Octoberfest in MIchigan

Octoberfest is a 200 year old tradition that is celebrated well, in October, or is it? Technically it is a sixteen day festival originated in Germany that begins in late September and runs through the first Sunday in October. A tad bit misleading, since the rest of October is hung out to dry, but easily forgotten when you have a perfectly crafted Marzen/Octoberfest beer in your hands.

Marzen began as a brewing tradition, where brewers were only allowed to brew between late September and late April. The reason was that summer months were too hot for intense brewing, risking fire to communities and infection to the beer. Thus, these "March" beers had to be stored. With a little ingenuity, brewers used caves or crafted cellars, sometimes placing blocks of ice from nearby frozen ponds or lakes. What they had was basically a walk in cooler that kept temperatures cool enough during lagering. Whenever they needed to restock, they just simply had to remove a few large boulders or unearth the door. When summer ceased (late September), the remaining beer was recovered and properly consumed....heavily. Marzen itself is a heavier beer, either with alcohol content or hop content to aide in its survival of storage.

Octoberfest-like celebrations certainly have existed for centuries, but the official "Octoberfest" popularized by Germany, as stated above, is only dated back to 1812, where a festival of sorts to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig (later King Ludwig I) and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen of Bavaria. The celebration was so popular, residents decided to repeat the tradition every year, and so, tradition began. Here in Michigan there are several events occuring at local breweries and brewpubs for you to enjoy, some are listed below.

Fort Street Brewery - Harvest Festival 9/23 - 27, new beers are being tapped every day in this celebration

Rochester MIll - Occurring this weekend outdoors complete with special beer, music, dancing, German foods (with a sauerkraut eating contest), children's activities, games, zoo, and more. $6 entry fee benefits the Make a Wish Foundation and YMCA North Oakland Swim Club. Inside tap room and restaurant has no cover.

Uptoberfest 10/10, Sponsored by the Michigan Brewers Guild, Upp-ers wont have to travel far to have a festival in their own backyard which will be held in Escanaba. 17 breweries are already attending, from all over the world.

Kuhnhenn Brewery Octoberfest 10/17

Michigan Brewers Guild Harvest Brewers Festival - 10/24, This is also a first for the MBG, in an expansion of events beyond the popular Summer and Winter Festivals, this event will be held at the historic Eastern Market in Detroit.

Dakota inn - Events throughout October.

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DIY Ferndale Street Fair this weekend

Since summer took a few months detour, arriving this past week, here is a great event to get outside this weekend and enjoy some great Michigan beer, food, art, entertainment and whatever else you may find. Breweries listed to participate are:

Arcadia Ales
B.Nectar Meadery
Black Lotus
Dark Horse
Dragonmead
Founders
Jolly Pumpkin
Kuhnhenn Brewery
Motor City Brew Works
New Holland
Short's
Sherwood Brewery
Woodward Avenue Brewery

http://diystreetfair.com/

Bell's Oracle is now available!

If you are hophead, and you think you can take on any hop infused madness, then so your journey begins. This week, Bell's Oracle is making its way, in limited availability, to the shelves of your trusted retailer. This Double IPA weighs in at 10.4 Abv and has an expected 110 IBU's. IN other words, it's sure to kick some ass. In comparison, Two Hearted comes in at 7% and about 66 IBU's. And with the robust flavors Bell's continuously produces, this is sure to please. To get your hands on this unique brew, start calling your favorite retailer and ask when they will be available, because I bet days will not go by and they will still be available. I hope to get my hands on a couple bottles this evening.

Short's Soft Parade now in bottles

So for my three followers ( how I missed you all) I apologize for the delay in news. But my ass was vacationing and loving every minute of it all. When Britt and I take off, its like our little Amazing Race. She's a person who needs a plan, and I am perosn who wants to see it all. Sometimes those two scenarios bump headswith my "whatever" attitude, whatever. So, I come home and what do I find at my little liquor store, but some new Short's! Soft Parade is an Ale that everyone can enjoy. It is a fruit rye ale, pureed with strawberrys, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. It is carbed a bit on the higher end and is reminicent of a lambic sour belgian type concoction. And its sneaky. This is certainly a summer quencher, or high session night cap.

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Michigan Brewers Guild Youtube Channel

Social media! It's everywhere! And there is no reason anyone should not take advantage of the tools at hand. The good people of the Michigan Brewers Guild have done so, launching their official Youtube channel, mibrewersguild. Here you can view the inside working of your favorite brewery, hear fan testimonials, see inside events, get home brewing tips, and of course upload your own piece of pride of blasphemy.

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Michigan Beer Festival Saturday

Waking up to the weather on Saturday, the sun appeared to be still sleeping and left the rain in its place. But things quickly changed, becoming sunny and breezy her eon the east side. My good friend Nick had called late friday and said he was pulling a late night to be able to make the festival on Saturday. We shot out there, arriving in sunny Ypsilanti close to two. As many people were walking away from the entrance gates as were walking towards them. Apparently the festival had sold out, a promise fulfilled by its organizers. It wasn't a very pleasant site. I overheard one group talking about the disappointment and confusion with this. Perhaps in the nearest future, there will be some new form of accommodation.

With the festival selling out, that meant 8,000 (or more) attendees were all after the coveted and most talked about beer Michigan has to offer. Surprises were abound, with many breweries offering special tapping's throughout the day. There were some disappointments too. Many breweries ran out of some, or nearly all, of their servings. One brewery (who is very local to the location of the festival) was reduced to one sampling very early in the afternoon. In fact, I think it was only the second sampling of the afternoon. The pourer made a tongue in cheek comment about how they are that popular. My response politely was for them to drive down the street to get some more. I wasn't met with a response. This was my freshman year at the festival, so I am uncertain how much of an occurrence this tragedy could be, but I would beckon to argue that if I were a brewery, I would much rather over stock and bring excess home than guesstimate and leave some patrons sour. However, my ingenuity may have already been recognized, and possibly these breweries DID compensate with plenty of beer, and were just that much more popular.

Nick and I were soon joined by some other friends Amy and Carle, who were stuck at the gate without tickets for a short moment. Somehow, thankfully, and quickly, they made their way in, with great charm and good looks I am sure. Amy and Carle both had rather larger plastic cups than we had. They were freebies from Kegglove, a company marketing its pretty awesome chilling potential for mobile kegs and such. Nick and I obtained these cups with the premonition that a four ounce sample in the festial cups would actually translate to six or more samples in these new cups. For the most part we were right, and towards the finale of the festival some samples were a full cup (because no one wants to go home with a partially filled keg!). The four of us made our ways around the festival many times. I took notes of some samples, and am sure ill have to recall some memory of others, so here goes.

Founders Devil Dancer
Short's Nicey Spicy
Jolly Pumpkin Kriek
Kuhnhenn Simcoe Silly
Copper Canyon Full Gard
The livery, some Lager
Rivht Brain IPA
Royal Oak Whit
Dragonmead Raspberry Wheat
I know theres a stout in there somewhere,i think from Olde Peninsula
Arbor Brewing Batch 2000
New Holland was visited as well...
And I believe one more was in there somewhere

Throughout the afternoon, hoots and hollers were heard throughout the festival at various locations. At first i thought, and they very well could have been, cheers for special tappings. But after being in the middle of several, i think it was just the celebration gaining momentum, with everyone raising their cups.

Six o'clock came way too soon, calling for a personal protest for the festival to extend longer. "I swear it was 3:30 just 30 minutes ago" I said to all. With that, we all made our way out to find some well deserved food.

I had a great time at my first Michigan Brewers Guild Beer festival, and con not wait until the next and newest engagement of theirs in late October at Eastern Market.