Day Three--Awesome Beer Trippage

DAY THREE:

Jeff and I woke up and fumbled with the remote control until I found the ER reruns on TNT. Buddy and I watch this show sometimes, and watching them made me miss my dog. I wondered what he was doing, whether he was thinking about his parents, and if was pooping on my kitchen floor.

Since I was on vacation, I had a gas station doughnut for breakfast. This is a “food” that I would normally not eat. I also had to swallow my pride and drink the gas station “vanilla cappuccino”. Icky, but it was caffeine. The doughnut was good though.

Jeff drove us to Battle Creek, where Snap, Crackle, Pop, Tony and Toucan Sam live. We saw them painted on the side of a building and I thought it’d be cool if Kellogg’s employed actually people to dress up as these characters and welcome us. No? You don’t think that’d be cool? I do.

We found Arcadia and went in. Since it was lunchtime, it was fairly empty. The set up was cool…like an old English pub. We got a seat by the window that showed us the men who bottle the beer. I hope they are unionized. Either way, no one looked exploited and they all seemed pretty happy. We tried to get some pictures, but they didn’t come out too well. Trust me though—it was a sight to behold.

I was famished by this time, and ordered the wood fired margharita pizza. After Jeff and I said “hello” to Chris (see above), I realized that some internal organs were having a disagreement. It wasn’t a fair fight, and no one really won, but I had to deal with it. If anyone wants to hear the gory details, just email me. Despite my gastronomical problems, the food was awesome.

We also got the best sampler—10 beers for $7. Can’t beat that with a stick, friends. We started with their Whitsun, which I really enjoyed despite it being a wheat beer. I don’t really know how to describe it, but it didn’t have the “bite” that wheat beers tend to have. Consequently, I liked it! The Angler’s Ale was good…it had a nice, smooth finish. Loved the ESB, which was similar to the ale. The IPA was described as “pine like”, and it was—in a good way. The scotch ale wasn’t my thing, but it had a nice caramel touch to it. The London Porter was good, not the best porter I’ve had, but good. Ditto the nut brown ale—not the most fullbodied beer I’ve ever had, but still good. The stouts—trippel chocolate and starboard were both smooth and warm. The trippel chocolate wasn’t too chocolately, as I had feared. Lastly, the HopMouth was fab—it’s a double IPA so it was chock full of hops. That being said, I wouldn’t want to drink a lot of it, but a sample was just right.

The only downside was the smoking. I suppose I am getting spoiled, being in so many nonsmoking brewpubs, but the smoking jarred me. I am asthmatic, so I’m quite sensitive to cigarette smoke. Plus, it gets in your hair and on your clothes and ew! (I was having a better hair day though, so that was good.)

NEXT:

Jeff and I next headed to Marshall and checked into the Comfort Inn. Once again, I took a little nap while Jeff watched the judge shows and Sports Center.

For dinner we went to Schuler’s, which is a historic, family-owned restaurant in Marshall. The prime rib was awesome, and they got my “well done” order just right! We told our waitress why we were in town and she gave us some of the special beer that Bell’s brews just for Schuler’s. It was a nice, light lager and went well with the beef.

After, we headed to the Dark Horse brewery. We first stopped in the store, where the very nice man sold us a pint glass off the shelf. (We wanted a glass pint glass, not a ceramic pint glass, so he literally gave us his last one.) Then we headed into the bar, which was just cool. It was small, with the mug club mugs hanging jauntily from the ceiling, a small bar with about 8 stools, chairs/tables and a beer garden. It was one of those bars where regulars hang up pictures of themselves and write on the walls. It reminded me of the dive bar called Calico Jack’s, which is near my dad’s house in Englewood, Florida. So it was kind of like CJ’s, but with no smoking and good beer.

I started with the Porter and Jeff had the Crooked Tree IPA. The bartender came over to check on us, and we ended up telling him where we were from. We expressed interested in another Dark Corner collaboration, and he told us that they might be doing a joint stout next time. Cool. I ended up having two more beers—both IPAs—and Jeff had the Black Bier. At the risk of sounding like a homer, I have to say that everything was wonderful. (Although, I should point out that I sampled the Amber and was glad that I did. It had something very “Belgian-y” about it, so I am glad that I tried it before I bought it).

We came back to the hotel and ate the Schuler’s cookies. Oh yummy! Then we watched a lovely movie called TILF (figure it out kids! Hint: no teachers, me included, look like those!!). Finished up the night with My Name is Earl reruns and the Daily Show.

And that concludes our beer gauntlet. We still have many, many breweries to go to, so I’m sure we will do this again. Thanks for reading! J