Today we are going to talk about a brewery trip that I took last June, this was the trip that helped me clean up the rest of the map on my way to having visited every brewery in the state that was open as of July 1st of 2024. The trip took place from June 4th until June 10th of 2024. This trip included stops at 41 breweries in 7 days. Some I had been to before, they just happened to be in cities I spent the night in or were too close to places for me to pass up a visit. I traveled just over 2,100 miles in the 7 days to visit these breweries. This was one of the most ambitious, planned out beer trips I have ever taken in my life.
The breweries that I visited on this trip include:
June 4th 2024-
Handmap Brewing Company- Battle Creek, MI
Longship Brewing Company- Lawton, MI
OpenRoad Brewery- Wayland, MI
June 5th 2024-
Pink Barrel Cellars- Grand Rapids, MI
Perrin Brewing Company- Comstock Park, MI (Had been here before, but couldn’t pass up a chance to stop by Perrin since I was so close to the brewery)
E.B. Coffee & Pub- Caledonia, MI (Did not have any beer on tap, and hasn’t had beer on tap since pre-pandemic, not sure why they are on the Michigan Brewery Map App still)
Vander Mill- Grand Rapids, MI
June 6th 2024-
Starving Artist Brewing Company- Ludington, MI
Northern Natural Cider House & Winery- Kaleva, MI
Identity Brewing Company- Traverse City, MI
Third Life Brewing Company- Manistee, MI
BOBs Brewery- Grand Rapids, MI
June 7th 2024- By far the longest travel day of the trip
Heavenly Vineyards- Morley, MI
Cadillac Winery/ Leroy Brewing- Leroy, MI
Paddle Hard Brewing- Grayling, MI (No beer, just Lobster Mac and Cheese)
Rolling Oak Brewing Company- Grayling, MI (Can’t drive by or through Grayling without stopping)
HopSide Brewery- Alpena, MI
Austin Brothers Beer Company- Alpena, MI (Had been here before)
Alcona Brew Haus- Harrisville, MI
Boathouse Beer Co. & Boozery- Tawas City, MI
Sand Lake Micro Brewery- National City, MI
Three Bridges Distillery and Taproom- Midland, MI
June 8th 2024-
Boss Cider- Leslie, MI
Sandhill Crane Vineyards- Jackson, MI
Rusty Rocket Brewing Company- Pullman, MI
Schaendorf Brewing Company- Allegan, MI
Heronmark Brewing- Allegan, MI
Liquid Note Brewing- Otsego, MI
Saugatuck Brewing Company- Kalamazoo, MI (Had been here before)
Brewery Outré- Kalamazoo, MI (Had been here before)
Bell’s Brewery- Kalamazoo, MI (Had been here before)
June 9th 2024-
Blind Island Brewery- Sturgis, MI (Did not have any of their beer on tap upon my arrival)
Cherry Creek Cellars- Brooklyn, MI
Meckley’s Flavor Fruit Farm Cidery- Cement City, MI
The Winery North of 12- Brooklyn, MI
Black Fire Winery- Tecumseh, MI
Tombstone Brewery- New Baltimore, MI
June 10th 2024-
Barrister Brewing Company- Owosso, MI
Frankenmuth Brewery- Frankenmuth, MI (Had been here before)
W.H. Ales Brewpub- Bay City, MI (Grand opening)
Linden Brewing Company- Linden, MI
This trip included 41 breweries, 33 of which I had never been to before. It included 2 stops where the breweries didn’t have any beer on tap, and another one that also had no beer on tap, but gave me a taste of a beer that was still in the process of fermenting.
Out of all the new breweries that I visited on this trip, my 5 personal favorites, in no particular order were, Starving Artist Brewing Company, Rusty Rocket Brewing Company, Barrister Brewing Company, Handmap Brewing Company and Hopside Brewery.
I had a ton of fun on this trip, despite the time constraints and the amount of travel that took place for me to hit them all in a timely fashion. I don’t know if I could replicate a trip like this again, this took months of planning to execute this trip the way that I did. It also required traveling back to certain areas multiple times to cross everyone off the list.
This leads me to the interactive part of this article, I want to hear from all the followers out there. What has been your most ambitious or favorite brewery trip? How many did you visit? How many days did it take? What were your favorites on the trip? Do you have any brewery trips planned coming up soon? Tell me all about it in the comments section of this post. I can’t wait to hear all about your trips across the Great Beer State. Cheers!
#cheers #beer #beerlovers #brewery #brewerylife #michiganbeer #roadtrip #craftbeer #drinklocal
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