Visiting OH, MI and IN... where should I be heading?!

Founders, Bells, Transient, Greenbush. Sorry, not too familiar with the eastern part of that route--maybe Hoof Hearted or Jackie O's?

 

Swing a bit west into NWI and hit FFF and 18th Street. Chicago would be well worth a swing through too for Pipeworks, Half Acre, etc.

 

Transient and Watermark are close by to the northwest corner of your loop

 

Ohio--- Summit Motorsports park is 27.7 miles from The Brew Kettle, Amherst location. If I were judging by their ipa's, this would be a must stop as far as Ohio goes. They also have a good selection of guest-taps. Your route through Mt. Vernon brings you 20 miles from Hoof Hearted.. Jackie O's (mentioned above) is about 1.5 hrs one way from your stop in Hebron, so it may be out of reach? That's all I see as far as breweries that I would recommend along your route within reasonable driving distance.

 

Indy - Deviate, Black Acre, Daredevil. Most importantly, Deviate.

 

Hebron, you'll be very close to both Buckeye Lake Brewing (On SR 79 S, follow it into Buckeye Lake village, just follow the road to the right at the lighthouse, and the brewery is on the right hand side) and Homestead Brewing (Never visited the taproom, but it's in Heath, off of SR 79 N, you can see a map for directions here: http://homesteadbeerco.com/contact-us ). Both of them make some solid beer. I'd highly recommend Galactic Heroes and 3MC's from Homestead, and Shovelhead from Buckeye Lake.

Then, if you wanted to, a half hour east of Hebron is Weasel Boy Brewing in Zanesville (take Fifth Street exit, follow Fifth Street to the end of the road (you'll see the Muskinum Canal in front of you), make a left to the traffic light, a right at that light to cross the Sixth Street Bridge), and then make a right at the first light onto Muskingum Ave. Weasel Boy is on the right hand side in the brick "industrial" building, parking is in the lot across the street. The winner from Beer 4 Boobs from last year, Beaker's Babble, is on tap, which is a Belgian Strong Dark, and the Riasc Red was a recipe swap that they did with a brewery in Ireland. It's a traditional Irish Red with rose hips. It's very, very solid this year (had one a couple weeks back when I was in town getting yeast to brew with).

On the swing back, coming back from Indianapolis, I'd recommend taking a pit stop in Dayton and visiting Warped Wing and Toxic (both are not even 5 minutes from each other downtown).

Haven't been to Michigan or Indy since I was a teen, so I don't have any real opinions there

 

For your Plymouth, MI stop, your closest places are Liberty Brewing and Canton Brew Works. Neither are must-stops, but both are decent.

Liberty has been around for a while, and has nice small taproom in a historic block. They aren't cutting edge by any stretch.

Canton Brew Works opened in the last 18 months or so. They are in a strip mall and the taproom doesn't have much ambiance, but they are making solid beer. Usually only ~6 beers at a time, and I've never been in there when it wasn't mostly empty (which I prefer, but maybe you don't).

Ashley's in Westland (the sister location of the more well known Ann Arbor bar) is relatively close, and would be your best bet for non-brewery multi-tap in the area. They have ~30 handles, usually a very good mix of styles

Witch's Hat in South Lyon would be the closest must-stop (for the beer, not the ambiance) brewery, but is ~20 miles from Plymouth

 

While in the South Bend/Mishawaka area I would recommend Bare Hands and Evil Czech. bare hands doesn't go too deep with their food menu but their beer is outstanding. Evil Czech, on the other hand, is a farm-to-fork restaurant whose beer has gotten much better throughout the years.

Near KZoo obviously Bells is the way to go

Never really been blown away by any Indianapolis breweries but they supposedly have a Kuma's Corner now and They have a stellar beer menu and the best burger you're likely to have!

 

Black Cloister and Maumee Bay Brewing in Toledo are great places, as said earlier, nothing much in the Plymouth, MI area, Witch's Hat in South Lyon is great. Founders, Brewery Vivant, Bells and Rupperts are must stops.

 

Between Kzoo and South Bend and close to your route will be Arclight in Watervliet, The Livery in Benton Harbor, Greenbush in Sawyer. You can get a 'twofer' by stopping at Transient Artisan Ales and Tapistry Brewing in Bridgman. All are very worthy visits. A third brewery is supposed to be opening soon in Bridgman but I haven't heard anything that it has opened yet. It's a highly-regarded Chicago brewery that is opening a production facility with a taproom.

 

If you take I-96 from Plymouth to Grand Rapids, you won't find much in the way of must stop breweries. Horrock's is a great bottle shop a very short way off I-96 on the west side of Lansing, MI. They have 50 beers on tap, a great bottle selection, a nice little biergarten and a nice selection of soups, sandwiches and sushi (and more) if you are interested in having a bite.

About the only other places that I would stop at would be Crunchy's, HopCat and Ellison Brewing in East Lansing, MI. However, while all three places are worthy places to enjoy, all three places are two to five miles off the closest highway and not the easiest to get to.

Instead of taking I-96 from Plymouth to Grand Rapids, you may consider taking I-94 from Plymouth to Kalamazoo and then head north on I-131 to Grand Rapids. Dark Horse is a short and easy five minute drive off I-94 in Marshall, MI. Their beers are solid and it's a fun place to visit.

Definitely stop at Bell's Eccentric Cafe in Kalamazoo. If you have the time, I really like doing the tour at Bell's production facility in Galesburg, MI. You can find more info about this tour on their website if your interested. I like to also stop at Arcadia Ales in Kalamazoo. It is located one third of a mile to the east of Bell's. Also, Hopcat-Kalamazoo is due to open any day now. This new Hopcat is located across the street from Bell's.

I would share that all of the Michigan suggestions stated above are all great suggestions. Don't forget to give us a report of your visit when you are done. Enjoy your trip!

 

To my knowledge, Evil Czech is closed, permanently. It's up for sale on Probrewer. It's one of the options that my friends and I have looked at, since we were looking to possibly start a brewery.

 

The original Evil Czech was in Culver and indeed is closed. They opened a second location in Mishawaka and shortly after closed the one in culver. the original was more of a dive bar with a small area for brewing and I think they just outgrew the space altogether.

 

+1 for Deviate

 

Ah, I see. Doesn't appear to be *THAT* small, given it's four 7 barrel fermenters and claims a 150 seat brewpub and has a house on the property *shrug*...

Even so, the price they are asking for it isn't terrible, given the price of equipment, building, etc. We priced a 10 barrel system and it was over 220k just for the equipment itself, not including the installation and such.

 

Between Kzoo and South Bend and close to your route will be Arclight in Watervliet, The Livery in Benton Harbor, Greenbush in Sawyer. You can get a 'twofer' by stopping at Transient Artisan Ales and Tapistry Brewing in Bridgman. All are very worthy visits. A third brewery is supposed to be opening soon in Bridgman but I haven't heard anything that it has opened yet. It's a highly-regarded Chicago brewery that is opening a production facility with a taproom.

Is that third brewery you speak of Haymarket in the west loop?

 

That name rings a bell. Do you know if they are open yet? I don't see anything on their website or facebook. I was down in that area today and almost went to Bridgman to see if I could find them.

 

I went to Evil Czech today and that place is now my favorite Indiana brewery. (Replacing Three Floyds.) Great beers and food.

 

I think he's hoping to open to the public next month. You can get lots of progress updates from their Twitter feed.