Transitioning

This website is shortly going to move from placeholder/progress blog to actual brewery taproom/restaurant website. Things have been happening rapidly, if a bit chaotically. We have a taproom manager, Tim, who is setting up our front-of-house operations, and assembling staff. We have a day-to-day chef, Jeremy, who is doing the same in the kitchen, and who we are looking forward to plotting cuisine with.

We have passed our Building Dept. and MLCC inspections with a couple minor items to fix, and have the Health Dept. in a couple of days. All of the furniture is in place and ready, with a few small tweaks needed. We’re actively getting all of the decorations and whatnot deployed, and oh, yeah,

I’M BACK TO BREWING BEER! WHOOO!

We’re shooting for 10 beers pouring for opening, with 5 currently packaged and ready, and 2 in active fermentation. I’m hoping to knock the last three out in the coming week. Here’s the projected beer list:

• XPA – Extra Pale Ale 5.0% 30 BU
  • Think American style blonde ale, with more hops. Designed to be a showcase for the finest Michigan-grown Cascade hops, this aromatic, pale golden ale is made from pils malt and a wee bit of unmalted rye.
• Venerable Pils 4.9% 40 BU
  • Dry, spicy, and bracingly bitter, this is one efficient hop delivery vehicle.
• Old Reinheitsgebot Dunkel – 5.5% 22 BU
  • Abundant toasty, malty, caramel aromas and flavors, but not sweet. Wonderful with roasted foods, meat, cheese.
• Michigan Weather Pale Ale – 5.3% 40 BU (current conditions)
  • Always changing, but always pure Michigan. Current forecast is for toasty, crackery malt and spicy, fruity Michigan Copper hops from NNW.
• Atmospherium Saison 7.1% 28 BU
  • Sadly, “Atmospherium, the rarest of all elements” does not really exist, so this Belgian-style farmhouse ale doesn’t contain any. We did our best to evoke Atmospherium, however, imagining it would create a spicy, effervescent, lightly fruity, dry and crushable beer.
• Uncle Dave’s Rye Peppercorn Pale Ale 5.5% 30 BU
  • We added aromatic, fruity, zingy Tellicherry black pepper to a citrusy American pale ale. It’s a great pint by itself, and a fine accompaniment to a wide range of comestibles.
• Bla Bla Ginger 4.5% 8 BU
  • What if we made a basic American Wheat beer? Boring, that’s what. What if we used a sh!t-ton of fresh ginger instead of hops? Zing! Many exciting food pairing possibilties, too.
• Emerald Ale Irish Stout 4.0% 40 BU 3 bbl
  • Everybody knows this one; black and smooth, a classic.
• Downriver Bitter 3.2% 26 BU 3bbl
  • Traditional English style cask-conditioned real ale served from a beer engine. Not actually all that bitter.
• COM1 IPA 6.0% 60 BU
  • Citrus and black tea aroma, bitter, and clear. The way it’s supposed to be, so say us.

Here’s a coupla mooks drinking Pils and Michigan Weather: