I May Have Found Heaven

A few of my fellow beer loving friends have been talking about this store called 8 Degrees Plato Beer Company in Ferndale lately. A few weeks ago, while out in Ferndale, I had some time to kill before meeting up with some friends so I thought "what the heck, why not stop in and check it out!". Boy am I glad I did. What an AWESOME place. I checked out their inventory list on their website before going there, so I knew they had a lot of selection, but I never imagined it to be as cool as it was. They carry beer from 23 different breweries in Michigan (and a TON from all over the world, including Germany, England, Japan, Poland, and basically anywhere you can think of). This is not your typical beer store. It's not a liquor store or anything of that nature. This is a nice little shop that carries only beer, beer related items like books, antique beer and bar collectibles, and cheeses from around Michigan. It's a great place and the owners are great! I talked to the owner, Tim, for quite a while. He suggested a few different beers for me based on my favorites and I loved all of them. He really knows his stuff! The place is really neat because you can pick up one single beer, or you can build your own six pack from their unbeatable selection. Another really neat feature of this shop is that every Friday evening, they do FREE beer tastings from 6-8 pm. They feature 2 or 3 different beers and usually have a theme to go with it. Very cool if you ask me! Here is a photo from their Facebook to give you an idea of how awesome the place is. :)

Photo taken from 8 Degrees Plato Beer Co. Facebook

You can also check out the article and video news story from Fox right here
For more information about 8 Degrees Plato Beer Company, check out their website here

What is YOUR favorite place to buy hard to find beer?? I'd love to hear about them!

Tourin' the brewery at Atwater

Last Thursday, I got to do something I've always wanted to - tour a brewery. Lucky for me, it was the brewery that makes my FAVORITE beer, Atwater Brewery. Atwater is located in Detroit’s historic Rivertown district, and housed in a 1919 factory warehouse. Atwater Brewery was founded in March of 1997 with the purpose of carrying on the rich history of breweries in Detroit. It is a very unique place and atmosphere. It basically looks like a giant warehouse with a bar placed in the middle where you can hang out and have all of your favorites, or try some new ones. I went with a few friends - each of us had a pass for a brewery tour and a beer tasting that I got us for Christmas. I know, I am so thoughtful! The coolest part of the brewery tour was seeing where everything is bottled and labeled on a  little assembly line. Real interesting stuff. It's surprising to me how Atwater's production is so small scale compared to other places such as Bell's. Atwater has been experiencing tremendous growth in demand the past few years, and plans to continue expanding. Some interesting facts I learned while visiting Atwater:

• 80% of their grain waste is used in compost piles to feed the hungry
• It takes about six weeks for beer to be made from start to finish
• Each tank can hold about 1,000 beers
• There are only 18 people working there (There were only 2 when I was there!)

 Check out this video from Atwater's YouTube page. You might laugh. :) 

And if you want an inside look on the brew process, check out this video and article from Fox 2 News
Fox 2 News Atwater Article

Happy American Craft Beer Week!

This week I'm going to take a break from celebrating the beer from the great state of Michigan, and celebrate it from all over America because today is the first day of American Craft Beer Week. What is American Craft Beer Week you ask?? Well, according to CraftBeer.com:

"Beer weeks are giving craft beer fans across the U.S. ever-increasing options to enjoy and share the beverage they love. Beer weeks celebrate the culture and community of craft beer, and give breweries and beer businesses the opportunity to connect with the fans. The Brewers Association, the national non-profit association on behalf of the majority of today's U.S. breweries, and publishers of CraftBeer.com, celebrate the culmination of these events each May with American Craft Beer Week (ACBW), The Mother of All Beer Weeks."

American Craft Beer Week will be recognized May 14 - 20, 2012 and offers an exciting opportunity for small and independent craft brewers and the community of better beer retailers to celebrate the ever advancing beer culture here in the U.S. Plus, tens of thousands of today's beer beginners, beer enthusiasts, and hard core beer geeks make time to toast the week. Watch the video below for a little more info, it's actually pretty cool.

Photo and video both taken from CraftBeer.com

 

 

Some places around Michigan celebrating American Craft Beer Week include:

• Rusty Bucket Restaurant & Tavern in Bloomfield Hills
• Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti
• Old Chicago in Southgate
• Kuhnhenn Brewing Co in Warren 

For a full list of events this week, click here
 
What is YOUR favorite American craft beer? :)

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Today I went to the Tiger's game with my sister and a few friends. It was my second game of the season and I noticed something new this season - the Michigan Craft Beer stand. How cool is that? Not only do they sell ONLY Michigan made beer, but they also have food and some frozen drinks so it's a good one-stop shop. The sign read "Michigan Craft Beer Proud Supporters of Michigan Beer". Of course I had to go in and check it out. There were about six choices from Bell's and one from Atwater. This made me extremely happy. I LOVE seeing Michigan products being supported and sold and places like Comerica Park. I know Comerica has had the Atwater beer stand for quite some time now (it's the only place I'll buy a beer there), but seeing the addition of the Michigan Craft Beer area was just awesome. There were a lot of people in there, too. It really got me thinking that this whole Michigan beer scene is getting pretty darn popular these days. If any of you have been to Joe Louis Arena lately, you will notice they, too sell a whole lot of Bell's beer these days. It's pretty awesome if you ask me. Very proud to see these places supporting Michigan like they should be! If you're wondering where you can find these awesome places, the Atwater Brewery stand is in section 108 and the Michigan Craft Beer area is around section 104. Keep up the good work Comerica and go Tigers! :)

Here are some photos from the day:

Atwater Brewery stand at Comerica Park

Enjoying my Atwater Dirty Blonde. Dorky, I know.

Michigan Craft Beer stand. Photo courtesy of The Detroit News

Where have you seen Michigan beer being sold lately??