#13: Take a Michigan day trip.

Destination: beer.

I'll be the first one to admit it: I love cheap beer. I unapologetically drink Miller Lite, and I love it. I guess if I was to credit -- or blame -- anyone it would be my friend Anthony, but really, it's just what we drink. To this day, when I see a group of people who prefer anything else -- especially Bud Light, and especially Bud Heavy -- I judge. I know, I know. Glass houses.

In the last few years, however, I've started to expand my horizons a bit. Visits to Pizzeria Paradiso in D.C., including beer-and-pizza tasting events I organized for my old job, made me appreciate craft beers, most notably the verrrrrry difficult to find seasonal Winter Solstice Ale from Anderson Valley Brewing Company. (Seriously, if I've been able to find a place that actually sells AVBC beer, which is rare, they have always been out of the Winter Solstice by the time I get there. This beer is my unicorn.) And when Janet, Tim and Rujuta came to Ann Arbor this summer, we had an awesome day drinking/sweating at the Summer Beer Festival in Ypsi. Something like 400+ beers, all brewed in Michigan. Pretty sure at least some of those were brewed in basement bathtubs, but whatever.

Straw, please.

So in the course of all this, I began to develop actual preferences (which may or may not make any actual sense). I love citrus-y beers that are inexplicably and dangerously as thirst-quenching as lemonade. I love dark, rich porters, especially with chocolate or coffee notes -- which makes no sense because I don't actually love chocolate or coffee. I love beers infused with fruit flavors. And I love Belgian ales made by Trappist monks, particularly from this place. 


I'd heard of Bell's before I came to Michigan, but didn't start really paying attention until I got here. Bell's is located in Kalamazoo, which is basically 2 hours due west of Ann Arbor, and I'd heard from various people you could do brewery tours and get beer samplers and food there. So I threw out the idea to a few people to do a Sunday Funday there, and boom, a day trip was born.


Josh, Ariel, Trevor, Allie and I piled into my whip and hauled out to Kzoo to the tune of Childish Gambino and The Glenn Miller Band (surprisingly complimentary). We got there with enough time to spare before the tour to enjoy a beverage, and I picked a beer called Raspberry Wild One, which they only had on tap at their restaurant. It. Was. DELICIOUS. Not super sweet, a little sour actually, but light and refreshing at the same time.

Pure Michigan.

The tour was actually quite interesting, led by a girl named Sarah who both works at Bell's Eccentric Cafe in their kitchen and apparently has quite a burgeoning enterprise home-brewing ciders. We learned about all the essential components of beer: hops, yeast, barley, water and kitten tears. We learned about how small things -- the mineral profile or temperature of the water, the amount and type of grains, for example -- can drastically influence the beer. Apparently there are a bobillion types of yeast, but Bell's only uses one or two, which is what qualifies them as producing a true "family" of beers. Wow, I literally and figuratively drank the Bell's Kool-Aid, huh?


Side note: there's a performance area attached to the brewery/cafe at Bell's and GUESS WHO PLAYED THERE THE NIGHT BEFORE? THE VERVE PIPE. That is all.

Lots of beer on tap.

Other fun stuff we learned: Larry Bell is still alive and kickin'. Which I guess makes sense since he was like 23 when he started brewing and that was in the mid-80s. Oh and they currently only serve their beers in kegs and bottles but are starting to can their beer, so summer 2k12, Oberon cans are happening. And Bell's is the largest craft brewery this side of Colorado! Seriously, can someone at Bell's pay me?


After the tour we went back to the Cafe to sample some of the delicious beers we'd heard so much about. You get 6 beers in a sampler, and can pick from anything they have on tap (see chalkboard picture). I got the Porter, the Cherry Stout (not on the board, but I asked nicely), the Milk Stout, the Sparkling Ale, Hopslam and more of the Raspberry Wild One for good measure. They even served it in wooden cut-outs shaped like the state, which was a lovely, festive touch. 

The beer was terrible,
we didn't drink any.

The beers were amazing, but my favorites (aside from the raspberry one which we've already established is the bomb) were definitely Hopslam and the Cherry Stout. The stout was sour and rich, but in the best possible way. And the Hopslam is a really strong, fragrant beer with lots of hops. I didn't think I liked hoppy beer, but Sarah assured me that I may just not like certain types of hops. She was right. Hopslam is the best.


Speaking of Sarah, she and our other tourmate Paul joined us for our meal and samplers, and we ended up getting a lot more information about beer, home brewing and Kalamazoo in general from them. We got one last round of the beers we'd figured out we liked the best (I went with a combo of the Raspberry Wild One and the regular Wild One). And Sarah even fetched us the last few bottles of Hopslam over in the General Store to take home before they sold out.


So even though we didn't get to see much else of Kalamazoo, I'd go back in a heartbeat if it meant I could have one more sweet sip of the Raspberry Wild One. Miller Lite will always hold a special place in my heart, but now Hopslam holds a special place in my fridge.