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Breweries of Southwest Michigan
 New Holland Brewing
Available in bottles in Indiana
66 East 8th Street
Holland
616-355-NHBC
web site
email
Mon-Thurs: 11am-midnight
Fri-Sat: 11am-1am
Closed Sunday.
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Production facility
205 Fairbanks Ave
616-355-2941
John Haggerty, Brewmaster
and Hoosier, born and raised in Zionsville.
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Established 1997. 25 BBL brewery opened in 2002. 10,000 BBL capacity. Downtown tap house and brewpub with lunch and dinner fare and possibly the most uncomfortable-to-sit-at bar in the universe.
Specialty brews are made on site and sometimes only available at this location. $4-$5 / pint. They have many special dinners and parties for the public and their mug club members. Down the line, they plan a new, bigger brewery and installation of unique devices such as a continuous-flow centrifuge to clarify some beers without filtering.
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Representative Beer Menu
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ABV |
| Paleooza |
American Pale Ale made with all Cascade
hops. 33 IBU |
5.8% |
| Sundog |
Amber ale in the British style. Caramunich
and Biscuit malt, Nugget, Wilamette, and Fuggles hops. 31 IBU |
5.25% |
| Mad Hatter |
A more pronounced American hoppy ale. 53
IBU. World Cup Gold 2004. |
5.8% |
| Full Circle |
A lighter pilsner beer with plenty of Saaz
hops. 30 IBU |
5.25% |
| Red Tulip Ale |
Spring seasonal. Dutch style lager. |
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| Zoomer Wit |
Summer seasonal. Belgian white ale
typically served with lemon. Cascade hops make it different from the
norm but still not bitter. 22 IBU |
5% |
| Ichabod |
Fall seasonal. Pumpkin pie ale with
ginger. 15 IBU |
5.5% |
| The Poet |
Winter seasonal. A serious stout with
toasty coffee and chocolate. Some oats for smoothness. 31 IBU |
6.5% |
| Black Tulip |
High Gravity seasonal. Belgian tripel made
with candy sugar. 49 IBU |
10% |
| Pilgrim's Dole |
High Gravity seasonal. A "wheat
wine" (think barley wine) with 50% wheat. It takes almost a year to
age this beer before consumption. 32 IBU |
9.2% |
| Dragon's Milk |
High Gravity seasonal. Strong ale aged in
Jack Daniels' oak casks for 4 months. Comes out in November. 32 IBU |
10% |
| Phi |
High Gravity seasonal for 2004 (only).
Pronounced "fee". Edgy strong ale. 34 IBU |
8.7% |
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$4-$5 per pint.
Sampler tray of 4 (4 oz)is $4
Growlers and 6-packs for sale at the bar.
There are also limited run beers at
the tap house including Dunkel Weizen, Oktoberfest, Kourage hoppy
brown, porter, and even Apple Cider.
We even once had "Dies Irga"
a medieval ale brewed with malt, honey and apple cider with
chardonnay yeast. 8.5%. Dark brown with some dark fruit and raisin
undertones. Tasty, very quaffable and dangerous.
They also have a distiller's
license and will be producing whiskey, rum, gin, and vodka down
the line.
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 Old Hat
114 North Main Street
Lawton
269-624-6445
A very friendly local in a small town just off I-94. It's mainly "just a bar". The main entertainments are weekend music and a very extensive game and book shelf. When Michiganders hunker down for the winter, it's places like this they drive their snowmobiles to. This one brews its own beer.Bar fare food is available all day and late. Besides their own beers, the serve other area brews from Bells, etc. Their beers are good to very good and the selection changes from time to time. Alt, Hefeweizen, Kölsch, Gold lager, Cherry Wheat, Stout, Schwartz, Pilsner, and others. "You may already be aware of them, but Big T’s in Lawton (right across the street from Old Hat) and Zeke’s in Dowajiac have great beer selections." - Chet N.
 Bell's (Kalamazoo Brewing)
Available in bottles in Indiana
345 E. Kalamazoo Ave.
Kalamazoo
269-382-2338
web site
Yep, that's a picture of the entrance to Bell's Eccentric Cafe. Good luck finding it. It's around back at the railroad tracks just east of downtown.It's one of the hot spots for music in the backyard during the summer. Food: well there are sandwiches and even menus of pizza houses that deliver - the legendary Bimbo's Pizza is a couple of blocks away.
You'll find all of the current Bell's crop and some specialty beers along with one cask conditioned ale on tap.Bell's brews too many beers to include them all here. We suggest you see Rate Beer's Kalamazoo Brewing Page for expert analysis of just about everything they've ever brewed.
| Full-time offerings (all available in bottles in Indiana) |
ABV |
| Amber |
Their flagship. Fruity and balanced. |
6.0% |
| Pale |
Not over hopped but with a nice bitter finish. Light color. A spicy, floral note. |
5.3% |
| Porter |
Very dark with brown head. Roasted notes come through with some coffee/chocolate. A bit of sweet finish. |
6.0% |
| Kalamazoo Stout |
Black and creamy. Strong sweet chocolate and bitter espresso. Nuts, caramel. |
6.5% |
| Two Hearted |
One of everyone hophead's favorite on tap in the Midwest. An IPA with lots of Cascade bitter in the aroma, taste, and finish. |
6/0% |
Third Coast, Oberon, Consecrator Dopplebock, Java Stout, Cherry Stout, Expedition Stout, Winter White, and more are available in bottles seasonally. Their web site has a calendar of brewing schedule.
| Some beers you may or may not find at the Cafe. We found these one day in 2004. |
| Strong Ale |
Cask conditioned and aged a full year. Mellowed and smooth. Conspicuously underhopped. |
| Batch 6000 |
Barleywine. Bittersweet, warming, caramel. 9.5% |
| Hell Hath No Fury |
Belgian Double. Malty, little Belgian notes. Lots of alcohol. 9% |
Kalamazoo Brewing Co.
Production facility
8938 Krum Ave
Galesburg
269-382-2338
John Mallet, Production Manager
The Kalamazoo Brewery is located 10 miles east of Kalamazoo near Gedes, MI. The 50 BBL system works 3 shifts producing 7 or 8 brews per day, 5 days per week. The main system (2nd picture) was originally built for Wolfgang Puck.
Each batch is inoculated with yeast propogated from a single cell.
The 2 dozen fermenting tanks range from 50 to 200 BBL. Heck, there's a 45 BBL tank used for yeast. They go through 25,000 pounds of malt per day and brew more than half the beer made in Michigan.
The Production Hall (bottom right) can bottle 60,000 beers a day, one million a month. Each bottle is sanitized, vacuumed, filled with CO2, vacuumed again, filled with beer, spritzed with a drop of water to get the head up to fill the air space. Then the bottles are heated to room temperature to achieve evenness throughout the stack of cases.
The lab pulls samples for testing at 1, 3 and 7 days into fermentation and at bottling and 5 days after bottling. That's how consistent beer is made.
All bottled beer is unfiltered and bottle conditioned with about 3,000 yeast cells per milliliter. This is enough to carbonate the product as it hits the shelves.
John Mallot and lab guru Gary Nicholas.
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Bilbo's Pizza In A Pan
2628 West Michigan
Kalamazoo
269-382-5544
Good pizza. OK beer. Reportedly awful service but during the day counter ordering by the slice good. Don't confuse it with Bimbo's Pizza in downtown Kzoo. This is in a strip mall just west of the campus. Their most popular beer is their strongest - Sledgehammer Red. It's overly malty and uncomplex. $1.50 / pint weekdays. Others include Wizard Wheat and Dragon Red. An extract brewery.
 Olde Peninsula Brewing
200 East Michigan
Kalamazoo
269-343-2739
OP's House of Brews is a big restaurant brewpub in downtown. Lunch and dinner meals and pizzas. The 7 BBL system is behind glass at the bar. They brew a big range of normal brewpub beers.
| OPie IPA |
Hazy amber with Cascade citric bitterness. 6.75% ABV |
| Sunset Red |
Perle and Hallertauer hops. 5.25% ABV |
| Midnight Stout |
Dry, hearty, black, chalky, bitter, and tasty. |
| Pumpkin Pale |
"Like eating a piece of pumpkin pie in a glass". 5% ABV |
| Rockin' Raspberry Wheat |
Strong raspberry domination. |
$3.25 per 16oz.
$2.25 per 10oz
$8 per growler.
 Arcadia Brewing Co.
Available in bottles in Indiana
103 W. Michigan Ave.
Battle Creek
269-963-9690
web site
email
Owner, Tim Suprise.
Mon-Thurs: 11am-10pm
Friday: 11am-midnight
Saturday: Noon-midnight
Located in a lonely block of closed shops in downtown Battle Creek, just a couple of blocks from Kellogs. Sandwiches, pizza, and entrees.The brewery is attached and takes up more space than the pub; fitting for a 25 BBL system, 50 BBL fermenters, and a full rotary bottling line.
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Representative Beer Menu
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ABV |
| Special Reserve |
Golden Mild. Mt. Hood and Cascade hops give a crisp finish. |
4.6% |
| Anglers Ale* |
British Pale Ale with Fuggles and Goldings hops. Light copper color. Sweet start and crisp finish. |
5.1% |
| Whitsun* |
Unfiltered wheat ale. A touch of honey and Munich malts combine to keep it light in color and flavor yet interesting. |
6.1% |
| ESB* |
British ESB with Fuggles and Willamette hops. Medium copper color with malty notes and a slightly sweet attack. |
5.5% |
| IPA* |
An IPA that is neither traditional British or American. Plenty of bitterness comes from Fuggles, Centennial and Cascade hops. A hard beer to define. |
5.8% |
| Nut Brown |
Northern Brown with a darker than style color. Hints of nuts, raisins, and chocolate. |
5.4% |
| Scotch Ale* |
Less sweet than many Scottish ales. |
7.5% |
| London Porter |
Smoky porter with Fuggles and Goldings hops. Lots of complex balanced flavor. Many porters have roasted character, this is more Smoke. |
7.0% |
| Starboard Stout* |
Irish Oatmeal Stout. Roasted malts. Creamy. In this case Cascade hops give edges but not fruity notes. |
5.4% |
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$3.25 per 20oz.
$1.75 per 10oz
Sampler - 6 (5oz) for $5.752 rotating cask conditioned ales such as their IPA and Scotch.
* Available in Indiana in bottles.
826 West Michigan Avenue
Marshall
616-781-9940
email
Aaron Morse, Head Brewer
Trent Thurston, Asst. Brewer
This hideaway brewpub is behind the Wacky Willies liquor store in south Marshall. Right by the railroad tracks on M227.
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Aaron runs a compact brewhouse in back with a reliable bottling machine named Laverne.
There's 600 members of their mug club (in a town of 7,000 people). The bar seats maybe 50 and holds about 80 but the band shell out back is rocking in the summer.
The interior is decorated in, well, stuff. Stuff hanging on the all. Stuff hanging from the ceiling. Even the tap handles are made up of stuff.
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Representative Beer Menu
| Belgian Amber* |
Basically an American amber brewed with Belgian yeast. There's a small amount of candy sugar in the mash and it comes through. Balanced hops. |
| Raspberry Ale* |
Slight tart raspberry notes, mainly in the nose. |
| Crooked Tree IPA |
Dull ocpper, thick. lots of Cascade hops but not overboard. |
| Too Cream Stout |
Seriously malty. Very nice, very smooth, very black. |
| Special Black Bier |
Creamy jet black beer with molasses, nuts, and coffee/chicory. Tasty. 8% ABV. |
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* Available in Indiana in bottles.
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