Well after yesterday’s review, I decided I would go with the same theme as yesterday and talk about the only other Michigan brewery that is located on an island. Except this time instead of Mackinac Island, we are going to head west into Lake Michigan and go to Beaver Island.
Beaver Island is about a 2 hour ferry ride and approximately 32 miles Northwest of Charlevoix, Michigan. Whiskey Point Brewing Company which was established in 2017 was the first brewery in Michigan that was located on an island.
Just a heads up, this is by far the most expensive brewery to visit in the State of Michigan. If you are just going for the beer, be prepared to shell out 65 dollars round trip just to ride the ferry. If you don’t feel like riding a ferry for over 4 hours, they do have flights available, it is only a 15 minute trip by plane, but it will be much more expensive.
Interesting fact about Beaver Island is the fact that it was originally occupied by a Mormon Theocracy and Monarchy ruled by King Joseph Strang, who unsuccessfully challenged Brigham Young for the post Joseph Smith leadership of Mormonism. He ended up ruling on Beaver Island until his assassination in 1856. The Island was then turned into a tourist destination by the Irish American fisherman that took the island back after his assassination.
Pro tip, if you are going to visit Beaver Island, go for a few days. It is a really cool place with a lot of things to do and a ton of very interesting history behind it. Don’t be like Steve, who thought a four and a half hour round trip ferry ride to visit a brewery was the only reason to visit. Take the family, make a vacation out of it. There is plenty to do for people of all ages, lots of beaches (it is an island after all), historical museums, and in the three and half hours I was on the Island, I didn’t even come close to seeing all of it. The island itself is over 15 miles long from North to South. I don’t think anyone can see the whole island in that amount of time.
Now that I have spent a lot of time talking about Beaver Island and the history behind it, let’s move on to what we all came here for, Whiskey Point Brewing Company. We arrived at the brewery around 3:30 in the afternoon, but they didn’t open until 4:00. The employees saw us waiting outside and decided to let us in early, which was a good thing because the last ferry for the day left the dock at 5:20. We would have only had about an hour to enjoy the beers before leaving had they not let us in early. Thanks again guys. But when this place opens for the day, man do they fill up fast, by 4 o’clock it seemed like the entire island was at the brewery.
Once inside the brewery it is a cool little brewery. There are approximately 10 to 15 seats available for bar seating. There are also about 10 tables or so in the main seating area, that may be able to seat about 30 to 40 pretty comfortably. If you want to sit outside and enjoy the views of the water from the brewery, there are about 5 tables outside to do it from.
We ended up sitting at the bar and chatting with the bar staff, who were very laid back and easy-going, they do live on an island so it kind of makes sense. They only had 4 beers on tap when we were there. They had an IPA, a hazy IPA, a single bock, and an oatmeal stout. In addition to the seltzer that they had on tap. Normally we just get a flight and try everything, but since we had a 2 hour ferry ride home we decided to go full metal and just do full pours of all their beers on tap. They were all very tasty beers but my personal favorite was the Sand Bay Bock, their single bock, which was smooth, light and malty. The hazy IPA, Head Light, was my second favorite. It came in at 6.0%, which was a little light for a hazy IPA, but still very delicious.
If you yearn for island life and don’t want to spend thousands of dollars to go to a tropical island, I would highly recommend that you head North instead of South and check out Beaver Island and Whiskey Point Brewing Company.
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