Tag: Beer of the Month

June 2017: Cascading Into Darkness from City Built Brewing

Looks like porter, taste like hops

What can’t we say about our June 2017 Beer of the Month from the newest brewery to open up in Beer City, USA?

City Built Brewing, located at 820 Monroe NW near the Grand River just north of the Sixth Street bridge, serves up a pretty mean 6.66% ABV Nordic-inspired black IPA made with juniper and cardamom.

Cascading Into Darkness (pictured at left) is a black/Cascadian dark ale that hits like a rainstorm in Seattle and causes the same facial expression your dad gave you after describing the third change in your college major back in sophomore year. “Damn!?!”

Yes, it looks like a porter, dark and deep. But it finishes like an IPA, floral and hoppy. If you know the Hoops crew, (if not, just follow along with our Beer of the Month blog) IPA’s are our deal. And this beer is a big one in our books.

With 110 check-ins on untapped.com, it’s 91 ratings average out to a 3.78 overall score for the 65 IBU concoction from brewmaster/co-owner Dan Petroelje.

With the honor of knowing co-owner Ed Collazo beforehand, our group experienced a great night on the town in the former Sackner Products building now run by 616 Development that also houses the 616 Lofts, Beer City Barre, Fido & Stitch and Field & Fire.

The menu is Puerto Rican-inspired delicacy, prepared for the local Grand Rapidian or any weary traveler, including this dedicated writer, pen hoarder and inspiration of ours.

GET THE TACOS! It doesn’t matter what kind you would order, (pork, shrimp, chicken, cheeses or veggie) you must try them all. The Hoops crew also got a bit cheesy by ordering the Queservesa, a warm housemade beer cheese with sofrito and cheddar jack, which is served hot with house tortilla chips. Then, order another round of food and drinks.

Congrats, City Built Brewing!

The BeerCityHoops Beer of the Month for June 2017 is Cascading Into Darkness!

Tweet at us using the hashtag, #IAmBeerCity

  Don’t forget to check out the City Built online store for all your swag!

May 2017: Wheezin’ The Juice IPA – Grand Armory Brewing

Hey, bud-dy!

We’ve got a new bodacious beer of the month and we’re proud to announce that for May 2017 the crew will be Linc-ing up with Wheezin’ The Juice IPA from Grand Armory Brewing in Grand Haven, MI.

Whether you’re surfing the turf or shredding a mean wave on Michigan’s west coast, make sure to get yourself, Cashmere and Rajni over to the taproom. Housed in the 111-year-old Armory Building, located at 17 S. Second St. in the heart of Grand Haven’s downtown district, the Grand Armory is just blocks from the waterfront and Lake Michigan’s beaches. The taproom has 20 taps and offers many styles of ales, hand-crafted ciders, old-fashioned sodas and wine.

This 6.3% ABV, 37 IBU brew is represented as “a juicy IPA for nugs, chillin, and grindage. The Mosaic and Citra dry hop makes you feel like you’re in Encino, sneaking slushee pulls right off the machine”, this juicy IPA is an honorable tribute to the performance of a young duo named Pauly Shore and Brendan Fraser in the iconic stoner classic, Encino Man.

With a menu that satisfies without having to be microwaved in sneaky fashion, the Grand Armory kitchen boasts “huge & awesome sandwiches” including the ‘Merican and a spring specials menu.

Any way you look at it, “I’ll be back” for more.

April 2017: Hopsun from the B.O.B.

On April 17, Brewer John from The B.O.B.’s Brewery will release his summer favorite and our April Beer of the Month, Hopsun.

A perfect brew for the warm weather of summertime, this 4.6% ABV is an all Michigan-grown wheat beer. Made with a Belgian yeast and boasting 15 IBUs, Hopsun is a unique take on the classic summer wheat. This refreshing, spicy wit flavored-beer delivers at 20 Monroe NW in downtown Grand Rapids. MI.

 

The B.O.B.’s Brewery is part of the Gilmore Collection’s Big Old Building, a 70,000-square-foot, four-story, red brick building in the heart of Beer City, USA. After standing vacant for decades, the building was saved from demolition and now has five levels of entertainment, restaurants, nightlife, comedy club and the brewery. It now includes a concert space called 20 Monroe Live.

 

 

March 2017: Founders’ KBS

It’s March Madness and that means its time for Founders Brewing’s KBS release!

Kentucky Breakfast Stout is one of the most sought after brews throughout Beer City and the rest of the USA.

Aged in bourbon barrels for a year in the cavernous underground beneath Grand Rapids, KBS is frequently included as one of the best beers in the world on numerous lists and has crashed the web servers in years past because folks wanted to figure out how to find it.

This year, KBS Week runs from March 6-11 and tickets for the 25 local tapping events sold out quickly. Founders held a first-come, first-serve event on March 11 in their Taproom.

It’s an imperial stout brewed with a massive amount of coffee and chocolates, then cave-aged in oak bourbon barrels for an entire year to make sure wonderful bourbon undertones come through in the finish.

It’s 11.8% ABV may be one of the reasons RateBeer gave it a ranking of 100.

You better be quick on the trigger, this rarity goes fast. And once it’s gone, it’s gone!

 

February 2017: Blue Sunday from New Holland

Our February 2017 Beer of the Month is Blue Sunday from New Holland Brewing.

First brewed in 2007, this “unique anniversary libation, heritage-blended from our library of barrel-soured beers, exhibits deeply layered flavors of malt and oak, with a tart finish.”

A 7.0% ABV sour ale that boasts 18 IBUs with blended grains and hops from several beers, Blue Sunday adds yeast of an American Ale and bacteria cultures, and pairs well with wild game, poultry & charcuterie.

Make sure to get your hands on some while it lasts whether at the Pub on 8th Street in Holland or The Knickerbocker here in Beer City, USA.

January 2017: Hopslam from Bell’s Brewing

Our January 2017 Beer of the Month has hops! It’s Bell’s Hopslam!

Big hops, a taste of honey, bittersweet. This 10% ABV double IPA is sought after by many, hoarded by few and loved by the masses.

If you’re one of the seekers, you better act fast as this one flies off the shelves. Available in six-packs only (there will be no mini-kegs produced this year), Hopslam will be celebrated with a limited-time only badge on Untapped.com from Jan. 6-Feb. 6, 2017.

 

“Huge upset.” November 2016: FRUITOPIA from Greyline Brewing

Well, it only took us about half the month to decide what November’s Beer of the Month was going to be. Better than the 30 days in October we waited, right?

When the Pick6 crew headed out On The Mitten Road to Greyline Brewing to meet up with Chef Ronnie Mack, we decided that if he was going to run the gauntlet with the helmets, we’d ask him to select our November winner. His choice was Greyline’s Kona Brown Ale.

But, because it was Election Month, we’ve rigged the voting and named Greyline’s FRUITOPIA Fruit Beer as our electoral college winner!

With Kona Brown being TRUMP’d up by Chef Ron’s lobbyists, FRUITOPIA took it’s message directly to the people and spread the word with its raspberry and 7 other fruits (probably ‘member berries) and upset the mainstream media around here, which was expecting an IPA in a landslide. Fruitopia polled around 5.2% ABV.

grapeline brewing

October: Ichabod Pumpkin Ale from New Holland Brewing

If you’ve been holding your breath for us to announce our Beer of the Month this October, you’re probably a zombie by now.

And that’s perfect, it’s Halloween!

Had we named this beer earlier in the month, it would have coincided with Oktoberfest and everybody does that. So, we dressed appropriately for the end of the month party, searched far and wide for something mysterious and picked the creepiest local we could find on the shelf. We hope you’re not too scared to join the spooky fun.

The 3-Point Turn podcast’s Beer of the Month for October 2016 is Ichabod from New Holland Brewing.

Ichabod is a pumpkin ale with 5.2% ABV and 26 IBUs that combines malted barley, pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg to leave you speechless.

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September: Creston Brewery goes back-to-back with Polar Bear

Packing up the cars, clubs and the coolers before the Labor Day weekend to travel south of the Pure Michigan border to play golf at Blackthorn, visit Touchdown Jesus and find our September Beer of the Month became a much easier crusade once the party found out that Creston Brewery in Grand Rapids was already filling crowlers.

Sent on a mission to the northeast corner of Plainfield Ave. and Sweet Street to chaseBlackthorn Golf Club down some fine ales for our weekend adventure to South Bend, I quickly found a seat at the bar when I arrived at the former DeKorne Furniture building in the recovering Creston neighborhood on Grand Rapids’ northeast side.

After a celebratory cheers to August and the hoppy GRale, it was off to the land of Hoosiers. We held off on the Polar Bear brew with enough patience to count to ten in latin or spell Iehovah in Hebrew, but it felt like they were ripping the hearts out of our chests.  If you need the skinny on the GRale, click here.

Polar Bear by Creston BreweryWe each found ourselves with crawlers of Polar Bear, a multi-grain brew with citrus and midwest hops and a 4.20% ABV. Knowing the holiness we were searching for and what was at stake, it was time to test our fate.

Our taste buds quickly informed us we had chosen wisely. And so, Polar Bear by Creston Brewery in Beer City, USA was named our September 2016 Beer of the Month.

The rest of the story belongs in a museum.

 

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August: Creston Brewery’s GRALE

I wasn’t meant to be there when the doors opened. It just happened. Coincidence, I guess. Or, the stars? However it came to fruition, our August Beer of the Month is Creston Brewery‘s GRALE!

IMG_0737As I drove south on Plainfield Ave. toward downtown last Wednesday morning I noticed a group of news vans parked and three random people standing outside the glass doors to Beer City’s newest local watering hole, Creston Brewery. Obviously, stopping in was mandated by William Miller, my own Jiminy Cricket-like conscience imagined to walk and talk in the manner of Patrick Fugitt’s wonderful rendition of Cameron Crowe’s innocent, wide-eyed reporter in Almost Famous.

When the crew unlocked the door for business at 11am, I happened to be the 6th person in line. Somehow amid all the calamity I missed my favorite beer-guzzling, classically trained chef, Amy Sherman from WOOD Radio’s Behind the Mitten and IRON GR. (How many times has this happened at a new brewery? Countless. Maybe, every time.)IMG_0738

Without time to sit and partake in the festivities with Chris from EatGR.com, I grabbed a quick taste of the GRALE. It’s the closest thing to an IPA that Jarrod and the staff have on tap. While they don’t specify what specific “kind” of beer they serve(think IPA, Porter, Stout, etc.), the Creston team lets you see what the beers are brewed with as not to bias your tastebuds pre-tasting. Their coasters are adorned with a color- and malt-coded scale, as well as a bitterness and hops scale, to let the customer understand where their likings fall on the spectrum.IMG_0736

Want to be a part of the Creston Crew? It’s their insiders club with some great GR benefits like $2 off EVERY drink.

Some of you are asking yourselves, “did he sneeze?”

Yes.

That’s why GRALE from Creston Brewery is our August Beer of the Month.

 

 

 

 

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