Michigan does not suffer from a lack of breweries.  Living in the Lansing are, I am about a.5 hours away from more than a dozen great breweries.  Unfortunatly, not everyone is so lucky, especially our friends from north of the Mackinaw Bridge.  But just because they don’t have the concentration of great breweries we enjoy down here, does not mean that they are out of luck for getting great beers.  In fact they get to play host to one of the Michigan Brewers Guild’s four annual festivals.

On September 10th, in Marquette’s Mattson Lower Harbor Park MBG will be holding its 3rd annual U.P. Fall Beer Fest.  The festival starts at 1PM (noon for Guild Enthusiast members) and runs until 6pm.  Hopefully enough time to samplesome of the more than 200 different local beers that will be available.  So if you live up north and couldn’t make the trek down to any of the other festivals, or live under the bridge and want to make a journey northward, I recommend you check it out.

More information and full press release after the break

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I’m glad you asked, because I didn’t know either.  But a quick look at the wikipedia page tells me two things, first, that “Kombuchais a is an effervescent tea-based beverage that is often drunk for its health benefits or medicinal purposes,” and second, that the Image they choose is downright frightening.  Why am I talking about this strange and intriguing beverage?  Because Michigan’s own Unity Vibration Living Kombucha Tea has created a Kombucha Beer.  And if that isn’t exciting enough, it will be available at the Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beerfest in Ypsilanti this coming weekend.  I will tell you this, I am very excited to give this a try.  If you’d like some more information, I have the full Press Release after the break.

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It feels so good to be back. Not that I don’t like camping, I’m just not sure my back likes it as much as I do. Air mattresses are great, or they would be if they didn’t deflate during the night. But that is the past. We are living in the now. and the now includes this review from The Hopster. You may not have noticed but over the break we experienced the solstice, and do celebrate it we here in Lansing went to the Festival of the Moon. While there we were able to sample a variety of great beers from Bell’s Brewery. So here we have the Hopster’s thoughts on their Two Hearted Ale.
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Summer
I hope everyone is enjoying their summer vacation.  I know we are here.  I just wanted to drop in to let everyone know that we will be returning next week with more great videos from everyone here.  I also wanted to note one minor update. If you still haven’t registered for a thisweekinbeer account, you can now log in using your facebook profile.  No password to remember and you can still comment and participate in all of the groups.

 

So keep enjoying the season and all of the beers that go with it.  I know I will be looking for a fine Belgian Wheat, or maybe some kind of Farmhouse.  There are too many to choose just one, I will have to try them all.  What is your favorite summer beer?

Good news, beer exists and is delicious.  Bad news, my computer suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure and have lost everything relevant to This Week in Beer.  So, I am going to be spending some time rebuilding  the visuals and recording new episodes for you all.  Oh, and I guess some more good news, we are adding a new host.  Now you will be hearing some style-specific reviews using big pretentious words that you’ve probably never heard before from our new pint-sized reviewer, The Hopster.  So look forward to that next week, and wish me luck trying to save _anything_ from this hard drive.

It is almost unprecidented isn’t it? A post that is both on time(ish) AND timely? Weird right?  Well I figured that since spring is in full swing and the weather can is pushing hot, it is probably time to shelve the rest of the Winter Beerfest videos (I’ll put them in the members gallery).  So to ring in the turn of the seasons and as a special Cinco de Mayo review, I will bring you a favorite of the Most Interesting Man in the World* himself. Here is my review of Dos Equis Lager.

 

 

*They say that even watching him sleep has been described as breathtaking. Continue reading

More videos from the Winter Beerfest.  I really should get the rest of these out since we are now well into spring.  This week we are featuring a beer from another unique Michigan brewery, Jolly Pumpkin.  Here are the views of myself, and Tricia on their, schizophrenically named, Chocolate Pineapple Chipotle Rauch Biere. Continue reading

Welcome to another exciting edition of “why is this video up late.” Well, I’m not telling.  Instead I am just going to get on to business.  I’ve got a cryptic review for you of a beer from one of my favorite michigan breweries, The Livery’s 5th Dimension.  I have to say, I have never been disappointed by one of their beers, and this one is no exception.  So enjoy this, another cryptic review from the 2011 MBG Winter Beerfest. Continue reading