One of the things we did on our first day in Traverse City (Saturday) was to visit Mackinaw Brewing Co.  We had a couple appetizers and a couple beers.  Both the beer and the food were excellent.  The bartender even gave us a sample of his “fake chocolate stout”, which was actually their porter with a shot of Godiva Chocolate Liqueur in it.  (It was really, really good, btw.  I’m going to remember that recipe!)  We got a growler of the Nut Brown Ale to bring back to the hotel and enjoy later.

We enjoyed Mackinaw Brewing quite a bit and went back two more times on our trip: once just for a quick beer, once for dinner.

On Sunday we stopped by North Peak Brewing, which was a little further down Front Street, and away from the main, “touristy” area.  (The clientele at North Peak seemed more like locals and college kids – but that could have just been due to the time we were there.)  Since we were on our way back from (trying to go to) Grand Traverse Pie Co. (it was later on Sunday and they were already closed), we just stopped in for a quick beer to check it out (actually, Carrie only had an iced tea and I had a beer).  It seemed like a nice place and the one beer I had was good, but we never ended up going back.  (We liked Mackinaw better, and it was much closer the hotel.)

Other than the brewpubs, there’s not much to get excited about beer-wise in TC.  The couple of markets we visited had a small selection of import and craft brews, but what was there was overpriced.  That’s too bad.  If you’re into wine, however – well, that’s a different story.  (I’ll get into that in a later post.)

Carrie and I are on vacation in Michigan.  Our first stop: Kalamazoo.  One of the main reasons we wanted to stop here was to visit Kalamazoo Brewing Company, brewer of Bell’s Beers.

Kalamazoo is a nice little town.  We’re just staying the one night, but I could definitely spend more time here.  However, we were a little disappointed when we got to Bell’s Eccentric Cafe.  I guess we were expecting it to be somewhat like Goose Island is in Chicago.  It’s really just a bar with a kitchen in back.  It wasn’t bad, really.  And, of course, the beer was good.  It just wasn’t what we were expecting.  (The food was just decent, nothing special.)

On our walk back to the hotel, after stopping in the park to take some pictures, we stopped by Olde Peninsula Brewpub & Restaurant.  This was more what we were expecting Bell’s to be like.  The beer was good.  I had a Black and Tan, which was a mixture of their Midnight Stout and Haymarket Light.  I was expecting them to pour it like a traditional Black & Tan – ale on bottom stout on top – but it was just mixed together.  Even mixed it tasted very much like a stout.  If we had stayed I would have tried the stout on it’s own, but we grabbed a growler to go (dirt cheap growlers – $8.99!!!) and headed back to the hotel.  (We got the Dunkelweiss in the growler, which I haven’t tried yet.)

Tomorrow we head out for Traverse City.  I’ll update (or not) as our trip progresses.