New Chick Who Digs Beer

Greetings! My name is Patti and I am a chick who digs beer. That is probably all you need to know about me :) , but more can be found on my LiveJournal! Recently, my husband and I took a trip to the western part of Michigan. Our sole purpose was to drink beer.

Here is what happened on day one....

Before we even start, all y’all should know that I have some definite “tastes” in beer. For example, I do not generally like Belgians and I’m not always fond of wheats. Fortunately, Jeff loves both, and he was happy to offer his opinions. OTOH, I love hops, bitters, and most ales. Lately, I am trying to enjoy bears with fruit added, because I’ve been discriminating against them just because they have fruit in them and that’s not right.

(Note: I am considering Saturday as “day one” of the great beer gauntlet of the West, even though we didn’t venture far from our home.)

Jeff & I headed down to Milan to hit the OG Brewery. I think it’d be cool to say that OG stands for Original Gangsta (which Urban Dictionary properly defines as “someone who has been around, [an]old school gangster”), but it stands for Original Gravity.

The interior of the bar was very warm and inviting. Like our home base, the Corner Brewery, it had board games (but no “Role a Roll”, I’m sorry to say) and satellite radio. The walls had some cool stuff on them, like the propeller and the model plane. There was also firefighter gear in the corner near where we sat. While the ambiance was nice, we were there for the beer, Gs.

We got a sampler of the six beers that were available: Primordial Porter, Belgian Training Wheels, Mason Brewer Bitter, County Street Amber, Vanilla Java Porter and Orange Tic Tac Belgian. (The sign on the wall said that “small batches to come”, which is cool.)

The Primordial Porter was crisp, smooth and went down easy. The Belgian, per Jeff, “tastes like a trippel without the bite of the alcohol”. The bitter was the awesome—it was flowery, but not too flowery, if you know what I mean. It had a lovely, slightly floral aftertaste. The amber had two different kinds of hops (Amarillo and cascade), so I was happy (and hoppy! Hee hee. I is funny). It was dry, but not in a bad way. I really enjoyed the Tic Tac Belgian, despite my reservations during the Beer Festival. Of course beer almost always tastes better right off the tap, but I could really taste the Orange Tic Tacs. Since I normally don’t love Belgians, I liked the stronger Tic Tac flavor (also, I really, really like Tic Tacs and you can often find them in the bottom of my purse, albeit covered in the strange “fur” that is ubiquitous in my purse). At the festival, I could barely discern the “orange” taste, but it was stronger and fresher at the bar.

I saved my personal favorite for the last—the vanilla java porter. OMG—it was like alcoholic, liquid ice cream. The only thing that would have maybe made it better is if it was poured over real vanilla ice cream. It wasn’t too heavy, and had a lovely aftertaste of warm vanilla. I don’t know if I could drink a lot of it, but I enjoyed what I drank.

After the OG, we headed to our home base of the Corner Brewery. A wedding had taken place earlier that evening, so the wedding party was still there. In retrospect, Jeff and I should have gotten married there (except that a) the CB wasn’t around in 2000 and b) my mother would have had a heart attack). But I’m for sure getting married there next time around! (Just kidding, Jeffy!!!!! :) )

More to come....