RealGM

Posted: **Wed Oct 8, 2014 3:41 pm**

I was going to put this into the existing thread but I wanted to be highly visible for the time being. MD, if you have to lock it up go ahead.

October 23-26 me and a few friends will be taking a "Beercation" to the Grand Rapids area. The first day will involve a trip to the new Lagunitas brewery in Chicago and end with the four of us drunkenly stumbling out of 3 Floyds in Munster after bar time. The next two nights will be spent in southern Michigan and split between Brewery Vivant, Bell's, Founders, New Holland and Arcadia just to name a few places. :beer:

If anybody on here has tips or recommendations for the trip I would appreciate the info.

Posted: **Wed Oct 8, 2014 3:42 pm**

We can keep this open until your trip.

Posted: **Wed Oct 8, 2014 3:51 pm**

MickeyDavis wrote:We can keep this open until your trip.

Thank you much sir.

Posted: **Wed Oct 8, 2014 4:04 pm**

Alrighty, away we go I did a similar trip a year ago, here are my thoughts....

You MUST stop at 18th Street Brewery in Gary, IN. Amazing beer and awesome place.
Backroad Brewery in Laporte, IN would be another great stop en route to Grand Rapids, looks sketchy as hell, but they were amazingly nice to us when I was there (twice now)
Schmohz Brewery in Grand Rapids treated me very well -- it's like a dive bar with really good beer.

Don't rely on locals telling you how long it takes to get from one place to another. Use google maps, I don't know what it is about people in Michigan but they seem to not include time spent driving through a city as time driving.

You could easily spend a day in each town --- Holland/Lake Michigan, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids. If I had it to do over, that's what I'd do on my next trip.

www.brewerymap.com was a great resource.

Buy tickets and go on the New Holland tour, it was pretty awesome, not as drunk as other tours, but gave a nice overview of a mid-sized brewery and distillery.

Boatyard Brewery was about a mile from Bells and also had really good beer, and was a totally chill atmosphere.

Bells was chaotic, and annoying and overcrowded when I was there. They had a "Beer Hall" atmosphere, no waiting list, no waitstaff, just large groups of people standing, and annoying anyone sitting down "Are you leaving soon?"

Saugatuck brewery had the most unique and best beer on the trip: Neopolitan Stout. It blew me away.

Posted: **Wed Oct 8, 2014 4:16 pm**

Good info Kid! I'm forwarding this on to the rest of the guys.

Posted: **Wed Oct 8, 2014 4:58 pm**

Grand Rapids is a great place to take a beercation, I've done it about 10 times.

Since I'd rather type about beer than work, here's a long post about breweries/brewpubs on the way to and in Grand Rapids. The rate beer places map for Michigan is also a good resource, I've tried to keep it up to date the best I can. I haven't been to Kalamazoo lately but Bells Eccentric Café is worth a vist and Bilbos and Olde Peninsula are skippers. I've bolded my favorite places.

Gary to Holland:
18th Street - was mentioned and I stopped there once and liked it.
Greenbush - exit 12 less than one mile off the interstate. I highly recommend this place. Plenty of great taps and lots of to go beer.

Tapistry - exit 16 maybe two miles off the interstate. Plenty of interesting stuff on tap and another place I'll always stop at now.

Round Bard - meh
Livery - a bit off the I but not bad
Saugatuck - decent, I stick it in every other trip.

Holland to Grand Rapids & Grand Haven
New Holland (Holland)- ok, but seems to have lost a bit since the old brewmaster left. The pepperoni pinwheels are excellent.

Our Brewery (Holland) - A little nano brewery right next to New Holland, not bad
Big Lake (Holland) - This was okay, I visited right after it opened
Old Boys (Spring Lake) - meh
Odd Side (Grand Haven) - Always some interesting beer on tap, not sure if it's worth the trip up there.
Pike 51 (Hudsonville) - I like this place and they always have about 12-15 beers on tap
White Flame (Hudsonville) - A little home-brewy but right across the street from Pike 51
Osgood (Grandville) - Haven't been impressed so far but only a few miles from Founders

Grand Rapids
Founders - must stop though hit or miss on if they have one-offs on.
HopCat - 60 beers on tap including a handful of their own. I love this place but it's not a must stop.
Grand Rapids - I was unimpressed on my visit but the brewmaster from Blue Heron took over so it might be better

The BoB - okay
The Mitten - I'm 0 for 2 at liking this place but people rave about it. The pizza looks good
Brewery Vivant - Not my thing but people seem to like it
Harmony - Great pizza and decent beers. I always stop here when in town
Schmoz - ok
Elk - Haven't been there yet
Crankers - Haven't been there yet
Jaden James - Probably not worth a visit based on your time.

North/East Grand Rapids:
The Hideout - The beer is okay but you can get a 25 beer around the world sampler. I want that just for the photo op

Perrin - Another place I highly recommend. The brewmasters are a couple of old Founders guys and they've made some great barrel aged beers.

The Cellar (Sparta) - meh
Rockford (Rockford)- Wasn't impressed when I went but the brewmaster use to be at New Holland and I liked his brews there.
57 (Greenville) - meh
Gravel Bottom (Ada) - not worth the trip out west.

Any room in the trunk for me?

Posted: **Wed Oct 8, 2014 5:10 pm**

Nothing to add, but damn does this sound like a blast. Might have to put together somethin like this and see if my buddies are interested. Hope you have a good time man

Posted: **Wed Oct 8, 2014 8:30 pm**

Spoiler:

FireStreetlifeNow wrote:Grand Rapids is a great place to take a beercation, I've done it about 10 times.

Since I'd rather type about beer than work, here's a long post about breweries/brewpubs on the way to and in Grand Rapids. The rate beer places map for Michigan is also a good resource, I've tried to keep it up to date the best I can. I haven't been to Kalamazoo lately but Bells Eccentric Café is worth a vist and Bilbos and Olde Peninsula are skippers. I've bolded my favorite places.

Gary to Holland:
18th Street - was mentioned and I stopped there once and liked it.
Greenbush - exit 12 less than one mile off the interstate. I highly recommend this place. Plenty of great taps and lots of to go beer.

Tapistry - exit 16 maybe two miles off the interstate. Plenty of interesting stuff on tap and another place I'll always stop at now.

Round Bard - meh
Livery - a bit off the I but not bad
Saugatuck - decent, I stick it in every other trip.

Holland to Grand Rapids & Grand Haven
New Holland (Holland)- ok, but seems to have lost a bit since the old brewmaster left. The pepperoni pinwheels are excellent.

Our Brewery (Holland) - A little nano brewery right next to New Holland, not bad
Big Lake (Holland) - This was okay, I visited right after it opened
Old Boys (Spring Lake) - meh
Odd Side (Grand Haven) - Always some interesting beer on tap, not sure if it's worth the trip up there.
Pike 51 (Hudsonville) - I like this place and they always have about 12-15 beers on tap
White Flame (Hudsonville) - A little home-brewy but right across the street from Pike 51
Osgood (Grandville) - Haven't been impressed so far but only a few miles from Founders

Grand Rapids
Founders - must stop though hit or miss on if they have one-offs on.
HopCat - 60 beers on tap including a handful of their own. I love this place but it's not a must stop.
Grand Rapids - I was unimpressed on my visit but the brewmaster from Blue Heron took over so it might be better

The BoB - okay
The Mitten - I'm 0 for 2 at liking this place but people rave about it. The pizza looks good
Brewery Vivant - Not my thing but people seem to like it
Harmony - Great pizza and decent beers. I always stop here when in town
Schmoz - ok
Elk - Haven't been there yet
Crankers - Haven't been there yet
Jaden James - Probably not worth a visit based on your time.

North/East Grand Rapids:
The Hideout - The beer is okay but you can get a 25 beer around the world sampler. I want that just for the photo op

Perrin - Another place I highly recommend. The brewmasters are a couple of old Founders guys and they've made some great barrel aged beers.

The Cellar (Sparta) - meh
Rockford (Rockford)- Wasn't impressed when I went but the brewmaster use to be at New Holland and I liked his brews there.
57 (Greenville) - meh
Gravel Bottom (Ada) - not worth the trip out west.

Any room in the trunk for me?

That's some awfully impressive research right there, but I do feel really bad about taking you away from your work like that

. I will be using this list as a reference. We actually have plenty of room too! There are 5 of us going so we were kind of disappointed that we would have to take two cars to get out there. We were all discussing the last time we went through Michigan on our way to Windsor 11 years ago when we were 19 (because drinking) and how we rode in my friends parent's conversion van. Said friend excitedly chimed in that his parents still had the same 1995 conversion van from that trip. Although we are now all responsible adults and most of us have had children and own homes, we will once again pile into this conversion van for 4 days of relative stupidity.

Posted: **Thu Oct 9, 2014 7:17 pm**

Sounds like fun though hotels near breweries/bars and/or taxis seems like your best friend for this beercation :-)

.

Been to Lagunitas and 3 Floyds...those are great (3 Floyds can be packed though). Would love to do the SW MI breweries soon...also love to go try Kuhnhenn which I believe doesn't really get out of Detroit but maybe SW MI bars will have it.

Posted: **Thu Aug 20, 2015 11:27 am**

Bump. Last year was a fantastic experience! We visited Lagunitas in Chicago and 3 Floyds the first day. Greenbush Brewing, Brewery Vivant and Founders the second day. And finally, Bell's Eccentric Cafe took up our last night in Michigan. We had so much fun last year that we decided to do it all over again this year during the first weekend of October with a few changes thrown in. Can anybody familiar with the area tell us what we're missing out on or what may be new in the area?

Posted: **Thu Aug 20, 2015 11:40 am**

18th St Brewery in Gary, IN.

Well worth the stop.

Posted: **Thu Aug 20, 2015 11:57 am**

KidA24 wrote:18th St Brewery in Gary, IN.

Well worth the stop.

18th Stret is worth the stop. I'm heading there this weekend and will let you know if I discover any gems.

Posted: **Thu Aug 20, 2015 12:08 pm**

Drive up to Short's in Bellaire. Nice town and drive. And great food and beer.

Posted: **Sun Sep 6, 2015 5:50 am**

KidA24 wrote:18th St Brewery in Gary, IN.

Well worth the stop.

Stop in Gary? That's not an easy sell, but I trust the board so I'll research this.

Posted: **Sun Sep 6, 2015 5:53 am**

crkone wrote:Drive up to Short's in Bellaire. Nice town and drive. And great food and beer.

That's quite a bit further north than we have time for unfortunately.

Posted: **Sun Sep 6, 2015 6:26 am**

Ill-yasova wrote:
KidA24 wrote:18th St Brewery in Gary, IN.

Well worth the stop.

Stop in Gary? That's not an easy sell, but I trust the board so I'll research this.

https://www.google.com/search?q=18th+st+brewery+review&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#lrd=0x8811c1ae0418469d:0x3a004bb98dfdf528,1

4.7 out of 5 stars on Google reviews. I stop every time I'm in the neighborhood.

RealGM

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