LIVING LIFE AND LEARNING ALL I CAN ALONG THE WAY
At the back of my perennial garden is a special garden space that really belongs to Tom. This is where his hops grow — with the bines growing up twine that reaches to the roof of our garage where they can then expand out sideways. Hops grow fast. Really fast. The shoots come out of…
When we first moved into our house 5 years ago, I noticed that we had a crabapple tree in our side yard. Some years it has bloomed beautifully and produced a good amount of apples; other years, it hasn’t done much. The deer frequently come up to munch on the dropped apples or eat them…
We did a little impromptu trip to Schmohz Brewery last weekend before heading over to our friends’ house for dinner. I didn’t actually know that this brewery was there. When we walked in, I had the immediate impression that I somehow walked through a time vortex straight back into the 1980s. I mean, really. Wood…
It just so happened that the same weekend we planned a baby shower for my sister-in-law, there was a Belgian Beer Festival going on at Ashley’s — a favorite hangout of my brother’s. He was able to participate in the festivities all week, but Tom and I were at least able to join in for…
The next stop on our brew tour was HopCat. I think I had actually only been to HopCat once before, and it had been a very long time. I think Tom’s been a number of times, but we hadn’t been there since we began our “Brew Tour”. We had said months ago that we needed to…
After an unexcusably long hiatus, it’s time to get back to the Brew Blog! We took some time off of our brewery tour as the weather got nice last year, but we’ve knocked off several new places this winter that I have not gotten around to posting yet. First places first, we’ll start with the…
It’s been a while since I’ve updated the Brew Blog, and indeed we did take a bit of a hiatus on our tour. However, we have been to one new one (Tom several times now): Hideout Brewery. This place is aptly named, as it’s in such a strange location, you would never guess it was…
Last year, we discovered the BrewSki festival at Boyne Highlands — which happens to be right around the corner from our family cabin in Harbor Springs, Michigan. We went up north this past weekend so that we could attend BrewSki and had a good time with my brother and his wife, along with a couple…
Okay, so this isn’t actually a stop on our brew tour, but it’s something I have to share. Last year, Tom attempted to brew his own beer for the first time. He enjoyed the process and actually ended up making three different batches. I think the first batch may be all gone now, but he…
A couple of weeks ago we found ourselves headed toward Eastown and decided it would be a good chance to check out Brewery Vivant. A former funeral home and chapel, the building is certainly unique for a brewery. They offer some unique Belgian inspired beers and the company is committed to sustainability, purchasing many of…