Sorry for the length...
We got to Kalamazoo, MI by ~1:30 EST, and popped into Bell's Eccentric Cafe for lunch. We got some sandwiches and tried: Hell Hath No Fury, Kal-Haven and Golden Rye. All were just pretty good. The Kal-Haven was a wild beer, and looked like pond scum. Weird. Bell's had like a Disneyland gift shop though. It was ridiculous. And half the store was a homebrew shop. That was really neat.
Next we piled back into the car for a 50 mile drive to Grand Rapids. Founder's Taproom was totally awesome, and their beer selection was unbelievable. We had a TON of beers here: Sweet Darkness, Curmudgeon, Nitro Double Trouble, KBS, CBS, Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout, Maple Mountain Brown ale, and a bunch more that I can't even remember. This place was totally awesome and their beers were the highlight of the trip. We were probably there for four hours and left right before the bands were hitting the stage at just before 10pm.
Sunday morning we drove to Holland, MI. The town itself was actually really cool, and very touristy (est. 1847). Of course, almost everything was closed on Sunday.
We headed into New Holland Brewpub at 12pm when they opened. The brewpub itself was really cool. They have an awesome pilot brewery built into the restaurant that supplies all the rare specialty brews that they have on tap there, which there were probably ~15 different varieties. We tried a lot of their brews that you can get around here, but I can't remember them all. Golden Cap Saison, Black Tulip Trippel, Brother Jacob Dubbel, Imperial Mad Hatter IIPA, most of them were nothing special. However, their barleywine/hopwine and their wheatwine were both great. They reportedly were selling bottles of the 2006 barleywine (which I sampled on tap) Existential, but they couldn't find any bottles when I asked for one.
Oh well...
In the end we had an absolute blast and got lots of killer shirts and glasses for souvenirs. Founder's was the highlight of the trip for sure. The best beers were their CBS and Sweet Darkness (black IIPA on Nitro). They were amazing. My stomach is a little raw from constantly drinking 10% beer and eating junk food, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
Founders is an incredible brewery and I'm kind of perplexed as to why their session ales are so ordinary yet their specialty brews are so insane. It doesn't make sense. Centennial IPA, Dry Hopped Pale Ale, Reds Rye PA, etc. Those beers are pedestrian, but all their high gravity stuff is absolutely top notch. CBS is now probably in my top five beers of all time.
I'll post a pic link later tonight if anyone wants to take a peak.
I've always really liked the beer at Rock Bottom Brewery, but I've never heard a "professional's" review. I'm interested to hear what you Chicago guys have to say about it, so if anybody has any comments, please let me know.
