Yooper Ale Trails E-Book

Jon C. Stott

• Herausgeber: Modern History Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Follow Yooper Ale Trails to visit the 29 unique craft breweries and brewpubs of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Choose from among eight different Ale Trails for your personal journey. Explore the backstories of the breweries, brewers and owners, along with tasting notes on each brewery's most popular beers. Jon C. Stott, award-winning author of five beer travel books, provides expert guidance for both craft beer aficionados and tourists to enjoy one of 170 locally-brewed lagers or ales after visiting the many scenic wonders of the U.P. Inside this book:

• Tours are arranged geographically from the shores of Lake Huron, across the north of the peninsula close to Lake Superior and then east from the Wisconsin border to the shores of Lake Michigan.
• Short essays on each brewery introduce you to the brewer's, the places their beers are served and the flavors of the beers themselves.
• Complete contact details about each brewery and their available services (food, off-sales, accessibility, etc.), descriptions of beer styles with examples from UP breweries and a glossary of brewing terms.
• Roadmaps for each ale trail and photographs of each establishment, making the breweries easy to find

"Cheers to the Yooper Ale Trails! Jon's book is a fun and easy way to get a close and detailed offering from each brewery. The beer tastings are the heart of the book, and you will readily see how much Jon enjoyed each and every visit. After reading this book, you will want to make your own journey!"
--Lark Carlyle Ludlow, Owner and Brewster Tahquamenon Falls Brewery & Pub
"Jon C. Stott's Yooper Ale Trails breaks down trips across the peninsula into easily traveled trails so that readers can take their time and enjoy the offerings of each one. Many of these breweries are outstanding restaurants with varied and interesting menus. It seems that in the U.P., all roads lead to beer, and Jon Stott hits these places on all cylinders, providing backgrounds, histories and recommendations for a complete and in-depth guide to U.P. beer. Whether you are a hophead, foodie or sightseer, this is an essential book for your travel library."
--Mikel B. Classen, author of Points North: Discover Hidden Campgrounds, Natural Wonders and Waterways of the Upper Peninsula and recipient of the Charles Follo U.P. History Award
"One of the distinct charms of Jon Stott's Yooper Ale Trails is his refusal to fall into the formulaic molds of beer tourism books. If you'd like to check out the superb local ales and breweries that have sprung up in the vast expanse of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, this fine book is an absolute necessity."
--Michael Carrier, MA NYU and author of 15 U.P. Jack Handler mysteries

Leseprobe

Praise for Jon C. Stott’s Yooper Ale Trails

“Cheers to the YooperAle Trail! Jon's book is a fun and easy way to get a close and detailed offering from each brewery—its beers, brewers, owners and history. The tasting of the beers is the heart of the book, and you will readily see how much Jon enjoyed each and every visit. After reading Yooper Ale Trails, you will want to make your own journey. Remember, you will be passing through one of the most beautiful regions of our country as you experience the many fresh brews we offer to our visitors. Cheers!”

—Lark Carlyle Ludlow, Owner and Brewster Tahquamenon Falls Brewery & Pub

“Jon C. Stott’s Yooper Ale Trails could easily be retitled Fun with Beer! This compendium of U.P. breweries breaks down trips across the peninsula into easily traveled trails so that readers can take their time and enjoy the offerings of each one. Many of these breweries are outstanding restaurants with varied and interesting menus—I know, I've tried many of them. It seems that in the U.P., all roads lead to beer, and Jon Stott hits these places on all cylinders, providing backgrounds, histories and recommendations for a complete and in-depth guide to U.P. beer. Whether you are a hophead, foodie or sightseer, this is an essential book for your travel library.”

—Mikel B. Classen, author of Points North: Discover Hidden Campgrounds, Natural Wonders and Waterways of the Upper Peninsula and recipient of the Charles Follo U.P. History Award

“In this charming book, Jon C. Stott not only provides his readers with a very readable history of the 29 independent breweries that are scattered throughout Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, but he also presents these stories in such an engaging fashion that I predict it will serve U.P. visitors as a guidebook for a new ‘Summer Game.’ It would not surprise me, in fact, if hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of ale lovers from all over the country were to begin retracing Stott’s steps. Great job, Jon!”

—Michael Carrier, MA NYU and author of 15 U.P. Jack Handler mysteries

Yooper Ale Trails: Craft Breweries and Brewpubs of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

Copyright © 2023 by Jon C. Stott. All Rights Reserved.

ISBN 978-1-61599-727-5 paperback

ISBN 978-1-61599-728-2 hardcover

ISBN 978-1-61599-729-9 eBook

Modern History Press

www.ModernHistoryPress.com

5145 Pontiac Trail

[email protected]

Ann Arbor, MI 48105

tollfree 888-761-6268

Distributed by Ingram Book Group (USA/CAN/AU)

Contents

Photos

Craft Beer Comes To the Upper Peninsula

Sipping on the Dock of the Bay

Ale Trail 1 - Cedarville, Sault Ste Marie

(1) Les Cheneaux Distillers

(2) Soo Brewing Company and 1668 Winery

Ale Trail 2 - Tahquamenon Falls, Grand Marais, Munising

(3) Tahquamenon Falls Brewery and Pub at Camp 33

(4) Lake Superior Brewing Company at Dunes Saloon

(5) East Channel Brewing Company

(6) ByGeorge Brewing Company

Ale Trail 3 - Harvey, Marquette (lakeside)

(7) Lake Superior Smokehouse Brewpub

(8) Drifa Brewing Company

(9) Marquette Harbor Brewery at Vierling Restaurant

Ale Trail 4 - Marquette (Spring Street, Third Street)

(10)Ore Dock Brewing Company

(11) Blackrocks Brewery

(12) Superior Culture

Ale Trail 5 - Marquette (west), Negaunee, Ishpeming

(13) Barrel + Beam Brewing Company

(14) Upper Peninsula Brewing Company

(15) Cognition Brewing Company

(16) Jasper Ridge Brewery and Restaurant

Ale Trail 6 - Copper Harbor, Calumet, Houghton, South Range

(17) Brickside Brewery

(18) Red Jacket Brewing Company at Michigan House Café

(19) Copper Country Brewing Company at the Library Restaurant

(20) Keweenaw Brewing Company

Ale Trail 7 - Ironwood, Marenisco, Alpha, Kingsford

(21) Cold Iron Brewing

(22) Five Sons Brewing Company

(23) Alpha Michigan Brewing Company

(24) 51st State Brewing Company

Ale Trail 8 - Menominee, Escanaba, Cooks, Manistique

(25) Three Bridge Brewing Company

(26) Upper Hand Brewery

(27) Hereford & Hops Steakhouse and Brewpub

(28) LaTulip Brewing Company

(29) Flatiron Brewing Company

Last Call

Appendix 1 - Directory of Upper Peninsula Breweries

Appendix 2 - From Grain to Glass: Brewing, Packaging, and Drinking Beer

Appendix 3 - A Guide to Beer Styles

Appendix 4 - Glossary of Brewing Terms

Appendix 5 - Reading Ale about It: A Case of Beer Books

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Index

Photos

Les Cheneaux Distillers (photo by Les Cheneaux Distillers)

Soo Brewing Company (photo by author)

Tahquamenon Falls Brewery and Pub (photo by Gina Harman)

Lake Superior Brewing Company (photo by author)

East Channel Brewing Company(photo by author)

ByGeorge Brewing Company (photo by author)

Lake Superior Smokehouse Brewpub (photo by author)

Drifa Brewing Company (photo by author)

Marquette Harbor Brewery (photo by author)

Ore Dock Brewing Company (photo by author)

Blackrocks Brewery (photo by author)

Superior Culture (photo by author)

Barrel + Beam Brewing Company

Upper Peninsula Brewing Company (photo courtesy Upper Peninsula Brewing Company)

Cognition Brewing Company (photo by author)

Jasper Ridge Brewery and Restaurant (photo by author)

Brickside Brewery (photo by author)

Red Jacket Brewing Company (photo by author)

Copper Country Brewing Company (photo by author)

Keweenaw Brewing Company (photo by author)

Cold Iron Brewing (photo by author)

Five Sons Brewing Company (photo by author)

Alpha Michigan Brewing Company (photo courtesy Alpha Michigan Brewing Company)

51st State Brewing Company(photo by author)

Three Bridge Brewing Company(photo by author)

Upper Hand Brewery (photo by author)

Hereford & Hops Steakhouse and Brewpub (photo by author)

LaTulip Brewing Company (photo by author)

Flatiron Brewing Company (photo courtesy Flat Iron Brewing Company)

(photo by Diana Edwards)

For Clare and Alberto,

Jan and Craig,

and in memory of Carol

What joyous, golden hours we’ve spent

sipping on the dock of the bay

Craft Beer Comes To the Upper Peninsula

The craft beer revolution started in California in the late 1970s, adding such beers such beers as India Pale Ale, hefeweizen, and Belgium tripels, all of which were much different from the pale American lagers that had long dominated the American beer drinking scene. It reached Michigan’s Lower Peninsula in the mid 1980s, but did not arrive in the Upper Peninsula until the mid 1990s. In 1994, two years after a Michigan law was passed that allowed restaurants to brew and sell beer on premises, Hereford & Hops Steakhouse and Brewpub opened in Escanaba. Five more brewpubs had opened by 1998. During the first decade of the twenty-first century, the number of openings slowed down: one brewpub and three breweries with taprooms. However, during the second decade, the Upper Peninsula shared in the rapid growth of craft breweries and brewpubs that swept the country and by the end of 2022 twenty-eight were in open for business.

Sixteen of these breweries operate in population centers of over ten thousand people, with Marquette the host to seven of them. What is surprising is that six breweries are in small towns, villages and even a two-acre private lot in a state park. According to 2021 production statistics, three breweries produced over ten thousand barrels of beer, while six produced under one hundred. However, whether they are located in larger or smaller communities, whether their annual production numbers in barrels is in five or two figures, or whether their product is available across the Upper Peninsula and sometimes beyond or only in the taproom of the brewery itself, all of these breweries see themselves as important parts of their local communities. They create, as one punster put it, “loc-ale.” The personnel are active in the communities, the breweries support local charities and civic activities, the taprooms are gathering places where, in addition to drinking local beer and visiting with friends, co-workers and neighbors, patrons can enjoy listening to local musicians and, frequently, look at the work of local artists displayed on the walls around them, or at the area’s natural beauties beyond those walls.

Yooper Ale Trails presents a description and celebration of the twenty-eight craft breweries and brewpubs operating in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula as of April 1, 2023 (along with short notes on two scheduled to open in Spring 2023). The stories of the breweries are geographically organized into eight “Ale Trails,” starting in the eastern UP, proceeding westward across the northern parts of the peninsula, often near shores of Lake Superior, to the Wisconsin border and then eastward close to Wisconsin’s northeastern border and then Lake Michigan’s northwestern shores to Manistique. Essays for the breweries present backstories, explore relationships between these breweries and their communities, profile owners and brewers, and, for each brewery, offer tasting notes on a “six-pack” (and sometimes more) of different beers selected by the head brewer. Each chapter draws on background research, the author’s visits to Upper Peninsula breweries in 2017 and 2022, and tasting notes made during and after the visits.

Five appendices provide information for beer lovers and for visitors who might wish to include stops at breweries in the Upper Peninsula in their travels. Appendix 1, “A Directory of Breweries,” includes basic facts (addresses, phone numbers, websites, names of owners and brewers), details about brewing operations (brewhouse sizes, a list of core beers, and distribution areas), information about food services, policies on admitting children and pets, and handicapped accessibility. Appendix 2, “From Grape to Grain,” is an overview of the brewing process and offers suggestions for fuller enjoyment of a glass of beer. Appendix 3, “A Guide to Beer Styles,” gives brief descriptions of several dozen styles of craft beer along with examples of each from UP breweries. Appendix 4, “Glossary of Brewing Terms,” provides brief definitions of important beer and brewing terminology. Appendix 5, “Reading Ale About It,” is an annotated bibliography of books about Upper Peninsula breweries, other Michigan breweries, and stories about beer around the world.

Yooper Ale Trails has carefully avoided the overuse of technical and scientific terminology. However, a few basic terms that frequently appear are defined here.

ales:one of the two major categories of beers, ales are brewed at relatively warm temperatures using top-fermenting yeast, and are frequently darker in color, more full-bodied and more robust in flavor than lagers. Examples include India Pale Ale, porter, and stout.

lagers: the other major category, lagers are brewed at very cool temperatures using bottom-fermenting yeast and are generally lighter in color, lighter-bodied and more delicate in flavor. Examples include the pale American lagers produced by the megabrewers, pilsners, helles, and Vienna lagers. Bock beer is a darker, heavier style of lager.

ABV:alcohol by volume expressed as a percentage, which ranges from around four percent to over 10 percent.

IBUs:International Bitterness Units, which indicate the strength of the hop-created bitterness of beer. The IBUs of lighter lagers may be around fifteen, while those of some India Pale Ales can reach or even exceed one hundred.

barrel: a standard unit for measuring beer by volume. A barrel is 31 U.S. gallons—just over 330 12-ounce cans or bottles of beer.

One final note: brewing is a fluid industry, literally and figuratively. Breweries open, close, move, or are purchased by larger breweries. Owners and brewers change. Certain styles are dropped and others added. Taproom hours and services can be altered. If you are planning on visiting breweries and brewpubs located in the Upper Peninsula, be sure to check brewery websites and Facebook pages before you go. And then enjoy drinking your Yooper ales locally, as close as possible to where they are brewed. Periodic updates are available on the author’s blog www.beerquestwest.org.

Sipping on the Dock of the Bay

On a warm afternoon in late May 2022, I sat on the dock at Crooked Lake enjoying a ceremony that, for nearly four decades, I’d celebrated when I’d arrived at my summer cabin in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The three-and-a-half-day drive over, the car unpacked , the clothes hung up, and the groceries put the fridge, I poured a glass of beer, walked down to the dock, listened to the lapping of the waves, felt the warmth of the sun, enjoyed my first sip of the season, and thought about my plans for the weeks ahead.

In the earlier years, the beer sipped was from Stroh’s or Hamm’s, regional breweries from Michigan’s Lower Peninsula and Minnesota, respectively. But, in the earlier 1990s, after these two breweries had lost out in their quests to become national breweries, it became Miller Genuine Draft for me and Bud Light for my wife. In the later 1990s, we began to pick up six-packs of craft beers produced in the Lower Peninsula or northern Wisconsin or Minnesota and put them in the ice chest so that they would be ready for the dockside ritual. Just after the middle of the first decade of the new century, I discovered a six-pack brewed by Keweenaw, a recently-opened brewery on Michigan’s Copper Peninsula. “Pickaxe Blonde” became the first UP-brewed beer to be the season’s inaugural sip. Over the next few years, the first beers came from Blackrocks and then Ore Dock breweries in Marquette, just an hour-and-a-half’s drive from my dock, followed by Upper Hand in Escanaba, a couple of miles closer. Then, in 2020, my ritual beer came from Munising, a small city just forty minutes away. It had been made by a very small company that hadn’t even begun brewing when I’d closed up the cabin late the previous summer.

As I sat on the dock, I realized that the sequence of selections of my ritual beer drinking paralleled the trends of the brewing industry since the early 1980s, a time that marked the beginning of the demise of many of the longstanding regional breweries such as Stroh’s, the expansion of the three national (now international) breweries, Miller, Anheuser-Busch, and Coors, and the beginnings of the craft beer movement. There hadn’t been any Upper Peninsula breweries since 1971, so I’d started the tradition with productions from the regionals and then switched to the nationals. However, as more and more craft breweries sprung up in locations closer and closer to my Crooked Lake destination, I chose their products. I was becoming what one of my friends had jokingly called a “loca-cervezaphile,” a lover of good beer who liked it to be brewed as close to where he consumed it as possible.

The rapid growth of local breweries over the past three decades was, in many ways, a return to the ways of brewing in the mid-nineteenth century. Beer could easily spoil, there were limited ways of keeping it cool and preserving it, and it did not travel well. Moreover, there weren’t roads and railroads to move it quickly and efficiently to locations away from the brewery. Breweries were located in the growing cities where they served neighborhoods or could easily be transported to neighboring cities; in smaller towns that served as business and distribution centers for adjacent agricultural and rural areas, and, very frequently, in mining towns. Beer was local: it was meant to be consumed near its place of brewing and consumed quickly. Often when a boom town collapsed, the local brewery quickly ceased operations.

Starting in the middle of the nineteenth century, the rapid building of railroads, followed later in the century by the development of refrigeration, including refrigerated rail cars, made it possible to ship beer from a central location, and many breweries became suppliers to increasingly large regions. Breweries were becoming less and less local. Only 331 breweries began operation in 1933, when Prohibition had ended. However, the Depression, grain rationing during World War II, the consolidation of breweries, and the growth of large regional breweries forced many breweries out of business and, by 1978, there were only eighty-nine active breweries (with one company often owning and operating more than one plant).

At this time, when the big were getting not just bigger but enormous and the not-so-big falling by the wayside, local breweries started to make a comeback. Making beers that were hoppier and more robust in flavor than the bland pale American lagers that were being churned out at a rate of millions of barrels annually, these little breweries were offering patrons who visited their taprooms or nearby bars and restaurants beverages they couldn’t find anywhere else. New Albion Brewing Company of Sonoma, California, operated only from 1977 to 1982, but it inspired a number of home brewers and businessmen to create what were then known variously as micro, boutique, or cottage breweries. The craft beer revolution they began started first along the West Coast and then spread inland. Local brewing had begun its comeback. The vast majority of beer drinkers still consumed Bud, MGD, and the “Silver Bullet.” But if people wanted something more interesting, there were often a number of alternatives brewed in their hometowns. In addition to India Pale Ales and stouts, which became staples of the craft beer industry, there were such lesser-known styles as German kolschs, Belgian lambics, and English Extra Special Bitter.

The numbers of operating breweries and brewpubs increased steadily at the beginning of the 1980s, except for a brief leveling off and a slight dip at the beginning of this century, and, during the second decade increased dramatically from just over fifteen hundred in 2010 to over nine thousand in the early 2020s. Some of these breweries have moved far beyond being local and their products are distributed across the country. However, many are very small, serving their local communities.

During the winter and spring of 2021-2022, as I did preparatory research for what my friends called my Grand Circ-Ale tour of the Upper Peninsula, I noticed that the concept of “local” kept recurring, either explicitly or directly. It was associated with the ingredients, the production, and the consumption of beer, the people involved with each, and the many interrelationships among these. Those brewers who wish to impart a distinctive taste that gives a sense of place use local ingredients as much as possible and design recipes to achieve that goal. Brewers also design recipes that reflect their desire to create various styles that will appeal to the preferences of the customers who frequent their brewpubs or taprooms. And these taprooms and brewpubs are often designed to enhance the sense of localness, of the uniqueness of the environment in which the ingredients are grown, brewed, and consumed. Often these places are buildings with their own history; frequently builders repurpose local materials, some from the building itself; and very often they have windows or patios and decks that provide views of the surrounding area. When people from the area enjoy a pint in the building where it was brewed, they could certainly refer to the place as their “Local,” a term that was used describe English pubs of an earlier era.

This summer, my beer drinking experience would be different. In previous years, I’d picked up local six-packs when I found them and, on day trips, I’d generally purchase a growler or crowler at the brewpub we’d stopped at for a late lunch or dinner. Whenever I’d had the opportunity, I talked to brewers and owners. In 2017, I made visits to the twenty operating Upper Peninsula breweries, intending to include stories about them in a larger beer book. Family matters and then COVID prevented my completing that project. When I did decide to return to it in the winter of 2021-2022, I found that four of the breweries I’d visited had gone out of business, but that twelve new ones had opened and that two more were just months away from opening. With twenty-eight breweries—soon to be thirty—in the Upper Peninsula, the area was certainly worthy of a book about its own craft breweries and brewpubs.

As I sat on the dock of the bay in late Spring 2022, I sipped a glass of Three Bridge Brewing Company’s “Lovely Lady Pina Colada Ale,” a beer that would not have been dreamed of by Upper Peninsula brewers and beer drinkers three decades earlier, a beer that was created by a brewery that didn’t exist when I’d passed through Menominee five years ago. I thought of the four months ahead of me, visiting breweries, talking to brewers, and sipping a great variety of brews, and then writing about the people, places, and ales, and realized what a wonderful summer it would be. Yooper Ale Trails is a record and a celebration of my journeys in the wonderful summer of 2022.

Ale Trail1

Cedarville, Sault Ste Marie

In 1943, the Soo Brewing Company, one of only four Upper Peninsula breweries to operate after the repeal of prohibition, closed its doors. After that, no beer was commercially brewed in the eastern Upper Peninsula until Superior Coast Winery and Brewery opened in 2005. It only operated for two years. In 2010, a new craft brewery, also named Soo Brewing Company opened. The 1688 Winery and Lakeside Brewery began operations in 2016, but merged with Soo Brewing in 2020. Two breweries opened in 2017: Karl’s Cuisine took over the Superior Coast name in Sault Ste Marie, while in Cedarville; Les Cheneaux Distillers began producing both beer and spirits.

(1) Les Cheneaux Distillers

Les Cheneaux Distillers (photo by Les Cheneaux Distillers)

Address: 172 South Meridian St, Cedarville, MI 49719

Phone: [phone]

www.lescheneauxdistillers.com, www.facebook.com/lescheneauxdistillers

I began my “journey of a thousand sips,” in Cedarville, an unincorporated village thirty-five miles northeast of the Mackinac Bridge. Until I had begun my research on Upper Peninsula Breweries a few years ago, I had never heard of the town, which, along with its nearby sister village, Hessel, has a combined yearly population hovering around two thousand. (Summer residents bring it up to five thousand.) The twin villages, located on the northwest coast of Lake Huron, had been important shipping centers during the logging boom of the 1880s and, during the first half of the twentieth century, had become popular spots for the summer homes of well-to-do vacationers from the Lower Peninsula and other parts of the Midwest. Just off an eighteen-mile stretch of the coastline are thirty-six islands, many so small as to be uninhabited, several the sites of modest and occasionally grand vacation homes.

The waterfront and the channels (les cheneaux) between the islands are the chief recreational attractions of the area. In the first half of the twentieth century, wealthy owners of summer homes frequently sailed luxurious pleasure craft to their vacation destinations. Now, day trippers and others dock at the marinas that dot the shoreline. Cedarville is home to the Great Lakes Boat Building School, which teaches traditional construction methods, while Hessel is the home of the annual Antique and Wooden Boat Show, held each August. The channels between the islands are well populated by canoeists, paddle boarders, and kayakers during the warmer weather.

I visited Cedarville’s Les Cheneaux Distillers on a sunny morning in early June. Sitting in the spacious bar/taproom/restaurant that had been created in a renovated 1960s building, which had been a hardware store and auto parts store before sitting vacant for many years, I could see the waterfront and marina through the large south-facing glass windows. One of the owners, Jason Bohn, and the brewer, Peter Duman, were finishing a short meeting when I arrived, and I had time to gaze around the spacious indoor area. There is a living-room style area furnished with comfy easy chairs and sofas grouped around a gas-burning fireplace, a bar, restaurant tables, a kiddy area, and lots of big windows on two sides. This includes a garage-style roll-up window that gives the whole place a bright, open, airy feeling. Back of the open area are the kitchen, offices, a very large gift shop and a brewery and distillery.

Jason and Peter joined me and we chatted about the creation of the brewery and, of course, the beers. Jason and his wife Kirsten Bohn and their friends Jay and Sue Bowlby had begun talking about starting a bar and maybe distillery during the recession years at the end of the first decade of this century. Gradually, their ideas grew. They would create a family-friendly place for locals, summer residents, vacationers, and day trippers arriving by land or water. Visitors could enjoy good food and drink, listen to musicians, admire local art on the walls, and relax on the patio on warm afternoons.

“This is a boating community, and so we wanted to be close to the water. People could walk down to look at the boats at the marina, and boaters could walk up to enjoy a meal and a drink,” Jason explained. He went on to mention that, in just over a month, they would be opening a taproom, The Tipper Room, a block from the brewery, right next to one of the marinas. “It’s the only craft brewery in the UP that has a tasting room you can ‘drive up to’ in a boat. We’ll have the beers, cocktails and wines we serve here, along with food.”

Although the company is called Les Cheneaux Distillers, they are advertised as “distillers who brew.” Jay Bowlby, who, after he and his partners conceived the idea of their distillery/brewery/restaurant, had taken brewing lessons, began teaching his son-in-law, Peter Duman, the basics. Peter, a lifelong resident of the area, confessed that he knew about “drinking beer”—his favorite was Labatt’s Blue—but nothing about its making. He became an avid learner, listening carefully his father-in-law, reading Charlie Papazian’s classic text, The Joy of Home Brewing, and experimenting on the brewery’s half-barrel system. “I studied about water chemistry and began to develop my own recipes. Brewing has become a kind of passion for me—and I get to stay in my own home town and give back to the community.”

The beer/wine/cocktail menu, shaped like the elongated wine list of a big-city restaurant, included ten year-around offerings ranging from wheat beer on the light side to stout on the dark, along with five seasonal offerings, the most interesting of which was Dingo Berry Wheat (ABV 5.5 percent)—the local variant of a style found in nearly every UP craft brewery, blueberry wheat beer. This one included Citra hops giving a citrus hint to the drink.

Peter then selected a “six pack” of Les Cheneaux beers to discuss. Buoy Tipper Blonde, the flagship beer, is a 7.3 percent ABV pilsner-style lager. “We wanted to create a full-bodied beer for the general population. The pilsner malts create a sweetness with gentle honey notes, while the Fuggles hops provide minty, floral, grassy, earthy notes. Even in spite of its robust alcohol content, it’s easy drinking.” I suggested to Peter that Buoy Tipper might be called “a crossover beer with oomph!” (For the fainter of heart, there’s a “junior version, Buoy Beacon, ABV 4.7 percent). Moon Over Mackinac (ABV 5.7 percent) is a wheat beer that people who ask for a Blue Moon (a Coors beer) are offered. The white wheat malt provides a sweet taste, while the Tettnang and Saaz hops introduce spicy notes. Orange and coriander notes link it to the Belgian style wit beer. “Really, it’s a cross between German, Belgian, and American wheat beers,” Peter told me.

Northern Tropics (ABV 4.9 percent) is a session IPA in which Mosaic and Citra hops provide the fruit-like notes suggested by the name. It is an easy-drinking, not aggressive ale and a contrast to Island Hopper Double IPA (8. 9 percent), in which the Carastan malts provide toffee and caramel flavors, while the Cluster, Chinook, Centennial, and Cascade hops provide balance with their grapefruit and piney notes. Black Sails IPA (ABV 8 percent) is a Cascadian dark ale, sometimes known as a black IPA. The malts are very important, providing roasted, coffee, and chocolate flavors, balanced by the pine and citrus notes of the hops.

I asked Peter to discuss two beers that use local ingredients. Vera B’s Honey Brown Ale (ABV 6.4 percent) uses honey from nearby Suetopia Farms, along with grains malted in Traverse City. Medium-bodied, it has toasty flavors along with hints of honey and bitter chocolate. Cluster hops provide floral and spicy notes. Strawberry Basil Saison (ABV 4 percent) is a variation of the ale served long ago to European farm workers and distinguished by its peppery flavors. At the suggestion of Les Cheneaux’s chef, Peter added pureed fresh strawberries and chopped basil to the base beer to give an interesting flavor combination.

Just before I left, Jason Bohn brought me a box containing crowlers (32 ounce aluminum cans filled with beer at the bar and then sealed) of some of the beers we’d been discussing. I’d mentioned that I enjoyed sitting on the dock of the bay back at the lake enjoying a happy hour beer. “You’ll have to come back here when the Tipper Room is open. Then you can sit on the dock of our bay and try some of the new recipes Peter is working on.”

I said that I would look forward to that.

The road to my second and third stops of the day led due north through small villages to Sault Ste. Marie. As I passed several farms, I remembered having been told that after the lumbering era, much of the eastern Upper Peninsula had been dubbed “Cloverland” by an enterprising developer who hoped the name would encourage people to buy the land to establish farms. While some of the soil proved suitable for agriculture, much was sandy and more suitable for growing the giant white pines, most of which had long ago been harvested.

The highway turned into Ashmun Street and when I reached the intersection of Ashmun and Portage Streets, the name a reference to how boats were transported around the rapids of the St. Marys River before the locks were built in the middle of the nineteenth century, I turned left. My destination, Superior Coast Winery and Brewery at Karl’s Cuisine, was easy to spot: a building that looked like the prow of a lake freighter. Restaurant patrons who were lucky enough to secure a table by the front windows or, in the summer, on the upper deck, could look across the road and watch eastbound freighters sail majestically into MacArthur lock before sinking slowly as the water drained from the lock and they again moved forward.

I’d first visited the restaurant/brewery/winery/restaurant in 2017, talking with Karl Neilson, co-owner with his wife, Paula, and brewer Brad Kent. Now my visit involved catching up with changes since then. It wasn’t until October that I learned about an enormous change that had taken place. I’d written Paula to fact-check some items in my profile of the brewery/restaurant and received the following reply: “Superior Coast Winery and Brewery is up for sale. We sold the building as a turnkey restaurant for new owners to lease for a couple of years … They are not interested in the brewery. If we don’t sell the winery/brewery (which will have to be relocated as the new owners don’t want it) in the next couple of weeks, we will start to sell off the equipment.” Paula’s note saddened me. It was the first Upper Peninsula brewery to close in more than four years. I’d miss visiting and enjoying the fine food, very good beer, and splendid view—not to mention the people who made it all possible.

(2) Soo Brewing Company and 1668 Winery

Soo Brewing Company (photo by author)

Address: 100 West Portage Ave, Sault Ste Marie, MI 49783

Phone: [phone],

www.soobrew.com, www.facebook.com/SooBrew