Anyone going to Crystal Mountain saturday for this? Wife and I are heading up there for the anniversary. Should be fun with plenty of Michigan Brews to wash down the brats with.

Where's this at? Not heard of it. I'm still bummed I missed the World Expo of Beer last week while I was out of town.

Since the wife and daughter are heading down to her parents place that leaves me the house to myself and at least two brew sessions.

TimO

This is the 3rd annual Beer & Brat Fest. Outdoors at Crystal Mountain (northern Michigan west of Traverse City) featuring 40+ Michigan craft beers from over dozen breweries and specialty brats from local markets & producers. It's a very cool event.

http://www.crystalmountain.com/summer/index.cfm?fuseaction=cms_MichiganBeerBratFestival

See you there!

Crystal Mountain is a really nice place. I'm sure Short's brewing will be well represented up there. Won't be making it, but to anyone that does, enjoy the Michigan beer. I know it wont dissapoint.

I notice a nice bottle of Celis being poured on the front page

BTW, I found MBC by accident about 5 years ago while driving to western Michigan with a friend, it was mighty hard to stop th sampling in order to continue our journey so we settled on buying a couple of cases. Great waitstaff too.

Cheers!
John.

Hahah! Awesome, didn't even check that link. Always good to see a bottle of our stuff out there. Next time you're in the area you should come check out the new facility.

I see they have Dublin market brats. They do some kick-butt meats. Highly recommended.

Cheers!

Will do Mr. C. I go to Pentwater about 2-3 times a year and usually drive by on my way. If the situation and time permits, a brief tour would be awesome, but I know that's a long shot given the vagaries of schedules and such. At the vary least, I'll pick up some brews since only a handful make it out here to Pittsburgh.

Cheers!
John.

Pentwater, eh? I'm there every year for the Oktoberfest. I'm always in the chili cook-off competition.

TimO,

Yep, our family has been going up there since I was a wee little one and we have our family reunion there every July. I also partake in the highway cleanup each spring and fall (between the US31 exit and the first bend past the Boathouse/Johnny's). Great little town, one of the few places left w/o any traffic lights, that's far enough from highways and railroad tracks that you can't hear them, and out of any flight paths. You can even drink beer on the beach, I always bring two kegs for our reunion .

If you do the Chili cook-off, perhaps you know Meg of Good Stuffs, I think she's won once or twice. Great place she has. I've never made the Oktoberfest, but there's always a first!

I'd know Meg if I saw her pic.

I know what you mean about the town. Great getaway and the family loves camping on the beach at the state park.

Make sure you give MrCoffee and myself a headsup when you are on your way and we will buy you a pint and give you a tour of the brewery. I work across the road from the brewery and can be there easily.

TimO

Cool - Will do!

John.

Pentwater, cool!

31 is a great path, it goes right by Onekama. I take 22 from there up through Arcadia to Benzie county on occasion when I'm not going 127 to 10 to 115.

If you ever come through our way I'm around every weekday atleast, and like TimO said he's in the hood. Let us know I can always find time on the weekend. Always down for a TB meetup.

I'll definitely be at the Beer and Brat this weekend! Got a big group headin' over there, and it's supposed to be a gorgeous weekend up here in Northern Lower MI! and I'm sure many HBs will be drank before and after!

Any other TBers planning to attend this weekend?

Nick, I'll keep an eye out for you. Would be fun to tip one with a fellow TB'er or two. Don't know of a good way we could look for eachother. Any ideas?

Should be pretty easy, IPA. I'll be the guy with the video camera. Stop by and say hello and I'll get your thoughts on the beers/festival.

So hopefully there isn't a bunch of videographers out saturday. Is that personal video or professional video and if I walk up to you shall I just say "You TC?"

No problem, just say, "Hey Nick. I'm IPAnimal for Tasty Brew." I actually work at Crystal. One of my many resposibilities is to produce videos for our website. I'm putting together a short piece on this event, and will need some good interviews from people who know what a good beer is. See you there!

TC_Ute, another Traverse City brewer? Excellent!

I certainly won't be recording anything, except perhaps a bunch of sloppy pictures with friends! IPAnimal, I'll be wearing a royal blue ems jacket and walking around with a group of 5-7 (a bunch of dudes and 1 hot girl most likely , not good odds!). All in mid-low 20s. Yellin' out "TC" or "Nick" should work.

Would always enjoy throwin' one back with a TBer.

Alright, so if you see a late 30's dude in a buzz cut that's mostly gray with a hot blonde stumbling around and calling for TC or Nick, you know it's me.

By the way, my one on one odds are pretty good. In fact, I'd say 110%! Wohooo!

Mr. C - Thanks for the offer (and to TimO too), I'll deffinitely try get a stop in when I pass through around July 10th or so and I'm thinking 3PM-ish, when your work day might be winding down, or whenever is better for you. I would have responded sooner but I've been off the board for a bit (that silly work thing ).

Cheers!
John.

We usually start wrapping up and grabbing pints around 4pm, but on occasion we have to be working later than that. Just let me know the date for sure when it's closer and I'll make sure I don't get neck deep in something before you are coming.

Nick & IPA: I'll be looking for you! As mentioned earlier, I'll be easy to spot with the video camera and tripod, and the opportunity to get a few of your thoughts on tape would be much appreciated. See you tomorrow!

Didn't manage to find either of you there, but the Beer and Brat fest was awesome! Not too crowded, perfect weather, some great brews being sampled, and the band (Egon) was great imho!

IPAnimal; looked for ya, but the number of couples fitting your rough description was pretty high. I didn't help things by wearing something completely different (hotter than expected out) and coming only with the hot girl (though my odds certainly increased ).

Highlights:
-New Holland Brewing Company's Dragon's Milk
-Mt. Pleasant Brewing Company's Coal Stokers Blackberry Ale
-Michigan Brewing Company's High Seas IPA
-a beer I can't remember, highly carbonated, comes in champagne bottles, fruity, crisp.....? anyone remember it?

Great event, can't wait for next year!

Sounds like a good time, hope everyone had fun.

"Michigan Brewing Company's High Seas IPA"

Glad we were being poured. We had no idea since its the distributors up there that put it on, not the breweries. Pleased that you enjoyed the IPA!

"a beer I can't remember, highly carbonated, comes in champagne bottles, fruity, crisp.....? anyone remember it?"

Probably something from Jolly Pumpkin. The imperial series from Short's also comes in amber champagne bottles but I don't imagine it being highly carbonated like Ron's Belgian beers.

I was kind've bummed that it was the distributors handling things. I tried to ask somet technical questions about certain beers and generally got blank stares. Why aren't the breweries more personally represented at an event like this? You'd think the Brewers would love to be pouring their brews to adoring fans.

Yes, Jolly Pumpkin, that was it! They had their Fuego del Otono and Oro de Calabaza being poured (just checked their website) - real unique stuff, extremely refreshing.

"You'd think the Brewers would love to be pouring their brews to adoring fans."

We would. We just simply weren't invited to that shindig. Come to the Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beerfest for hands on brewery action.

Ron's stuff is amazing. Oro de Calabaza is one of my favorites. All his beers are barrel aged and absolutely delicious.

I'm There!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend. We had nearly perfect weather for the Michigan Beer & Brat festival, and a good time was had by all (just under 1,000 people). A big thank you to all of you who helped spread the word and to all of the breweries that participated.

I thought I'd take a minute to respond to the last few posts above by Nick and MrCoffee. The Michigan Beer & Brat Festival is meant to be exactly that: a "Michigan" festival. We at Crystal Mountain produce & present this event ourselves. We invite breweries from all over the state to join us for the event to talk about their beers as they're being poured & enjoyed. The only involvement of distributors is to fill any beer orders that we place on behalf of participating breweries.

Through our partnership with the Michigan Brewers Guild, we hope to grow the event significantly in the coming years in terms of brewer participation. Of the 40+ craft beers that were served at this year's festival, well over half were represented by an owner, brewmaster and/or staff member from the brewery that produced them.

MrCoffee - to my knowledge, we extended an invitation to all members of the Michigan Brewers Guild to serve and promote their beers at the Michigan Beer & Brat Festival. We also contacted a number of breweries directly. If you did not receive a personal invitation, I apologize. I will be sure to let the event organizers know that Michigan Brewing Company would like to receive one for next year's event. We would certainly love to have you! If you'd like to receive a personal invitation, let me know and I'll get your contact info.

Nick ? I?m glad you came and I?m happy to hear that you had a good time. As I mentioned above, our goal is to create a unique experience through which beer enthusiasts and brewers can come together to enjoy & discuss the beers and the process through which they?re made. In regard to your frustrations, we?d love to have every beer accompanied by the brewer that made it. Next time you?re at your favorite brewery, tell them what a good time you had at this year?s festival, and suggest they join us next year. We?re working on it!

On a related note, I shot a bunch of video of the event, including lots of interviews with brewers, industry media, and even TB?s own IPAnimal (thanks again!). I?m hoping to have the video posted later this week, and will be sure to send a link!

Cheers,
TC_Ute

You do us a great service TC_Ute. Much appreciated, and every state should be emulating this type of event if they already are not.

MrC, I would say Bobby got the invite and may have just blew it off. Its been know to happen with him. If Joe had known about it he probably would have jumped on it. Or its quite possible the invite never got there. As it is, no harm no foul and I look forward to being up there next year to help the Guild make this grow.

TimO

Thanks, TimO. Much appreciated. The event continues to grow, and we're hoping to add as many breweries as we can in the years to come. Personally, I think having representatives from the breweries onsite is what makes any such event legitimate. Anybody can hire a band and serve beer. Our goal is to continue to build a fun event that celebrates Michigan craft beers while also providing breweries the opportunity to reach out to new customers, and of course, a chance for people like myself to drink some great beer. ; )

We'll have to meet up sometime. I've got a place up between Bellaire and Alden which means I get up to TC a few times a year.

TimO

Sounds good, TimO. I get over to fish the Jordan a few times a summer, which is a good excuse to swing through Bellaire for a Bellaire Brown (or two) at Short's. I'll probably be heading over in the next couple of weeks, and will drop you a note to see if you'll be around.

Cheers,
TC_Ute

Sounds like it was an excellent time. We definitely didn't get any sort of invite since no one in the company even knew it was going on besides myself. No worries though, next time we'll be there! Just out of curiosity what brewers were there? I know for sure Matt and Rene from Arbor BC were there, but thats all I heard had gone up.

Next time I'm heading up to Benzie I'll have to let you guys know so we can meet up for a brew.

Cheers!

I can attest to the fact that it was a good time. The band was great, the weather was perfect, the beer was cold, and the beer was awesome. A couple of highlights for me:

French Farmhouse Ale - The Livery - was close to a Belgian style but a little hoppier and less spicy and lighter on the alcohol. Delicous.

Smoke and Mirrors Ale - Right Brain Brewery - I've only had one smoked beer before and it was like drinking smoked fish (which I do like......but not in liquid form) but this beer was a very subtle smoke flavor. Very good.

Huma-lumpa-licious - Shorts - yummmmmmmmmmmm

Darn, I didn't see the High Seas Pale Ale by MBC otherwise I would have gotten that. Dragon's Milk is good stuff and the Jolly Pumpkin stuff was original and delicious. Great day!

Sweet that you had a great time IPAnimal. Sounds like you had some great beers for sure. Haven't had the Smoke and Mirrors, but I do love a subltely smoked beer, and right brain is fairly new, have been missing out! Next time I'm heading west I'll let everyone know and have a load of beer to hand out to the West Coast Michigan TB'ers. Congrats on the interview, can't wait to see ya in the viddy.

Once again cheers to Michigan Beers!