Michigan Summer Beer Trip - Day #3
June 29, 2007 - Got on the road around 10:00 a.m. Arrived at our next destination, Marquette, around 10:45. Our brewery destination in Marquette - Vierling Restaurant/Marquette Harbor Brewing Co.- like most places didn’t open unti. 11 a.m. So we took a walk around the pier for about a half an hour.
During our walk we stumbled upon an exhibit called “Grandma Doors” all along the waterfront of the and throughout the park. I guess I shouldn’t say stumbled upon because you can’t miss the 200-plus doors that line the waliking/bike trail. Local artists decorated the doors in honor their grandmothers.
Around 11:30 a.m. we made our way back up from the waterfront to Vierling.
The inside of Marquette Harbor is beautiful old place with a gorgeous oak bar. Sitting in the pub you feel like you’re in a turn of the century pub. We sat down and were waited on by Jamie (a friendly bartender with cute Betty Page bangs). We ordered a sampler of everything and Jamie caught on right away to the fact that we were Michigan beer tourists. After all, we were sampling beer beforn noon on a Friday. Beers sampled included: a nut brown ale (excellent) the plank road pale ale (another favorite), the Spears Tug stout, a Canadian blonde ale, a scotch ale (very light for a scotch ale which is usually pretty bold with a very high alcohol content - but that’s okay. Afterall, it was only 11:30 a.m.) a peach wheat , a blueberry wheat (complete with whole blueberries bobbing up and down in the glass) and the Captain Ripley red.
We weren’t quite hungry enough for lunch yet but we decided to split an appetizer of beer-cheese spread and breadsticks. The breadsticks were deep-fried. Completely unneccessary but delicous nonetheless. We sat and talked for a while with Jamie and with a man who was originally from Florida but who was staying with his sister for a year in Marquette. We didn’t stay too long at Vierling. Our final destination for the day was the Keweenaw Peninsula and we had one more stop to make before getting there - Jasper Ridge Brewing Company in Ishpeming.
Jasper Ridge was named after, according to our Michigan Breweries book, Jasper Knob, a nearby rock formation that is the world’s largest jemstone. Jasper Knob is made of alternating bands of jasper and hemetite. I have to admit that we weren’t all that impressed with the location of Jasper Ridge. We actually passed it once because it was back off the road a bit in a strip-mall-ey busness complex that includes a few hotels, several restaurants, a movie theater and a bowling alley. However - what the place lacked in location it made up for in good beer and great hospitality.
By the time we arrived the place was packed with locals there for lunch. And, as at Vierling, we were identified right away as Michigan beer tourists. This time it was because we brought our Michigan Breweries book into the pub with us. Turns out, it’s a good thing we did. As we sat down and ordered our sampler (this one included the Ropes golden wheat, a Raspberry wheat, the Copper Kolsch, a belgian wit, the Jasper Brown ale, and Red Earth Pale ale - my favorite) a man approached us who turned out to be Grant Lyke - the brewer at Jasper Ridge.
Grant was a wonderful host who stuck around and chatted with us the whole time we were there. At one point he asked the see our Michigan Breweries book. He remembered being interviewed for the book but had never read the finished product. In While we were finishing up our beer he went into the back office and decided to order several copies of the book to sell at the gift-counter. He even posed for a picture for us in the back in front of his brewing equipment.
We could have stayed a lot longer at Jasper Ridge, however, the rest of the afternoon was dedicated to our drive to the Keweenaw Peninsula where we would be staying for two nights. We took our time getting there even stopping along the way for a short hike at a little known place we discovered in our “Off the Beaten Path - Michigan” guidebook. It’s actually located at a rest area! Just beyond the bathrooms, back off the road is path that creeps into the woods and within a half a mile comes to the impressive Canyon falls formed by the Sturgeon River.
We arrived in Calumet(just past Houghton/Hancock) around 4:30 p.m. that afternoon. We stayed two nights at the Michigan House Cafe/Red Jacket Brewing Company. I’ll save Michigan House for tomorrow’s post.