If you've been keeping up, Scottie and I were just in
Grand Rapids a few weeks ago for a fantastic weekend with Matt, Steph, and the releasing of
Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS). Earlier in February, we were also in GR for the
Annual Winter Beer Festival, so you're probably wondering why we're back, but this is just what we do. In fact, we even go to extreme measures for some tasty beer as you can see it was not such a warm, Spring day in Michigan. I think at one point, Scottie exclaimed, it's really snowing out there like really snowing.
Anyway, it was a groggy morning as we settled into junior (my Civic, and to paraphrase Scottie again, if we would have known it was going to snow this hard, we would have taken our CR-V) for the straight 2 hour-ish drive with our usual stop at Starbucks, but just for coffee this time as we decided to do brunch at
San Chez. We missed this place the
last time due to its closing for the Easter holiday, but it certainly redeemed itself in our books as we ordered the
Breakfast Sandwich and the Breakfast Quesadilla with side cups of fruit (of course!). While the food is always plenty for me, I think Scottie could have used an extra side or something, but we still cleared our plates and them some while sifting through the Sunday paper. Oh yes, did I mention that we drove to GR for just a day trip on a Sunday to purchase just 4 750ml bottles of beer. Good times.
Post-brunch, we headed over to
Founders to pick our bottles of
Doom, a bourbon-barrel-aged Imperial IPA, which is part of their
Backstage Series of beer releases. This is one of those beers that like
KBS, once it gets distributed and on the shelves of the local beer stores, it doesn't last long. Most don't even bother to shelve it because there are lines of people waiting for their delivery trucks to pull up. While we don't go to that extreme (maybe an occasional glance at their Twitter or Facebook feeds), we will drive the 2 hours to purchase the beer after
signing up for the pre-ticketed event. This made the process so much easier as we pulled up to a line of like 4 people, showed our IDs, and purchased our bottles all within 5 minutes. But instead of turning around for 2 more hours on the road, we stepped inside our little piece of heaven for a pint or two.
Lucky for us, this was the first of six days where customers could purchase
Doom, and unlike the
KBS release,
Founders actually offered
Doom on draft in 8 ounce pours much to Scottie's delight. I opted only for a taste of
Doom because it's their Double Trouble (an Imperial IPA) aged in bourbon barrels. Those combinations are pretty much 1 cappers in my book, but any beer brewed by
Founders, even IPAs, start off as three cappers because they just do a tremendous job with every beer. It's like the difference between a brand name and generic. They are certainly far from your generics. And
Doom was no exception. It's probably a 4.5-5 capper in Scottie's book, but I gave it a
solid 4 caps. Probably the first time I'd rate an IPA that high, but it was pretty fantastic. There was a whole lot going on in that cup. I could certainly smell the bourbon, while Scottie picked up on some hints of vanilla that could have been from the maple barrels they used. Either way, this beer will make you a believer. It's hard to drink more than two of these like
KBS because of its 10% ABV without grabbing for some sustenance.
While Scottie drooled over his
Dooms, I tasted the Diamond Mountain Brown, which we've never tasted before (or at least not to our recollection) and it's not listed on their
beer list because they don't bottle it. This was an excellent brown. Smooth, thin bodied, but still has enough nutty and cocoa flavors to make this go down with ease.
After a few hours basking in our winnings at
Founders, we decided to make one more pit stop to the
Mitten Brewing Company before heading back on the road. I've been wanting to try this brewery since we spotted it at the
Winter Beer Festival. If you read that post, I didn't really mention how Scottie yapped up these guys (we're assuming the brewers) quite a bit while I danced around trying to get some blood circulation going, but we were very fond of their people and beers. If you read this
article in the
Chicago Tribune (of all places), you'd see Grand Rapids is becoming quite the bustling town of breweries and they featured this brewery describing it as "a baseball-themed brewpub in an 1890 firehouse, complete with fire pole and seats from the old Tiger Stadium."
The Mitten Brewing story includes a dedicated section about their space, which is just fascinating:
The Mitten Brewing Company is a vintage baseball-themed microbrewery and pizzeria located in historic Engine House No. 9, a Victorian-era firehouse and Grand Rapids landmark. The idea was to reestablish the era of the building’s construction, and blend it with the vintage baseball theme the owners had envisioned. Andrus and Trierweiler painstakingly renovated the interior space, removing all recent construction and exposing the original surfaces and building materials. Sandblasting put a fresh face on the brick and wooden surfaces, and pieces of the original construction were repurposed into the woodwork of the bar. The cement floors still show signs of 19th century horse stalls and the original exterior lanterns hint at the antique décor within.
Good work on fixing up a
historic landmark! As we stepped up to the bar that included old Detroit Tigers logos and baseball card replicas stained in, I was a little disappointed to see their Peanuts and Crackerjack Porter was on the up next list. But we decided to split a
sampler and some of their
tasty soft pretzels (definitely try the Jalapeño Cheese Stuffed Pretzel if you don't mind the kick!). Most of the beer we tasted seemed a little young, and it was tough to compare after drinking in luxury over at
Founders, but Scottie enjoyed the Imperial Rye, which an IBU of 65 did not rate high on my list. I think I struggled between the Robust Porter and Black Betsy Coffee Stout.
Overall, great atmosphere, fantastic logo, tasty food, and friendly service, but I just wish I could have found a beer I really liked. Perhaps, we'll see them again in the play-offs? Below are our official ratings from
Untappd. More photos
here.
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