You'd think we would be the first people to know, but the first 3 days of National Craft Beer Week have already passed us by, and we didn't discover it until today.
In the Ann Arbor area, that probably necessitates visits to some of the microbreweries/brewpubs in town:
Grizzly Peak
Blue Tractor
Arbor Brewing Company
The Corner Brewery
The "official" celebration ends the 17th, so have a few craft beers before Monday rolls around.
Showing posts with label grizzlypeak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grizzlypeak. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Michigan Brewers Guild Winter Beer Festival
While I want to focus this blog on Ann Arbor area specific content, I feel like I could shoehorn this in with enough B.S., so here goes, and try to stick with me.
Last weekend, I went to the MBG's winter beer festival in Grand Rapids. As at least an amatuer beer snob, I have to say, this was heaven for me. Dispite it taking place in the cold parking lot of the Whitecap's stadium, and my lack of appropriate clothing (I forgot to bring my jacket and shoes without holes in them), I have to say I had an absolute blast.
In the parking lot, they had 3 tents set up, with booths for each brewery. Each of the over 35 breweries brought anywere from 3 to 12 of their beers with them. When you arrive you are given 10 tokens to exchange for about half of a small cup of beer (~4-6 oz). Additional tokens could be purchased 20 for $10. However, often you could simply not give the people serving you a token and they wouldn't care. Tickets for entry were $35 if purchased beforehand and $40 if purchased at the gate, but the event sold out several days beforehand anyway.
Grizzly Peak and Arbor Brewing company showed up to offer up some of their beers, but Blue Tractor did not (not a huge loss, in my opinion). Both seemed fairly busy from the look of it, which I suppose is good for motivating people to come to AA and stimulate our alcohol driven economy...
But actually relating this to the Ann Arbor area is as follows: The MBG Summer Festival will be in Ypsilanti July 24-25, which is, as most of you know, just a hop, skip, and dodging-of-gunfire away. Tickets go on sale May 1st. I'm guessing this will be a bigger event so I'd make an effort to get tickets early. Get out there and support Michigan breweries!
Monday, November 17, 2008
Grizzly Peak Brewing Company
The Location: 120 W. Washington (between Main and Ashley)
The Facts: Grizzly Peak opened in 1995, after refurbishing an older building just south of Kerrytown. It is one of two breweries still in Ann Arbor, since the departure of Leopold Bros. GP keeps about 6 beers constantly on tap, with three other seasonal specialties. These are swapped almost every week, and more than once, I've seen them swapped while I was there. Drafts are $4.50 dollars during regular hours, but after 11pm, all drafts are $1.99 all nights. You can order beer samplers as well, where you can taste some or all of the various beers on tap for fairly cheap (price varies on how many beers you get). There are also various wines, and bottled beers, as well as a fairly well stocked liquer cabnet.
Grizzly Peak also offers a quite nice menu for lunch and dinner. The prices are moderate, though I would have to say my personal favorite is the pulled pork slider for $1.99. I generally get 4-6 and I must say. They're delicious. Be wary, the kitchen closes at 11, the same time happy hour starts.
GP has a 'Mug Club' where, for around $60 you can buy a lifetime membership, and get 25% off all in-bar and to-go beer (growlers, mini-kegs, etc.). Also, when ordering a draft, you get your beer in a special mug, which is slightly larger than a normal pint. Other perks of Mug Club membership include special 'Mug Club only' events, and other special deals.
The first tuesday of every month, there is a 'Brewer's Night' from 6-9 where there is discussion on home brewing techniques and tips, as well as $2 off beer samplers.
Review:
I find GP to be a fantastic place to go and 'hangout'. I don't think I've ever gone there on a weekend with a bunch of people, but almost every Sunday, my two friends (though one of them has lamely been absent recently) and I head out around 10:30 and have a few beers and chat. You can often find various Ann Arbor locals/professors doing the same. I would regard it as a much more stereotypical 'pub'/'brewpub' than anywhere else in Ann Arbor, even ABC has a bit of a 'college bar' atmosphere, compared to GP.
There are a few televisions around the bar, that generally have various sports games, and sometimes news on them. I certainly wouldn't consider it a 'sports bar' but on the occcation, townies will show up to watch an NFL game dressed in their favorite team's gear.
The biggest problem I have with Grizzly Peak is the location. If you live near Kerrytown, this is a fantastic hangout, but it is a bit out of the way to someone like me who lives in University Towers (hopefully for the last time after this year...). As it gets colder I'm afraid I'll be less and less likely willing to make the trek, but we'll see.
Given the choice of late night hangout, I would chose GP first or second in almost any situtation. The prices are low, and I'm becoming a bit more 'low-key' as I evacuate my youth, which, matches the atmosphere there. I wouldn't really want to go there for a birthday, or some other event with a lot of people, and going there early is asking for a large tab, but a dinner there is pretty nice, with pretty good food. I give GP 4 stars. The food and drink is quite good, and the atmosphere is fantastic if that's what you're looking for, but the prices other than late night beers make this prohibitive for anything but special nights, at least for my wallet.
Link: http://grizzlypeak.net/default.html
The Facts: Grizzly Peak opened in 1995, after refurbishing an older building just south of Kerrytown. It is one of two breweries still in Ann Arbor, since the departure of Leopold Bros. GP keeps about 6 beers constantly on tap, with three other seasonal specialties. These are swapped almost every week, and more than once, I've seen them swapped while I was there. Drafts are $4.50 dollars during regular hours, but after 11pm, all drafts are $1.99 all nights. You can order beer samplers as well, where you can taste some or all of the various beers on tap for fairly cheap (price varies on how many beers you get). There are also various wines, and bottled beers, as well as a fairly well stocked liquer cabnet.
Grizzly Peak also offers a quite nice menu for lunch and dinner. The prices are moderate, though I would have to say my personal favorite is the pulled pork slider for $1.99. I generally get 4-6 and I must say. They're delicious. Be wary, the kitchen closes at 11, the same time happy hour starts.
GP has a 'Mug Club' where, for around $60 you can buy a lifetime membership, and get 25% off all in-bar and to-go beer (growlers, mini-kegs, etc.). Also, when ordering a draft, you get your beer in a special mug, which is slightly larger than a normal pint. Other perks of Mug Club membership include special 'Mug Club only' events, and other special deals.
The first tuesday of every month, there is a 'Brewer's Night' from 6-9 where there is discussion on home brewing techniques and tips, as well as $2 off beer samplers.
Review:
I find GP to be a fantastic place to go and 'hangout'. I don't think I've ever gone there on a weekend with a bunch of people, but almost every Sunday, my two friends (though one of them has lamely been absent recently) and I head out around 10:30 and have a few beers and chat. You can often find various Ann Arbor locals/professors doing the same. I would regard it as a much more stereotypical 'pub'/'brewpub' than anywhere else in Ann Arbor, even ABC has a bit of a 'college bar' atmosphere, compared to GP.
There are a few televisions around the bar, that generally have various sports games, and sometimes news on them. I certainly wouldn't consider it a 'sports bar' but on the occcation, townies will show up to watch an NFL game dressed in their favorite team's gear.
The biggest problem I have with Grizzly Peak is the location. If you live near Kerrytown, this is a fantastic hangout, but it is a bit out of the way to someone like me who lives in University Towers (hopefully for the last time after this year...). As it gets colder I'm afraid I'll be less and less likely willing to make the trek, but we'll see.
Given the choice of late night hangout, I would chose GP first or second in almost any situtation. The prices are low, and I'm becoming a bit more 'low-key' as I evacuate my youth, which, matches the atmosphere there. I wouldn't really want to go there for a birthday, or some other event with a lot of people, and going there early is asking for a large tab, but a dinner there is pretty nice, with pretty good food. I give GP 4 stars. The food and drink is quite good, and the atmosphere is fantastic if that's what you're looking for, but the prices other than late night beers make this prohibitive for anything but special nights, at least for my wallet.
Link: http://grizzlypeak.net/default.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
