Picture this story as a modern-day treasure map of sorts – an atlas for lovers of ales, lagers and stouts. The content will quench your thirst for knowledge, and a proverbial dotted line will direct you between key destinations in west Michigan for beer consumption and purchase – from Grand Rapids to Holland and points between.
And because September blesses Lake Michigan with warmth enough to swim, this treasure map also denotes the best beaches in which to bathe and repose – or dig for a steamer trunk of gold coins if that’s your fancy.
Start Here: Grand Rapids
Your beer hunt starts in Grand Rapids, and aptly so. Entreprenuers began brewing beer in GR before the city became a city. So it deserves ample time for your palate to experience their abounding selection.
At Founders Brewing (ph. 616-776-1195) on Monroe Avenue in the heart of the Monroe North district, count 11 locally brewed beers on tap. The brew house is regularly rated as the city's premier brewery. And with adventurous selections such as the rich and malty Curmudgeon and Kentucky Breakfast, a stout with hints of coffee and vanilla, you're sure to find something new.
Mike Stevens and Dave Engbers are the masters behind the taps. The duo focuses on providing a "true drinking experience" for the consumer. If you’re a beer aficionado, you've got it made here. Beers are true to their style: easy going, but not dumbed down, with a respectable use, not abuse, of ingredients. The Centennial IPA is proof of that: strong, but smooth; punchy, not pushy.
Now is the time to go and bid "farewell" to Founder's inaugural facility. By year's end the brewery will relocate to a completely renovated loading dock across town to expand production capacity and add an enhanced stage and sound system for performances. The $4 million expansion will include a 120-foot deck, complete with heaters for winter seating.
But we're not talking about that yet. There's still a little summer left. So let's move on.
Holland
Depart Grand Rapids on 196 south, with a coat of sunscreen and a shot of espresso from Four Friends Coffeehouse. Slide off the highway at the Zeeland exit and follow the business route into downtown Holland. At the intersection of 8th St and College Ave., you’ll find New Holland Brewing, housed in a 1927 brick building that first served as a department store. Eighty years ago you could buy a pair of knickers here; today you can sample the creative results of six brewers, who are obviously having one hell of a time experimenting and perfecting the dozen or so brews on tap.
Beer snobs will not be bored, sampling New Holland’s High Gravity recipes (more grain per barrel and thus higher alcohol), a series of five eccentric beers, including the effervescent, slightly sweet, trippel ale Black Tulip. And if you’re stocking up on your wheat beers for the last stretch of summer, take home a six-pack of Zoomer. This wheat ale is fine with a wedge of lemon, complementing its lightly hopped, sweet flavor – and, it’s as pretty to look at as it is to taste.
Along with the beer, New Holland Brewing has food and a full bar with its own distilled spirits and hard cider. Growlers, cases, six-packs, kegs, 22-ounce bottles and t-shirts are available to go.
Before leaving downtown Holland, be sure to locate the city's two beaches. From River Avenue, head west on Ottawa Beach Road to Holland State Park or take Lakewood Blvd. west to Lakeshore Drive south to Tunnel Park.
Holland State Park, with its landmark Big Red lighthouse, is perfect for both sun bathing and sunset gawking. Upon its football-field deep beach, you’ll easily find enough freedom from flying beach balls to read an Irving novel by day. At dusk, you can cuddle up in a blanket as the sun flashes her last wink.
A local favorite and no less spectacular, Holland’s Tunnel Park is so named for the dune tunnel that offers beach access without the brutal dune ascent (if your heart misses the scramble, there’s both a dune climb and a dune stairway). It’s a grand place for a douse and detox, or for simply admiring Lake Michigan’s immensity from the scenic overlook. Ottawa County and its responsible citizens keep the place well groomed and tidy, despite its busy summer traffic.
Holland to Douglas via Saugatuck
Catch highway 31 out of Holland headed towards Saugatuck. Once there, take your pick of two more beaches: Oval Beach or Saugatuck Dunes State Park. If you want a jumping scene, choose Oval Beach, often touted the best Lake Michigan beach by Chicago media and vacationers. It has all the conveniences: close parking, snack bar, toilets and showers. But be warned: if you want to venture beyond the towel-to-towel sunbathers, loathsome “guards” patrol both ends of the public beach area, deterring visitors from lounging and walking in front of private residences.
Visit Saugatuck Dunes State Park for a more tranquil, untouched experience. The catch here: a 30-minute trek from the parking area to the beach. It’s tough going for families with small children, but translates to a quieter day at the lake. With or without a brood, packing light is a good idea (seasoned Dunes patrons haul stuff over the sandy trail on wheels). Warnings aside, the hike is really a bonus – a magical walk through a patch of Michigan hardwoods that will surely shift your state of mind. If hiking is your bag anyway, the park has 13 miles of trails.
Time for a drink. Hop on the Blue Star Memorial Highway and head four miles south to Douglas, home of Saugatuck Brewing Company. Look for the brewery on the left, or rather what’s shaping up to be a 25,000-square foot brewery complex. Due to re-open in September at its new digs with ten times the original barrel capacity, Saugatuck Brewing Company will now encompass a brewery, beer hall, Irish pub and restaurant.
While brewmaster and president Barry Johnson doesn’t discount the “if I brew it, they will come” mentality, he has flipped the concept to “if you brew it, you will come.” Saugatuck Brewing Company offers a brew-your-own experience, where you concoct your own adult beverage on the premises and partake in everything from weighing the grain to adding the hops to bottling and labeling. More than 400 souls have been coached through the process.
If you’d rather buy your beer than stir it, the pickings here are many, with typically 12 selections on tap, from amber ales to stouts, lagers and pilsners. While you’ll find the popular Oval Beach Blonde Ale at many Saugatuck restaurants and bars, don’t shy away from experimenting with Johnson’s feistier concoctions, like Bamberg Rauschbeir, a German-style smoked lager. So decadent, it’ll make you wish for your La-Z-Boy recliner.
Come spring, you’ll find ingredients like spruce and maple syrup used in seasonal brews. Saugatuck Brewing growlers and kegs will be sold on site.
A Brief Stop in South Haven
Back on the Blue Star, head south and look for signs for Van Buren State Park day use area.
Van Buren State Park in South Haven boasts a mile-long stretch of deep, pretty beach with a backdrop of dense woods – a dandy place for daydreaming and ambling. Beach combers will admire the abundance of smooth, lake-weathered rocks and driftwood. In the morning, the shoreline is peaceful, other than the occasional squawking gull.
End Here: Kalamazoo
After your final dip or last snapshot, jog a short distance back up the Blue Star to highway 43 and head for Kalamazoo, culminating your quest at one bang of a brewery: the well-loved and idolized Bell’s.
On the edge of downtown, next to the silos on Porter St. you’ll find Bell’s Eccentric Café and beer garden. In this Midwest-meets-Munich beer garden, you can lounge at picnic tables, surrounded by hop vines and hollyhocks, to savor this last stretch of summer with an Oberon Ale or one of Bell’s rarer tap selections. On weekends, live music has folks dancing on a brick patio, with sounds ranging from funk to bluegrass, jam or ska. Bands compete with the occasional freight train that bangs along the tracks parallel to the beer garden’s fence.
Bell’s also has a general store with beer and merchandise, a grand brick-walled tavern with a second floor loft and main floor pub, and an intriguing menu of eats.
Before you depart Bell’s Brewery, and in honor of the treasures you’ve found, tip a pint of Lakeview Bitter (one of the small batches of specialty brews not found in stores). It’s the ultimate booty and a fitting grand finale to your treasure hunt for sand and suds.
Melinda Clynes is a freelance writer who lives in Detroit. This is the third in a series of travel pieces for Rapid Growth. Her previous piece was Traverse City, Like a Local.