Ultimate Beer Trip

Another one to check out is Greenbush in Sawyer, MI on your way to Grand Rapids. It's right off I-94, exit 12.

Canis

 

As far as I know, GI does not give tours u less u know someone there. The brew pubs may give tours but I don't think the actual brewery does. Again I could be wrong but this is what a rep told me.

 

Just did a beercation that was similar to yours...Dark Horse-Arcadia-Bell's (the best of the trip)-Brewery Vivant (snd best!!)-Founder's-HopCat-Goose Island (both Clybourne and Wrigleyville, where BCBS happened to be on tap), HopLeaf, FFF. So many choices, so lil time...

 

As far as Goose Island, I'd suggest skipping it -- as mentioned above, the main facility on Fulton isn't open to the public and there are no tours; the brewpubs offer tours but they have tiny, tiny brewhouses. The brewpub probably won't have any of the super-desirable beers from Goose, though they can make really good beer in their own right, too. I think you're better off visiting Revolution and/or Half Acre. Revolution has a brewpub (great food) and a tap room in their production facility (Wed-Sat, free tours @ 6pm); Half Acre has a really nice tap room and offers tours on Saturday mornings.

As for BCS, I would not expect to find any bottles (regular or variations) on shelves at this point. I think stores got another allotment of Coffee this week but that's likely it. You might find it on draft, however -- beermenus.com should be able to point you in the right direction.

 

I would scrap New Holland and do The Livery instead. Agree with the other Chicago suggestions but if you do stick with doing a Goose visit, make sure you go to Clybourn NOT Wrigleyville.

 

If you're dead set on New Holland, then go there. It is a worthy brewery, and they have good food (at really reasonable prices) to ago along with the beer. (Greenbush and The Livery are good suggestions that could also be visited on your trip home based upon your circle route.)

In GR, if you can squeeze in Brewery Vivant, then I think you'll enjoy it. I think their food is better that Founders if a meal timing works out better. However, their beers are Belgian inspired, although they are not real Belgiany in my opinion. They are only about 2 miles from Founders.

I don't know your source about the food being "not so great" at JP, but that is entirely wrong. They make great pizza and sandwiches. You can get beers there that are typical JP sours, or you can also get North Peak beers (a sister brewery) that are not sour.

As for any known special releases by Dark Horse or Bell's, I don't know of any at the moment. Bell's never really announces their special bottle releases - they just show up in the company store at the front of the building. So be sure to go in there, and you may get lucky with something extra special. Who knows, maybe Hopslam.

If you have the time, Arcadia is in Battle Creek about halfway between Dark Horse and Bell's. They are supposed to be releasing bourbon barrel versions of their Cereal Killer Barleywine and their Imperial Stout sometime in late December, so it may be worth your time to detour 5 miles off of I-94 to go there. It still is unclear if these will go into distribution or not (probably will but limited amounts), so the brewery could be the only source for these beers. It is a worthy brewery for the beer and the food (wood-fired oven pizza, and excellent bbq).

 

you have almost no chance at non-regular bcbs in that timeframe. even the supply of regular bcbs is starting to dry up at the major spots. you could get lucky, but i doubt it.

edit: how the hell do you guys do these crazy '4 breweries in one day' kind of trips without a DD?

 

I have to chime in and second mothergoose03, Jolly Pumpkin's food is great. In fact the only problem I have with it is I'm not currently eating it.

 

I'll second some others- On your way up to Holland from Chicago, I would make Greenbush a must stop, as it is literally no more than five minutes out of your way. The Livery is a good stop too, but it will take you somewhat out of your way. For me personally, I'd only do New Holland as a stop on my way somewhere else, like Odd Side Ales about a half hour further north in Grand Haven.

 

While in Ann Arbor I suggest Wolverine State Brewing on the west side of town.

 

While Fulton & Wood may be closed to the public, Clyborne is well worth the trip (call ahead and RSVP your tour to be safe). The food is awesome, the tour includes free beer and pint glass and you can walk across the parking lot to Castle Vav. Why the hate?

 

Well, "hate" might be a strong word (but I suspect you know that). Having said that, my issue with the Clybourn brewpub is consistency. Take the beer -- half the taps come from Fulton, the other half are made in house. If you have never had a single Goose Island beer, then, by all means, get a flight of Matilda, Sofie, the IPA and maybe whatever seasonal they have going. But if you know the brand pretty well and are hoping for crazy things like Oaxacan BCS, Laura, Scarlett or some other crazy barrel-aged R&D beer... you will most likely be disappointed (though the brewpub is a reliable place to find beers from the Fulton & Wood series). As for what's made in-house, my experience has been that there's some really great beer and then there's a lot of beer that is fine. If I'm looking for the best in the city, I want better than "fine".

The food menu - again, in my experience - reads great. Lots of interesting flavors, well-sourced ingredients - all that good stuff. But when you get your order, it's rarely as good as it sounded on the menu. I think they're trying too hard to be bold and different and the execution just isn't quite there. Compare that to Revolution where the food menu may not read quite as novel but the execution is spot-on. Give me the latter any time.

And the tour... I wouldn't say there's free beer when you pay $10 in the first place. But you're right, you get a variety of beers to taste after. It's just that the tour consists of walking into one room, looking around the one room and talking about the different pieces... and then walking out of the one room to get the tastings (in another room). At least with, for example, Half Acre of Revolution, you get to walk around in a larger space (maybe that's not actually important).

 

Truth.

 

All valid points. Now that I was thinking about it, my food menu was actually their brunch menu, which had fried eggs on every dish we ordered...hard to screw up there. And I dont remember paying for my tour, but perhaps it was included on my bar tab and I didn't notice. I did enjoy the tour, even as some homebrewer acted if asking super technical questions would get him a job there.