Back for More: Detroit, Michigan

Well..., I'm back in the motor city again.  The good news is that fact that I find a new place to get a couple beers every time I come here.  So this week it's Fort Street Brewing.

Fort Street is actually a short drive south from Detroit proper in the town of Lincoln Park.  Last week we talked about Dhestil, a microbrewery with really good food and beer complete with an almost pretentious aura about themselves as evidence by their maverick spelling of a word that has nothing to do with what happens at the brewery.

This place is the opposite of that.

This place is more neighborhood bar and grill.  More relaxing, more kick back and throw back several beers with friends.  For example, I tend to gloss over the brewery descriptions of their beers.  It can be valuable information for more eccentric beers, but often it's just what the brewer wants be to think of his beers, and I may respectfully disagree.

Here, they are worth a look for the entertainment value alone.  For example:

"Supermassive Black Hole of Deliciousness (The name of the beer alone is pretty awesome): A rye stout made with Michigan tart cherries.  Now before you go go off and say, "I'm a man!  I don't drink fruit beer;" shush!  Don't speak!  Not all fruit beers are sweet.  This beer starts chocolaty, with just a hint of tartness in the finish.  So man up!"

They didn't actually have this one on tap when I was there, which is kind of a shame.  I really wanted to try it.

The downside... okay the beers aren't as good.  They are not bad.  One bordered on undrinkable, for me at least, but not bad.  The food is really good, fairly inexpensive and interesting. I had Pierogies & Bratwurst which, if you've never had pierogies before are like little cheesy potato dumplings.  Pretty awesome.  On to the beer:

American Style Lager:  It has a slight lemon aroma and a little more hoppiness throughout, but basically a Budweiser clone.

Doug's Turbo Sarsaparilla:  This is a root beer flavored beer.  I think someone once asked me if something like this is possible.  Well, now I have proof.  The aroma is pure root beer.  The flavor is not as good as I thought it would be.  Root beer flavor starts off strong with a fizzy mouthfeel but the it just vanishes.  I'm sitting there almost thinking, "Hey!  I wasn't done with that!"  Not a bad beer, just.... Meh.

Burning Leaf:  This is the breweries obligatory octoberfest beer.  No aroma to speak of, very bitter for the style.  There are some malts at the beginning, but it finishes very dry and bitter.  Slight herbal hops flavor but mostly just bitter.  No flavor just that heavy, back-of-the-throat feel.

Downriver:  Again, no aroma to speak of.  It starts off big and malty and then it just deflates.  Just like the root beer beer, the flavor hits and runs leaving a slight dry herbals bitter flavor in its wake.

Up North Rye Pilsner:  Toasted caramel aroma here.  For a pilsner, this beer is loaded with flavors.  I imagine that pilsner purist would probably scream and yell, but you can't argue with the results.   There is berry fruit flavors on top, then it slides in to caramel.  Ends with medicinal hop flavors.

Chocolate porter: Slight coffee aroma.  Smooth mouthfeel with lots of chocolate.  It was like a glass of hot cocoa... except not hot.  And some very slight roasted notes and hop flavors, but mostly like cocoa.

SIPA:  Starts with a very very light hop aroma. Remember the beer I said was near, undrinkable... here it is. Not a hop bomb as much as a hop flood.  Piney at times but is mostly strait up bitter.  A spoon full of alpha acids.   The flavor rises and rises, like biting into a hot pepper.   It's good at first, then it starts getting a little too bitter, you make a face and finally you swear never to drink this beer again.

Count Chocula : Very light chocolate in the aroma. In the flavor the chocolate malts mixes with some pretty powerful herbal and pine hops.  Different from most chocolate porters, but the flavors clash more then they compliment.

Backyard IPA:  This one was by far my favorite.  It has a very light wine aroma.  The flavor is like slightly sweet hoppy wine.  Piney, herbal hops kind of mix and enhance the citrusy sweet flavors present in the beer.  Apparently the flavor comes from a hop I must find.

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!

The Hub: Detroit, Michigan

Last time I visited the motor city I more or less confined myself to the outskirts of the city far away from the...er interesting parts of the city.  Royal Oaks is kind of a cool area, I remember it being fairly well hopping when I went there, but it isn't Detroit.  Even the tag I put on that post rang a little hollow, and the title was just showing off.  That wasn't Detroit.

This...[cue soundtrack from 8 Mile].... is Detroit.

Detroit is built on a hub road system.   The main roads spread out from the center like the spokes of a giant wheel.  It's like a giant hat tip to the history of transportation that Detroit is famous for.  And right in the center of the wheel, right where the car companies would have stamped their logo... is the Detroit opera house.

Across from that is the Detroit Beer Company. 

There is something about craft beer that engenders urban renewal and I'm not sure why that is.  Call it a love of local color, a culture that turns old industrial centers into thriving entertainment districts or necessity because dilapidated, rat infested ruins are cheap, but many breweries around the country are bringing new life to formally dead urban areas.  And since no city probably needs it more, it's more than fitting that the Detroit Beer Company occupies the old Hartz Building downtown.  Whatever the reason for it, it seems to work.  The area around the hub is about the only section of the city that doesn't look slated for demolition.  Whether the brewery is a cause of, or a product of that is a debate that should happen among people much smarter then myself.  I'm talking about beer... which I haven't done yet.  So, yeah... beer.

I sat down with a grilled salmon sandwich (pretty awesome) and a taster flight of their beers.

Hef:  Banana and clove aroma.  Flavor features banana off the top with light malty flavors finishing dry and slightly spicy.  Fizzy and a light for the style.

Amber: Fruity aroma that pretty much stays the same in the flavor.  Some cherry and caramel in the palate.  Hops start off very light and build up leading to a herbal hop flavor that really lingers.

Baltic Porter: Fan of dark, malty beer?  You'll want one of these and by one I mean all of them.  The flavor is sweet, creamy with hints of light berry fruit with some herbal notes mixed in.  There is some bitterness in the back, but it's far from intrusive and helps balance the heavy malt bill.

Local 1529 IPA: Keep in mind I was still more or less fresh from the Pacific Northwest when I was in Detroit.  Keeping that in mind, the flavor of malt in an IPA... it was strange.    This IPA was sweet, malty with some citrus notes and some spicy hops towards the back.  More malt than I typically like, but a nice change.

Amarillo IPA: Remember when I talked about the One Hop Wonder at Block 15 in Corvallis, Oregon? That part where I thought that no other brewery was doing something like that.  Yeah... about that...
Whereas Block 15 featured the Centennial hop, Detroit Beer company did the Amarillo.  It strikes me as a strange choice, the Amarillo is basically the Cascade hop's bigger, badder and dumber brother leaving some of the subtle floral qualities aside for a massive dose of bitterness.  Still, they managed to coax a lot of citrus and grapefruit flavors in the beer but it will leave with a very bitter aftertaste.

That's all for Detroit for now. 
Cheers!

Motor City Beer: Detroit MI

Back when I worked in news around the time of the economic collapse, Detroit was kind of the poster child for financial woes.
Sitting in my hotel looking for some local refreshments I came across another sad story in Detroit's anthology of misery. King Brewing just went under a couple of months ago. Oh King Brewing, we hardly knew ye... Okay I didn't know ye at all, but the sentiment is the same.

Though we raise a glass to a fallen soldier in the Craft Beer Revolution, the glass we raise is filled by another still fighting the good fight. I had to dive a few miles from where I was staying, but I found myself in Royal Oaks. On a Friday night the streets of this downtown area were packed, a far cry from the urban decay that surrounds it. It was the birthplace of everyone's favorite B-movie actor, Bruce Cambell and Tim Allen kicked off his career within the town's clubs and bars. It's also home to Royal Oaks Brewing Company.

Overall nothing especially noteworthy about this place; pretty much your typical local brewpub. I will say this, the food here was very good especially considering the price. There us a general mix if Asian, Italian and Cajun cuisine all for in and around $15.

Pretty standard beer selection. The one wild card was a cask aged version of their ESB. Their everyday version if this beer ended up as my favorite of their selection. It has a nice roasted malt flavor with just the right amount of pine and floral hop bitterness to make a wonderfully drinkable beer. Their cask version, however, is something else entirely. It has an aroma that smells just like peach yogurt. The flavor was similar and followed fast by bitter English hops that stick to the back if the throat. It was defiantly interesting, but I don't think I would order a full pint of it.
Their Red Ale was another stand-out. It was surprisingly full and malty with a touch of sharp roasted flavors and ends dry with bitter pine hops. Another very good, drinkable beer.
Cheers, see you on the road.