So gatorbeergeek, everetends and i are chatting in of all places, chat, about roadtrips. Gbg is like, haven't done that many, family really didn't do them when i was younger... not the case for me. So in that respect i felt the need to get some more miles in and hit the road.

Everything in michigan seems to either open at 11 am or 3pm, sort of annoying if you're trying to plan something around a roadtrip, but it's about the journey... so it's cool. I got going around 10 am to arrive when both were open and i didn't need to wait, also set up lodging in grand rapids as i needed to as I planned to drink fairly well.

First stop was New holland brew co... I more recently stopped at greenbush and didn't feel like revisiting it, although they had had a recent rash of interesting beers on. New Holland always has some interesting pub beers on imo, not a big fan of their standards, but that doesn't mean they don't make good beer, just not a fan.

There was a session esb at 3%, kinda what i wanted after a long initial drive, and for dessert i had their trippel... not a tripel guy persay, but it sounded interesting. Looking over on the board of upcoming beers, it appears I was about 2 weeks too early. Grabbed a small pizza there as they're okay at that...

New holland is to me first and foremost a restaurant with a small brewery in it, a great swag shop and what used to be a cool backroom, now reduced, but they have the still equipment back there so it's okay. But just okay. It fits very well with the vibe of the town, but if you live anywhere with a pulse, you really feel the urge to sell crack here or something to give the place the edge it needs... the damn town is like an ambercrombie ad.

Next stop after getting my hotel stuff squared, was founders, mike was there and he and i shared a beer and some conversation and completed a trade for a bottle of the heretic bottled by hopcat. I can never get over how much i like the space at founders, it reminds me of an airplane hanger with peanut shells all over the floor, much less then their old space, but still, the charm still lingers. Having a selection of frangelic porter (used to be stout, like it even more as a porter and on nitro no less.) breakfast stout, galactic ale (galaxy hopped pale) I moved thru those three with happiness. Mike had some other business to attend, but said he'd meet up with me at vivant later on if i was game. I was.

So off to hopcat I go... you can't go to founders and not go to hopcat. And vice versa.

So they had publican porter on tap. x3 of those for this porter whore. Had a taste of their cedar aged wild... tastes like it came out the wood too early, a bit buttery as well, but that's the way it is sometimes.

tastes just as sexy as the picture.

For those of you that haven't been to hopcat, it's a nice wide space with interesting ceilings, a sturdy L shaped bar seating around 50, an awesomely decorated mens bathroom with icons of manly prowess giving you the finger and a great selection of beers that they do growler for the right price, spensive to the locals, i'll take it cause i cant get it to you and me, cause when you drive 2ish hours to get to grand rapids... it's nice to, as long as you're in the mood to the next day or two, to bring home some nice fresh beer and drink the not available stuff in the comfort of your own mancave... anyways... after that...

i swung over to international beverage selections... you can only break the mold by not going to siciliano's so many times, but i was determined to try a new beer store. This didn't disappoint as i spent a modest 40ish bucks on some new to me beer... This is a solid store, some glassware, interesting glassware, belgian selection that you can totally miss when walking in, but a solid amount of warm craft, 6-7 doors of cold craft, and the prize for me was seeing the bottles of kuhnhenn 9 for sale here... 4 bucks here, 6 bucks at the brewery...

On my departure i got a text from mike and rolled over to vivant which was only a few miles away...

Vivant was in a word, splendid.

I really haven't drank in a space like that and i voiced my first thought to mike when we got beers after an impromptu tour with the owner who happened to be there, very randomly. I really appreciated the walkthru and the hospitality i received while there. Felt like a dick cause i was out of business cards, note to self, don't be out of business cards. But my first thought was tbs gathering at this place... this would be a great place as they have two common tables to sit and drink and conversate and that's what's in my opinion, is missing at a lot of places.

Vivant's place to be if you're riding solo or with a friend is belly up at the bar... and the church like interior isn't a turnoff at all... kinda pulls you in and wraps around you... It's a pretty small place with pretty tall ceilings giving a the space a bigger than life feel which compliments it... they have these great booths which seat 6-8, so a larger party can kick back and be obnoxious in the comfort of their own section, and the feel of the place is just chill. Craft beer drinkers know what's up and this place was full at 9pm on a wednesday, it's the place you can unwind and enjoy.

As for the beer. Everything I had was solid... a belgian oatmeal stout and a barrel aged contemplation and a taste of the Uytzet... as well as buying a 4 pack cans of their farmhouse. I look forward to trying more of vivants beer.

Mike asked me if i wanted to hit one more spot cause it was near his house and he was in the mood for one more... Logan's alley... I haven't been to Logan's alley since like 2004. and i remember it being a very smoky oldboys bar with a decent craft beer selection, but it sometimes had sketchy lines, so hadn't been back... it's smoke free now. We both got a beer and the beers were okay but nothing to write home about and called it a night.

Hideout brewing and Oddside ales were the ones that got away this trip, i'll make it next time.

Then the long sleep, pool. nap and ride across 96 to buddy's, kuhnhenn, champagne's, and jolly pumpkin in ann arbor.

94 and 96 are similar, but 96 has less services, so when going that route across 96, gas up.

I could have hit michigan brewing company along 96, and relived the celis, but i wanted to get to food, as i hadn't eaten, sans light road snacks,

Gorged on buddy's which is my favorite pizza outside of chicago pizza. Recommended. Detroit staple since 1944.

Then a quick 40 dollar trip to champagne's which is a good liquor store in warren, beer selection is back in the left corner, but if you haven't been there before, take a minute to take in the animals. there's a giraffe, some wolves, a couple lions... it's different. The selection there is good, decent layout, some prices good, some a bit more than other places, but you're more likely to find it here than merchants, not that i don't love merchants.

Kuhnhenn wasn't that busy on a thursday afternoon... had a dripa and a simcoe silly. Both solid... they had new swag, bought kev a glass and me a hooded sweatshirt.

It still screams old veterans of foriegn wars and everytime I go in there I think of the folding tables and mismatched picnic chairs it started out as...

After that, time started getting away from me and it was more than after noon... i did want to stop in jp, bells and darkhorse before i got home, so i mosey'd.

Jolly Pumpkin is fun, foody and eclectic. Great new swag, not made for fat people. only xl.

They have a Fuego label shirt with some wraparound graphics for those interested... if you love that beer, you'll rep the shirt.

Had a maracaibo on tap as well as a fuego. Both so good... it's nice to say that both of those beers are pleasantly sour while still keeping a malty backbone... jolly pumpkin masters the fine line of subtle excellence and that's all I need.

So i leave there and some guy in a caution orange hooded sweatshirt is leaving something under my windshield wiper... and i yell, hey... i paid for parking, i should be good... and he responds... some dude hit your car, i saw it, broke my drivers side, sideview mirror... he left a number where he could be contacted, but here's his plate and a make and model on his car... i'm like... fuck.

So all wind out of my sails... i drive home. End of trip. On a side note... this turnt out to be a good thing as snow slammed the midwest on friday... spent the day drinking and resting and sleeping and laundrying.

ps. called the guy after getting the estimate on the replace the sideview mirror and he's sending me a check. so i'll update on that.

up next san francisco beer week... feb 10-16.

Today's jaunt starts off at greenbush brewery... I felt i needed to be random and finally get out to this place, it's starting accounts around chicago, but i need sort of a "this is what it tastes like at the brewery" base to know if the beer is worth drinking in my area.

Greenbush had on like 16 or so beers, and i went in and had their sampler, with some extra samples.

Standouts for me were the Distorter (porter) and the closure which was the pale... they also had an old fashioned styled beer, i think was called LSD. That really was an interesting beer, something not the everyday.

The interior of the place is kinda fun... they have a handful of retro stuffs old ab/blatz/schlitz stuff but not everywhere, just thrown in here and there. I don't think i'd like to see this place busy as capacity is like 30ish people. I like the swag, tho i'll get some down the road, been on a swag buyin frenzy lately. Really impressed with the amount of specialty glassware this place had, maybe 6 different styles of glassware.

the cheese sammy is good here, they use 4 kinds of cheese and you get chips and a pickle.. it helped drinking the 60 oz of beer i took down at greenbush.

The patrons provided good conversation and that's the mark of a successful brewery. Folks who are there to have a beer, sit and enjoy... like minded is easy pickins here. all in all i'd go back or stop back from a michigan jaunt.

as for easy access, it's right off the highway, same stop as the lions den. exit 12.

From there i headed toward st. joe/benton harbor. I had left early in the afternoon and had spent maybe 2ish hours just chillin at greenbush, chatting with the patrons and bartenders and brewers and stuff. And down the road another 12ish miles is the livery...

I like hitting the lighthouse that's off the st. joe pier... so here's some shots.

and

But as the sun set and my fingers fell off again, it was time to revive with beer at the livery...

I originally went to the livery before the lighthouse to grab this fine action shot, came back and it was a bit darker...

The livery is the basement brewery, with the upstairs bar and stage. I really like basement, it's comfy, it has enough vintage and modern swag to keep the eye roaming, there's a small sandwich station down there besides the bar with its dozen and change taps...

Only had 2 beers here and some samples, but what i had was quality.

Started off with their special bitter, as i like to do at most places that offer a bitter... it's a challenging style. And this one was very floral with slight bitterness, but tasty nonetheless. The beer that caught my eye was the barrel aged farmhouse... merlot barrels with brux. Everyone's usin brux these days and I couldn't be happier, fav strain of brett.

The sourness in the farmhouse was considerable, puckerable... most impressive livery.

On big brew day they had around 25 people brewing at the livery, and they beer competitioned that brew day beer at a later date... the winner was a robust porter... it was tasty too. Had spent grain pretzel bites with homemade honey mustard... yum. those were dense as fuck and really held things down as far as an app is concerned.

They were gearing up for their trivia nite and i finished my beer upstairs, don't usually get to sit up there so... a shot and i'm out...

and then a quick trip home stopping only at three floyds for a drunk monk, alpha klaus, and a moloko... cause who can resist moloko?

on the way to livery, ran into this americana... a dinosaur and the ten commandments? beat that!

and that ends today's adventure... up next san diego. 3 days of hard drinking.

so a nice windown the night before and an assload of walking and i'm up and off in the morning... i've got one stop left, or three in canada, and one of them is mill street brewing.

I love the mill street and it's fine coffee porter. It's good, but i didn't drink a drop of it while I was there... I had 3 glasses of the framboise they had on... it was clean and dry and tartly sour in a subtle way and I wouldn't have kicked it out of bed for all the hops in washington...

So a pleasant sit inside the confines of mill street lead to their store... they have hockey jerseys... not in my size... but they have them... killer swag for those planning on going up... settled on two bottles of roggenbier and a couple of metal coasters with bottle openers on them... yeah. you'd hafta see em.

The distillery district is just begging to be photographed... so I obliged her whorish attentions with my lazy eye. When i got back to the hotel the night before... tommy boy was on... the scenes where farley is sitting in front of his dads company at the beginning were shot in the distillery district... it was kind of a cool... hey I recognize that moment... So wanting to be there for 15 minutes and just buy and go turned into 2ish hours of grazing with a bakery and chocolate shop filling out the breakfast aspect of my morning.

So pulling away, I headed southeast toward my next destination...\

On my way down the 403, I ran into some road construction, but with a gps and no set schedule other than to meet steve tasker that evening at coles, I pulled off the highway at a random exit and powered on the gps and went to trafalgar ales... Look at their website as they offer "real strong beer"... I stopped in and bought a few bottles, they're very small. and 2ish bucks so worth the stop just to try... the pub wasn't open until 4, so I just poked around and asked my questions... it's a mom and pop beer joint for shure with set clientel... it'll be one of those places you wonder how stays in business, but just does... But anyway...

Back on the road and headed into Niagara falls... Slowly I turned...

I went to niagara falls and while there beer related stopped by 2 different LCBO's. All Lcbo's are NOT created equal... and the niagara ones really stink compared to some around the toronto area... it's really strange when you hafta use their website to look up stock allocations... but anyway...

I went to niagara to see niagara again, and all the horrible people watching with all of the schlocky crap I could get my hands on... It inspired me to go to the dells after great taste, the dells is tame compared to niagara... (sans the upside down white house) and after maid of the misting it using up most of my bills and most of my change to park for a few hours... I got my fill...

I almost felt obligated to buy some random tourist crap just to buy it, but satan compelled me to save it for beer. So I did.

Duty free and 30 min later and I was stateside again... yay... Getting back into the states was good... felt at home...

The ride from canada to buffalo isn't that far...

First stop, premier gourmet... the tips I got on here were really helpful, I woulda hit the wine section of the gourmet and gotten frustrated with the place...

premier gourmet is like the blandest crappiest most swapmeet like liquor store you've ever been in... the outside is a nice facade, so I was worried... most of the best liquor stores are ugly on the outside as well. But the beer selection was good... I didn't get much, maybe 6 bottles... 65 bucks in beer... easy money. Was expecting to spend more.

from there I dropped tasker another text and we firmed up plans of when to meet at coles, but from the gourmet, I went over to the village beer merchant...

This is more what I would have expected from premier, but the corner craft beer shop in the hood it was in was just right... it's a cozy sorta joint...

I hunted around and stumbled across an ithaca 10... that went to brac. Found some other beer and another 50 bucks in beer in my cooler.

After that, it was coles and conversation with steve tasker for a few hours.

Real good kid, kinda stuck in a wasteland with no craft beer friends, but he's got a cutie of a girlfriend and he could live in north dakota, so there's that...

It was funny... showing up at coles on a monday is a crapshoot... they don't rewrite their boards till midweek, so "sorry sir, that keg blew this weekend was uttered 4 times" and when I asked for a gueuze on their beer list, sorry that's out was well, but we do have some dogfish peche... check please.

Coles is a great drinking establshment that I hafta think was made by a couple.

One side is casual dining with a bistro vibe... the other side is fratboy, collector, dark, with a beautiful oxblood bar and seating for 30 at at the bar proper... I really took a liking to the merry go round horses they had.

I tried talking steve into hitting 4 more bars with me, but he had work... (in the middle of the week, can you believe it... come on...) and from there the obvious choice was to go to pearl st. which I passed on the way to my hotel... but that was not to be... I went instead to ulrich's...

driving to that neighborhood, I thought my gps had gremlins inside of it cause it was directing me to a hospital and I was like... and there it was.

Ulrich's is a great bar... I just went in and drank 3 beers and chilled and people watched. That suggestion was great thanks bakes and bison. I haven't been in a joint like that since wolski's (if ever in milwaukee, wolski's is wisconsin's ulrich's)

super chill on a weekday night... just what I needed.

after that sleep and then a slow run down to cleveland, but before that... one of best breakfasts I've had, top 5 for shure. 

Pano's had exceptional pancakes. Fresh oj, great sausage... I was in heaven.

Funny part was on my way from my hotel back up to pano's... I started craving cereal... like I was pregnant or something... I look around to see a post factory in the distance and it smelled like oats and malt... It was great... But after that and hunting down some potato chips... (meh... bakes I need to send you some mrs fischers... those are good potato chips) I was off to cleveland...

I had hit the little snatch of bars that I do so enjoy and sunday's lineup was more or less a wandering one... victory cafe, granite and three brewers... with a good handful of touristy stuff and more graffiti, cause it was there.

the morning consisted of a farmers market, cool hand of a girl (breakfast), and some stuff down that way... and shooting graf till my heart was content...

then i did some touristy wandering, where i just put navigation away and just wandered for a few hours till I realized it was time that stuff would be opening for bizness.

going to victory cafe is a trifecta.. you get the beguiling and surrounding stores (substitute shoe museum for beguiling if you are a chick), you get honest ed's, and you get victory with one of the better outdoor seating for a good beer establishment i've had in some days... beautiful day, good beer had... county durham hophead ipa on cask was good, f&m pilsner was decent. grabbed some reading material at beguiling, so it was soak in the shade, beer and reading...

Wandering around the bathhurst stop is key in my opinion... the area's got a berkeley vibe. Stuff going on, things to do...

after that I thought I needed to stroll the downtown as last I had been here, I did that, but with a schedule and ajenda, and sometimes you miss the details when shackled with a schedule... so using the subway... i'd get off a stop walk to the next stop, do a two by two block square sweep and just people watch and skulk the area enjoying all that I saw... and did... the nice part about revisiting a town you've been to before is that minor sense of familiarity you have and recognizing things that are familiar or sort of familar to you... I'll be back to toronto and explore it more I think.

so wandering the downtown, I ran into 3 brewers... when a brewery presents itself in your wandering, there's not much resistance but to go in and drink... tho I had reservations at this one... it's okay... I tried samples till I found something i wanted... I ended up settling on their blonde ale... it was clean... but their beer reminded me of amsterdam brewing which is as average as they come in toronto... I'd say that if you are close and have time to get a sampler and go... this place may leave you with a "thank god that's all I ordered..." feeling... but the beer's okay.

so from there... a tad more wandering till i headed north on the subway and hit granite... right next to a cheese shop btw. and sat down in their establishment... very british... the beer garden is nice. The mild and the ipa that I had were good. It too was a nice place to have a beer and drink... can you find their beer on tap around town... yeah... but they have 3 handpulls which makes this stop in more worth your time than 3 brewers... english faire is what you can expect tho... good and worth it overall... Lcbo near the subway station.

Today was that first day I felt like winding down early, partly from all the walking I had been doing round town, partly cause I was on day 4 of what was turning out to be a drinking vacation and partly cause the sidetrack of the downtown reminded me that being on vacation, i could decide to do nothing and it was just as enjoyable as not... and there was a pool back at my hotel so... a little more wandering, a little more touristy stuff and I headed back round 8 or so... called it a night after and hour or so in the pool.

dinner at the hoof cafe was well worth the time. recommended...

Now i'll start off by recommending something that's worth your time and sanity. Spending 2 nights in a spot before you jet off to the next spot and subsequentially staying at the next spot for two days I think is sorta required for this sorta trip... specially the hard road with the drinking sorta trip. You don't really learn that lesson till you're 30 or so tho... so for you young whippersnappers with xl size livers... keep on rockin in the free world...

Getting up around 8 again is where i stood... an hour in the pool and bounced on out heading for the border. This is also where I go into my spiel about having a passport... some of you I'm sure don't... a good reason for having a passport when you don't need one is that it's good for a decade or so and it's a photo id that you can use if needed... anyway, psa aside...

I felt pretty good after the michigan beer festival, really good and on the go kinda ready... had my last 2 slices of pizza... and broke east toward the bridge. Very moderate going to traffic to canada... So breezed on thru and prepared for the big empty... the drive from detroit to toronto is a lot like the drive to minnesota after you pass wisconsin dells or out to dekalb from chicago or aurora to madison... not much to see, very flat easy going...

my first stop was guelph had 2 stops there only made one, cause it was longer than I expected as I got held up at wellington with an impromptu tour which was great cause it was nerdy and technical. Had a long conversation about turbidity.

But the drive was decent... straight shot... gps got me there just fine...

and while we're talking about that... big ups to the poi stuff offered over on beermapping... if you're a poi subscriber, basically you can download all the info for the entire state... folder it off to breweries, brewpubs, liquor stores etc... or just mass it into one folder... and you'll know where the nearest handful... 30 or so are around you within a 4 mile radius... it's good if you have a general idea of what parts of the city you'll visit and what you want to hit but... it's all in there and makes life so much easier... gps makes it super easy... anyway...

my shots :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8607365@N05/sets/72157624493793705/

guelph is out of your way and if you haven't set up a tour at either sleeman or wellington... I wouldn't suggest making the trip out of the way only cause it's way out there... you can better serve yourself hitting places like black oak and the other spots in oakville and the like heading up to toronto.

I also don't like to drive in toronto... it's like a continuous college town... all one ways and the like, so I usually park by one of the stations and train it out... I got into town about 2pm... so I didn't wanna hit the hotel just to have them tell me i couldn't check in for another hour...

I hit beer bistro, c'est what, volo, did 2ish hours in graffiti alley and hit the burlesque festival and that was it.

I like beer bistro... 3 oz samples for a buck n a quarter, tried 9 beers there... including the mill st. framboise, which was killer and probably the best beer I had the whole trip. But it's really got a nice bar and the place is belgian/french in it's decor. Not one of those places with too much signage on the walls, beer bistro has class written all over it... mussels are its specialty, big surprise. You'd do very well to hit this place early if you want to eat, cause much like chicago's hopleaf, I can see it really filling in the evening and just being a general pain in the ass to get seating at... off king street's subway station.

between beer bistro and my next stop was st. lawerence market... this is a must stop for those that like fresh fruits and open markets. Doing the research for toronto, there's a farmers market somewhere in the gta every day of the week...

http://www.blogto.com/toronto/ - this was great resource for places in toronto.

I was headed a bit south tho to c'est what... where I got my drink on like a big dog. 2 pints of coffee porter on nitro, 2 dead elephant ipa and a rasperry pilsner along with food was asskicking and intoxicating.

I've been here before and I gush about how cool it is... but I really like the basement bar that cest what has to offer... pool table, dart board... really nice dark relaxing enviormens it's a perfect drinking habitat...

stumbing out of there and back on the train, i hit volo which is off the wellesley stop on the subway... train time was about 10 min from king... and i was going over to osgoode for the graffiti stuff that came next...

volo is kind of the inbetween for beerbistro and c'est. it's den like, but classier, it's crowded, but managed well... good taps, easy drinking, easy times... beau's lugtread lager was great... it's a kolsch... it's great easy drinking, great mouthfeel, fucking great beer... if in the gta, search this out (as well as mill st. framboise and dead elephant ipa...) it's bottled so you can use the Lcbo search to see where it's available... so worth it. They also had scotch irish's corporal punishment on which is a really rich and tasty brown ale... really what I could have drank the rest of the night...

Having a good amount of beer and food in me by then... it was about 5ish and i wanted to get near the burlesque show to end my evening there... but I found myself drawn to the graffiti in graffiti alley... a series of alleyways that span about 2 miles of toronto and filled with production work quality stuff...

and I wandered... here are my shots.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8607365@N05/sets/72157624617519392/

I started to notice the time, not that i checked it... I was just tired of taking pictures... and that's saying a lot... didn't finish graffiti alley... but knew i would return the next day.

finally made it over to the burlesque fest. there's a story in the comments, read along if you would...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8607365@N05/sets/72157624493724367/

after that I ended my night early 10 pm, and with the drive and all the walking around town... I slept well...