One of my favorite breweries to stop at on my travels, and I do stop very frequently is The Mitten Brewing Company. The Mitten opened in 2012 in Grand Rapids, Michigan and has been making great beer and superb pizza ever since.
The Mitten is a Baseball themed brewery and it shows all throughout the place. From old Baseball cards, pennants, pictures, and all sorts of Baseball memorabilia decorating their walls, to the names of the beers, and even their food options all have Baseball themed names.
The Mitten’s success was immediate, they had packed bars and long wait times from the beginning which resulted in them opening an off-site production facility in 2014. Only 2 years after they originally opened. Even that wasn’t enough to meet the demand for their products, so they opened a taproom in Northport, Michigan in 2016, and a third taproom in 2018 in Saugatuck, Michigan.
I have visited both the Grand Rapids and Saugatuck locations, but not the Northport location. Except for when it was Northport Brewing Company, but we will get to that review sometime during Throwback Thursday. That one is an old one, but a good one. Great times with great friends.
Now when it comes to the beer at the Mitten they do quite a few different styles and they do a stellar job on all of them. They have won medals at the Great American Beer Festival in 2018, more about GABF at a later date. They have also taken home medals from the World Beer Cup in 2016, 2022, and 2023.
Some of their year-round beers are Peanuts and Crackerjacks- Robust Porter, Country Strong- IPA, and Triple Crown Brown- Brown Ale. See, all are baseball themed names and all are very delicious. My personal favorite from the Mitten though has to go to Barrel-Aged Peanuts and Crackerjacks, this is an exceptional barrel-aged beer that tastes exactly like you are eating peanuts, chocolate and crackerjacks that have been soaked in bourbon. I want some of this in my life as I type this. Do I have any in the fridge? No…..Shit, guess a trip to the Mitten is in my future.
Now as great as the beer is, the real star of the show at the Mitten is the pizza. They make the best wood-fired pizza that you will find in the entire State of Michigan. I am drooling right now thinking about a pizza from The Mitten. The people of Grand Rapids agree, as it has been voted best pizza five times by Grand Rapids Magazine and Revue West Michigan. It was so popular that they opened a pizza only carry-out business in Rockford, Michigan in 2022.
Side note, I am a fat guy who if there is anything that I know more about than beer, it is pizza. I spent years working in the pizza industry at every pizzeria imaginable. Big chains, local pizza, mom and pop pizza places. I spent 15 years working in pizza, and I never got tired of Pizza (Just certain pizza places), so I know my stuff.
Keeping up with the Baseball theme, most of their pizzas have Baseball themed names. Field of Greens- Veggie Pizza, Curse of the Goat- Made with goat cheese and various meats and veggies, and my personal favorite, Da Meat Hook (Shoutout Dmitri Young, if you know, you know, Go TIgers!), which is an all meat pizza. They even offer pizza flights, so that you can try all the options if you want. Get an order of cheese bread to go along with your pizza, you won’t be disappointed.
Sorry that this turned into more of a pizza review than a brewery review, they just know how to make an awesome pizza at The Mitten, and I can’t talk about it enough. Watch out Dave Portnoy, I might do a spin-off Facebook page called Hold MI Pizza, and maybe it will become the Better Call Saul to my Breaking Bad.
Next time you need a few beers for some liquid courage to stand up and sing Take Me Out To The Ballgame, slide in safely to The Mitten Brewing Company at one of their various locations for a pint or two. If you really want to channel your inner Babe Ruth, call your shot in the World Series and hit a grand slam, order a pizza while you are there (I know it was a three run homer, grand slam just sounds more impressive in Baseball terms). Don’t let Nolan Ryan strike you out on your next trip through Michigan by missing a Mitten location near you. Cheers!
Disclaimer: No research was done for the Baseball references throughout this review, so I guess I might know a thing or two about the sport of Baseball also.
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