Old Places, New Faces: Detroit MI

I am finding myself in Detroit with disturbing regularity.  For reasons that escape me it seems my destiny and that of this city are disturbingly intertwined.  I'm not sure what that implies, but it might not be all bad.

"There is something about relaxed places that generate good beer." said my server at Sherwood Brewery, comparing Oregon and Michigan beer culture.  It never occurred to me to describe Detroit as relaxed.  If it is, surely relaxation has been largely thrust upon this city.  

 

The overgrown remains of the Big Buck brewery.

And as the ruins of the Big Buck brewery point out, it strikes me as a tough place to survive.  Breweries thrive on expendable income, something that Detroit has not been known for lately. But, for whatever rhyme or reason, the Detroit area hides rare gems that keep appearing underfoot each time I kick up a bit of dust here.  Sherwood might be my new favorite.

It's located in the Northern Suburbs tucked away from a strip of chain restaurants and bars it an unassuming little strip mall.   It's the kind of place you're not likely to find unless you're looking for it, which probably makes it all the better.  It has the feel of a nice little neighborhood bar.  The kind of place you might only get to see if you know someone in the area.

The other cool thing about this place is their collection of mead.  And not just simple honey, water and yeast mead either, although that is a fantastic combination.  But we will get to that later.  Let's talk beer first.  I started off with a sampler of everything they happened to have on tap at the time which wasn't as much as they usually do.  My luck was at work here, and they were out of at least two of their regular beers.  What they did have was pretty good:

Hell road Hefewizen: This starts with a heavy clove and banana aroma which, in this case, says nothing about the flavor. 
It is more lemony and watery.   I picked up more spice and clove later on, but I got almost none in the first tastes for some reason.

Fuzzy weisen:This is the hef except finished with peaches slightly tropical herbal aroma.

Similar to the hef but sweeter with a bigger body.  I get peach but it is very subtle.  It strikes me as just the right blend, the peach just helps the lemony, grassy flavors along and never overpowers it.  Those that might steer clear of this beer because they fear something on par with Pyramid's Apricot Wheat, something that amounts to an apricot-flavored beer, need not worry.  This isn't it.

Longshanks mild ale:  Session beer for those who like drinkablity with a little boost.   Starts with a toasted aroma with nut brown sugar.  It has a slightly creamy mouthfeel.  As expected it's very light but I still pick up a decent amount of roasted grain, caramel and, for some reason, buttery popcorn came to mind.    It's slight, but it's very good all around.

Abbeyversary:  Anniversary ale celebrating the first time the Brewer yelled Gadzooks.  Just kidding, obviously.  I dig the hell out if this.  Pine aroma with dark fruit raisins.  Malty full bodied pine and citrus prevalent throughout but not overpowering.  Balanced just right with dark fruit malty flavors.   This one quickly became my favorite.

Nobel Benny:  9.75 and 66 IBUs 

Light fruity aroma,  I pick up strawberry alcohol malt caramel there.  I get a little of that in the flavor as well... Just before all the hops descend to kick my teeth in.  It has a hop profile reminiscent of Arrogant Bastard with as much subtlety.  With it's massive dose of hops and alcohol not to mention the body of a sumo wrestler, you are not likely to have more then about one of these, but it's a good one to have.

I promised mead, didn't I?  Yes I did.  They have some interesting flavors in their honey wine at this place. 

Mint Vanilla Wildflower:  Minty with notable honey aroma.   Mint is very much overpowering, but vanilla is there at the end, but you have to be looking for it.  Without the obvious hint in the name, I would assume it was just mint.

Rasberry dragon fruit: Very sweet.  It's got all the advertised fruit flavors there, a bit of berry and tropical fruit, but it's bordering on jolly rancher sweet. Too much for me.

Chocolate: This one was a surprise favorite of mine.  After the last one I more or less figured that I was about to quaff a double chocolate fudge sundae.  The aroma had lots of chocolate and a bit of leather in there. It's nowhere near as sweet as I thought it would be.  It had all the body I was expecting but it doesn't go overboard with the sweet.  Its actually just slightly bitter and more like unsweetened dark chocolate.

 

I'm taking the next week off.  I'm getting married next weekend and I'm guessing I probably won't have time to run off for a pint, and even less time to write about it after.  I'll be back in two weeks, though. 

Cheers!