Oh man, you mean we have to travel 8 minutes again on this trip to hit the next brewery? Well since we made the trek overnight, we have now arrived at Hereford and Hereford & Hops Restaurant and Brewpub. They are located in the Downtown area of Escanaba whereas Upper Hand is located on the outskirts of town. Hereford and Hops opened their doors to a thirsty public 30 years ago in 1994 and have been brewing beer for the people of Escanaba ever since.
The building that they are located in began construction in 1912, the building was completed in 1914 and opened as the Delta Hotel. The Delta hotel was in operation until 1962, when it became a senior living facility and remained that way until it went up for sale in 1992. The owners of Hereford and Hops purchased the building after visiting a grill-your-own steakhouse, a novel concept at the time, and began work renovating the building to house Hereford and Hops. When they opened the doors in 1994, they became the Upper Peninsula’s first brewpub. In 1998, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
When you walk into the brewery, it does have more of a restaurant type feel to it, but that is to be expected. Plenty of tables around the area for drinking and dining. They have a two-sided bar with approximately 8 to 10 seats on either side of the bar for your drinking pleasure.
Since they are a brewpub, they do offer a kitchen with a full menu. Their menu options include appetizers, sandwiches, soups, salads, pizza, entrees, steaks and much more. We did actually eat here on our visit, everyone in our group enjoyed their food. I was in the beginning stages of becoming sick, I picked at my food a little bit, but I had almost no appetite at the time.
As far as options other than beer, Hereford and Hops also serves wine, cocktails and has a fully stocked liquor bar. For non-alcoholic options they do make a menu of various mocktails and offer a few options of various sodas.
Quite a few of the beers here have won various medals at the World Beer Cup throughout the years, so I was excited to try some of their beers out. The beers that we tried on our flight during this visit were Redemption- IPA, Blackbird Oatmeal Stout, Highlander Ale- Scotch Ale, Soleil- Wheat Beer, Bluegrass Ale- Fruit Beer, and Whitetail Ale- Blonde Ale.
My favorite beer of our flight was the Clearly Red which was a light-bodied, clean Irish Red that had a little bit of sweetness to it, quite the malt presence and finished very smooth. This one clocks in a lot lower on the ABV scale than most beers I like to drink, at 3.9%, this is definitely a beer that you can crush quite a few throughout a drinking session.
As we get ready to continue the rest of our journey across the U.P. We have to tip our cap to the first brewpub in the Upper Peninsula, without Hereford and Hops Restaurant and Brewpub paving the way, it is possible that the U.P. might not be the brewery destination that it is today. Estrovia!
#drinklocal #michiganbeer #beer #upperpeninsula #yooperlife #craftbeer #beerlovers
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