Hi, I am heading out to Detroit at the end of August. Do you have any suggestions for bottle shops I am interested in buying some barrel aged beers from the state. I am also open to some trading if people are up for it. Thanks for your advice in advance. Mike
Do you have transportation? Most of the bottle shops that are worth hitting are outside the city center.
I hate to bring bad news, but, other than New Holland's Dragon's Breath, I can't think of a single bourbon barrel-aged beer from Michigan that is on store shelves now, and I don't think anything is due to be released soon. Can anyone else suggest any? Edit: I do recall seeing some New Holland Pilgrim's Dole on the shelf of my local store, but remnants of that beer may not be so widespread so long after its release.
Dang that sucks. Well I still welcome suggestions I can maybe look for some good stouts and seasonals.
Oh yeah I will be in california this weekend too so if you have some barrel aged stuff that you want to trade I can bring some russian river .
As far as barrel-aged beer, Dragon's Milk is pretty much the only one you can find on shelves year-round. However, there are quite a bit of breweries in the area, and barrel-aged beer is kind of getting to be "the thing." If you do some research to see who is brewing what, you may be able to pick up a growler or two. Otherwise, I am a fan of Holiday Market in Canton, as well as Red Wagon in Troy and Rochester. I have heard good things about Champane's in Warren as well.
What part of town will you be staying in? Metro-Detroit is pretty wide spread. I would recommend a stop in Royal Oak Mi, about 15 minutes from Downtown Detroit. There are 3 decent enough brewpubs and two great bottle shops all in a walkable downtown. Try Holiday Market and Cloverleaf for bottle shops, and Bastone brewpub for lunch I have not been to Griffen Claw in Birmingham Mi since it spun off from Big Rock, but they had some barrel aged beers on tap last week. They are one of the best Michigan breweries you never heard of. And of course as others have mentioned you can find Dragons Milk lot's of places. And to echo another poster, look for Pilgrams Dole, it is still around in a few places, it is one of my favorite barrell aged beers
How long will you be in town? We could put together a tasting. I have a bunch of KBS, BB4D, BBPT5, etc we could open with a few other BA's. Also, if you're in tune with the smaller places, you can find some interesting stuff on tap. Last night, I had a glass of BB Batch 9000 on draft and nobody else was ordering it.
