. As mentioned above, the beer did taste a lot like average homebrew, which is not something I want to go out and spend my money on. Now there was a lot of negativity there, but it was paired with a healthy dose of honesty. I really hope that they can improve upon what they got. With that setup and in that neighborhood, there is the potential to be a nice little stop.
