The Place Where We Live

We left Calumet on day five of our trip around 10 a.m. It was a 7 hour drive back down to our next stop, Bellaire, Michigan so we figured that would get us to our next destination between five and six p.m. On our way back we decided, rather than backtracking the way that we had come, we would take the route that took us along the southern edge of the UP (eventually along the northern Lake Michigan coastline) AND would allow us to stop for lunch at Hereford and Hops Restaurant and brewpub in Escanaba for lunch, since - according to the Michigan Breweries guide book - the restaurant opened at noon on Sundays. Unfortunately, when we arrived at Hereford, we found that, since the book went to print the place had changed their hours and now wasn’t open until 4 p.m. So, even though we can’t say we tasted there beer at Hereford and Hops, we were at least THERE and managed to snap a picture of the sign.

On the other hand, we were able to make really great time back down to the LP so we decided that we would drive to Bellaire via Petoskey, where (according to Nick the Merchant Marine we met at Keweenaw) there was a brew-pub. We’d never heard it…and now we know that (as in the case of Leelanau Brewing) if we’ve never heard of it, there’s a  chance that it may not actually exist (or it exists, but not in a form conducive to a visit.) After asking several people we finally got our answer: It had gone out of business five years ago.

By the time we got back on the road and got to Bellaire, it was five o’clock. We had arrived at the bed and breakfast where we would be staying for the night just in time for their wine and social hour with other guests. Although I was saving my energy (and alcohol consumption) for Short’s I was excited because - after all - we were practically in Michigan wine country and it would be nice to relax and have a glass of great Michigan wine on the porch with other guests. We ended up being pretty disappointed when out of the four wines they were serving none of them were from Michigan. We politely drank a small glass each of red wine, socialized for a bit with the owners Dave and Jim and the other guests and then were off. After all, the only reason we were staying in Bellaire was Short’s.

Short’s is probably, at least in my book, one of the best breweries in the state. What makes Short’s even more intersting is that the owner and brewer, Joe Short, is around the same age as me (29) and has owned the brewery since he was 25! And he brews amazing beer.

When we walked into the place we were amazed at the chalk board on the back wall which seemed as if it had a never ending selection of beer on tap. When we sat down and the bartender asked us what we wanted we told her, “Just give us a sampler of your best beers.”

She brought out two five-beer flights consisting of:

1. Ginger and Rye (The Vernors of Beer)
2. Local’s Light (The closest I’ve ever had to a Budweiser at a micro-brewery. This may not sound like it, but that’s high praise considering how difficult it is to make a flawless American lager)
3. Pontius Road Pilsner
4. Village Reserve (a nice easy drinking California Common Beer)
5. Pandemonium Pale
6. Sustenance Black Beer
7. Bellaire Brown
8. Chocolate Wheat
9. Huma-Lupa-Licious (any botanists out there will get the reference)
10.The Soft Parade (a mixed fruit beer)

After that flight and a nice appetizer we decided to try the last five beers that they had on tap.

11. Hangin Frank
12. Nicey Spicey (A wild experimental blonde wheat beer spiced with lemon, orange, coriander, and peppercorns! It was an excellent beer, although I’m sure I couldn’t drink a lot of it.)
13. Autumn Ale
14. Smoked Apple Ale (another wild but great beer)
15. Purple Rain (another fruity berry beer)

It also turns out that, since we were staying at the Bellaire Bed and Breakfast we were entitled to their mug club membership privileges. Although we didn’t really want to drink much more , we knew we were at a great place and didn’t want to leave. So we decided to order a mug of the Village reserve to split.

We sat down on the couch there (which was really actually an old red car seat) and talked and drank our beer. It was a good thing we stuck around for that last beer, because if we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have gotten to meet Joe, the brewer. Although we had never met Joe we knew who he was the second he walked in the door because…well…a friend of ours told us he looked like Harry Potter…and…he really kinda does. (Luckily Joe Short will probably never read this because I’m sure he gets that all of the time and is probably pretty sick of hearing it!)

We introduced ourselves, told Joe about our trip and chatted with him for a while. We were a little bit disappointed that there was no live music that night as promised. However, Shorts was such a great place it was definitely worth staying there. We finally left a little bit before closing 11 p.m. loaded up with hooded sweatshirts, a pint glass, and a bottle of Joes special limited edition Imperial Cherry Porter. We walked back to the Bellaire Bed and Breakfast (a beautiful place with excellent hosts od - in spite of the non-Michigan wine thing) and settled in for the night.

After a delicious breakfast of fluffy egg casserole, cajun bacon, apple crumb cake, fresh fruit, coffee and cranberry apple juice, and coffee we set out for Traverse City.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 8:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.