Great Midwestern Brewery Tour, part 5

The Journey, Day 4:

After my riveting night out on the town in Grand Rapids, I was ready to make my way home. This trip had lived up to every expectation I could have had. I checked out a couple touristy spots near my hotel, but the weather wasn't great. So I thanked the front desk clerk for some great suggestions and headed on down the road. I had to make a little detour before meeting back up with Garry.

Perrin Brewing Company

This brewery was outside of Grand Rapids, so figured I could tack on another spot.

Cool building

Pirate flag.. and an island girl!?

It was a decent brewery. No faults, just nothing special. I ordered a small flight to test their creations.

Flight Board

Their Kona brown had a rich flavour. The rest of the beers seemed to have some forced IPA feel.

It was time to head down to Holland for lunch.

New Holland Brewing Company

This brewery is in a great little town on the west side of Michigan's mitten. I loved the whole aura as I walked up to the brewery

It was great to see Garry again as well.

New Holland had the most welcoming feel to it. We sat outside to enjoy the midwestern summer. A flight was the best idea to try several of their beers

The Dragon's Milk and Monkey King stand out as my favorite two. After we finished eating, we decided to hit the next stop together as well.

Saugatuck Brewing Company

So far, I had enjoyed every brewery on my trip. Walking into this brewery, I did not suspect this would be the first dud, with the great looking patio and cool backstory. But lo and behold, in the words of Billy Bob Thornton "they can't all be winners, can they?"

This brewery's one cool thing (in theory) is that, for a fee, you can brew your own batch of beer and take it home. We did not have time for that.

We selected our flight. One beer I decided to try was the Serrano Pepper beer. Well, here's my sign. It tasted like serrano peppers. So that was not good.

The service was not the best, and the waitstaff seemed unhappy to be working.

I bid farewell to Garry, and headed down the Michigan coast.

The Livery Microbrewery

This one was off the beaten path, but I wanted to try one more to wash the time wasted away.

The outside of this brewery looked cool. It was misleading from its contents.

Cool exterior

It there existed a scale for how hipster something could be, this would go to 11. It was nauseating. The bartender oozed some horrid sentiment of dissidence. As if I was so blessed to be able to drink his beer.

The beer was, as a whole, the worst I had on my tour. I hope this place gets its stuff together. Because it is a thriving beer state.

Yuck... Luckily, I had one last stop on the way home.

Goose Island

It was so much fun to meet up with Meredith and Pat. This place is tucked away from the busy streets of Chicago.

This is a staple in the Midwest. people drink the 312 and Honkers as far as Memphis. I got a delicious dark beer.

The trip was winding on, so I didn't stay too long. But this was a great way to end my GMWBT.

The Recap:

Looking back at the level of awesome I was able to enjoy in 4 days, my mind has begun to wind. I was able to visit 21 total breweries. Obviously, I would have loved to spend more time and maybe even tour the facilities, but this trip was impromptu.

I am blessed to have been able to experience this.

**are there any questions?!