Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Brewer's "work" trips will be exhausting!

Ok, so I'm not really taking any work trips, but I am stopping at a few breweries and beer bars in the next ten days, so let's just call it research! I'll give you the lowdown either during the trip or upon returning, but here is the itinerary:
Friday, Saturday And Sunday, I'll be headed to Walhalla MI and Barothy lodge (check this place out-it is awesome. Overlooks the river, in house hot tub, enormous log cabins-simply awesome) for a little R&R with my wife and about 12 other friends. A lazy day on the Pere Marquette River is in store. However, on the way up, we'll detour through Grand Rapids and try to hit the new Founders brewery and have lunch at the recently opened Hopcat. This place is a great beer bar that is installing a 3 bbl brew system for guest brewers to craft some little specialties. Hope I get a crack at it sometime.
If I don't drown in the floodwaters, we'll race back Suday to repack and time to load the family truckster for a trip to Roanoke Virginia and a family wedding. Yahoo!. Monday at 6AM we'll point ol' blue south towards Indy where we'll be waiting at the Indianapolis Children's museum when it opens at 10AM. Next is a late lunch at Brugge Brasserie. Would you believe my kids (4 and 3) love mussels and crepes-oh yeah, they'll probably have great beers available too. Then it's back on the road to try hit New Albanian Brewing Co. for dinner. Rich O's Public House and Sportstime Pizza and NABC have been on my list of things to do for quite some time, and I'm glad to get to drop by.
At that point the craft beer sites get fewer and farther between, so we'll probably use day two for motoring through the Blue Ridge Mountains and hang in the splendor of Roanoke VA for a few days. There is a new brewery starting up, Roanoke Railhouse Brewing that will make Blacksburg beer, but I think they are just getting started. I know that there well traveled brewmaster, John Bryce just returned home from Germany where he earned his diploma. Congrats John! (aw c'mon, you know he's reading this!) I hope to run into him and more importantly hope some test batches are in the fermentors. Wait, I don't think I mentioned my mother-in-law will be riding co-pilot along with my two wonderful kids and equally wonderful wife. But there had better be A LOT of beer in those tanks. I hope I survive..... more to come.

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