Oktoberfest Dinner & Brew Cruise on MI Princess

To cap off two years of continued growth and neighborhood development, the Mitten Brewing Company will host an all-day celebration beginning at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, November 15.

The Mitten Brewing Co.’s new outdoor beer patio is just the first of many new exciting expansions in the works at the popular Leonard St. brewery on west-side of Grand Rapids. Recently I had an opportunity to check out the new deck as well as take a sneak peek at some of the improvements in the works for this year. In addition to the patio, a new upper level bar and seating area is currently under construction which all taken together will nearly triple the capacity of the location. The upper level will focus more on the building’s fire station history as opposed to the baseball themed lower level.

This year’s Winter Beer Festival at Fifth Third Ballpark in Comstock Park was another one for the record books. A record number of breweries, a record number of beers, and of course, once again selling out in a record time of just a few hours. For an epic drinking excursion of this magnitude, a degree of pre-fest sustenance is desirable, and I found mine to be had at Brewery Vivant’s Brewer’s Big Breakfast. Menu items ranging from Chicken & Waffles, PB&J Crepe Cake, or signature Duck Nachos were paired up with Monk-Mosa’s (OJ & Farmhand,) plus all of Vivant’s speciality beer fest beers including the Love Shadow barrel-aged Russian Imperial Stout made for a great head start for the big event.

Here we are, just a few days away from WINTER BEERFEST! I have assembled my top 25 list for this year, and my is it sounding delicious! Breweries from all over the state are bringing their brightest and best for the festival, anxious to share their fantastic brew with all of you!

A top 25 list is quite the challenge, I can't emphasize that enough. It was a very difficult process for me to get a solidified list because there is so much amazing beer in this state!

The Mitten Brewing Co. celebrated it’s 1-Year anniversary with a birthday party featuring balloons, food and drink specials and lots of prize giveaways. Although not necessary to attend the celebration, $15 tickets were available which provided attendees with a commemorative glass with choice of fill and raffle tickets good for winning drinks with the Mitten brewers, a one year mug club membership, as well as additional items.

In addition to being widely recognized for the beer accolades, Grand Rapids also has a great reputation for being a vegan-friendly City. One may not immediately recognize the two things as going hand in hand, but in actuality there are some surprising connections. To start with, beer as a beverage can be a good fit in vegan diet, with only a few styles (i.e. Milk Stout) being inherently non-vegan. So where are some good places to enjoy a vegan meal along with your favorite Michigan Craft beers?

17 Grand Rapids area breweries participated in the latest “Beer City” collaboration effort and this time around the emphasis was all on the trees. Every brewery involved contributed at least one tree-inspired beer recipe ranging from smoked beers, barrel-aged beers and even fruit beers. I spent the launch week visiting breweries to sample as many of the tree beers as possible, and visited a personal record of over 2 dozen breweries in one week’s time!

In the few short years of ArtPrize putting a stamp on downtown Grand Rapids, the city has seen another transformation; the one that has resulted in national recognition with the city’s title as Beer City USA. This year’s ArtPrize has solidified the relationship even more with Founders Brewing Co’s sponsorship and first ever Official beer of Art Prize, the Inspired Artist Black IPA.

When it comes to Beer Class season, people often ask me how it got started, and who is putting it on.