Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Fest '12 Is Over

...watcha wanna do next? How 'bout...

Whoooooo!

Detroit Beer Week Approaches

We're still a bit short on details, but here is the executive summary:

When: October 13-23, 2011
What: Beer related special events
Where: All of your favorite beery places around town
Who: All of us!
Why: Beer! Whoooo!!
How: Show up thirsty....

A growing list of some of the events can be seen here.

We would also like to point out that the Michigan Brewers Guild Fall Festival will be on the 22nd at Eastern Market. Whooo!

MBG Summer Festival 2011

The heck with Christmas and all of those Hallmark holidays, this is my idea of a red letter day. I just looked at the final brewery and beers list, and it is staggering. I didn't count, but am told there are a total of 450 different beers. Check out Dark Horse's lineup- it looks like they account for about 50 of 'em! Michigan Microbrews has the .pdf of the official festival program here.

As if time wasn't short enough to conduct our important field research, we are taking time out to participate in a Brew Bubbas panel discussion on Ciceronery. The program schedule is here, but I suspect that the "subject to change" disclaimer is already in effect... see you there!

UPDATE: The schedule at the link above is finalized, unless someone gets hit by a blimp, or something....

MBG Winter Festival Recap

I had hoped to 'live blog' from the festival, but due to a combination of poor signal, phone browser/blogger incompatibility, and who-knows-what-all technical issues I wasn't going to waste valuable festival time battling, I only managed a couple posts. Plus, I didn't want to be that thumb-typing, distracted weenie, I wanted to be a beer-tasting-talking-to-my-buds weenie! As ever, I tasted a tiny fraction of the available beers, what with running my fool yap and all. Some highlights:

• Grizzly Peak Burton-Brussels Express Wood-aged IPA, pleasantly woody, and Verloene Hosen (Lost Pants) (understandable!) Uber-Marzen, a malt-based 'dope slap.'
• Arcadia Panama Red Smoked Imperial Red Ale, liberally hopped with Citra- smokey and hoppy and very more-ish.
• Jolly Pumpkin Bambic, a blend of two lambic-type beers with fresh Bam Biere. Whoo!
• New Holland Envious, a strong barrel aged beer made with pears and raspberries.

The biggest highlight was of course the wonderful feeling of community shared by all of the brewers and beer lovers. Beer people are the best!

Another highlight: I caught Beer Todd being the "thumb-typing" guy, and called him on it, but he had an excuse: "I have to text my brother and tell him he's a big gay pussy!" Since fully 50% of the digital traffic between me and Uncle Dave is comprised of just such repartee, I had to let him off....

The Last Cask at Jolly Pumpkin

We waste no beer!

Beer Fest Update

I live at Jolly Pumpkin now.

Attempt At Blogging Beerfest

Blogger and Droid appear to have irreconcilable differences, so I will update via the barbaric email method... Whooo!

MBG Winter Festival

Whoo! Beer Fest! Whoo! Tomorrow morning, I am heading to Grand Rapids for the sold out Michigan Brewers Guild Winter Festival. I'll be on the bus from Arbor Brewing with my lil' brother, Uncle Dave. Whoo!

MBG Fall Festival!! Whooo!!!

This week, I'm the guy who goes, "Whooo!!" Whooo!! The fall festival was great. Sold out, but not oversold. A big, big party with all of your favorite people in attendance. Like these guys:

Joe Hudecek, Andy Hudecek, and Uncle Dave DRINK MICHIGAN BEER! WHOOO!!!

With 40+ breweries each pouring an average of, say, 4 beers, there was no way to check it all out in 5 hours. Some folks (Mrs. Cicerone,) formulate a plan of attack, using the festival program downloaded off the 'net days in advance, focusing on unique, otherwise unavailable beers. Mr. Cicerone, however, uses the 'go with the flow' serendipity-based model. One rule generally adhered to is Visit Doug First. Our friend Doug always has something special for the festival. Hell, he has something special each and every Thursday. Saturday, in addition to a selection of regular beers, we sampled Black Ops 'Black IPA' and "Citra-sation," an IPA made with fresh Citra hops, both excellent.

Doug and the Fort Street Brew Zoo

Another festival stalwart and favorite of Mr. Cicerone is Grizzly Peak's Sheerwater IPA. Brewer Duncan Williams almost always brings a cask of this complex and delicious beer to the MBG festivals. This year Mr. and Mrs. Cicerone were also enthralled by a delicious cask mild, and "Poisson Rouge," a wonderfully oaky, tart, perfectly balanced barrel-aged version of their Steelhead Red ale. That was Mr.'s favorite beer of the day.

Another reason for me to go "Whooo!!" was spending a little quality time with Mr. Todd Parker, the very large, very enthusiastic brewer at Copper Canyon, sampling many strong and delicious beers. I had Yellowcard APA, RyePA, Maibock, and Rocktoberfest. The Rocktoberfest was an 8% (!) "double marzen" that was so clean, balanced and drinkable, while hiding its strength, that no one could be blamed for accidentally getting drunk on it.

While Mr Cicerone was busy saying "Whooo!" I was at the Jolly Pumpkin booth sampling Vicious wheat IPA, closely followed by "Nightmare Before Vicious"- the same beer that had been in oak at the JP brewery for 6months. Mmm. Other favourites for me were also Fort St Brewery's Citra-sation, JP Fuego del Otono, Arcadia Nut Brown Ale, Wolverine's Brown lager, Dark Horse Bourbon-aged Plead the Fifth, the aformentioned Poisson Rouge, and, saving the best till last.....Big Rock's Red Rock Flanders Ale.

A Scary Kuhnhenn, The Big Banana, and Crazy Hat Lady.

Stay tuned for another strange-but-true Porta-Potti story.

Beer Week Thus Far (Whoooo!!)

Whooo! Last night was great fun. Beer vs. Wine with cheese upstairs at Motor City Wines, New Holland revelry downstairs at Foran's Grand Trunk, Biketoberfesters infesting both. Mr. and Mrs. Cicerone enjoyed sampling some interesting wines, something we are always saying we are going to do, but never get around to. Thanks to Dave and Mark at Motor City Wines for the hospitality and expertise. After we discharged our Ciceroney duties upstairs, we headed downstairs for some Mad Hatter, and also to continue plotting world domination with the various DBW conspirators. We still have a way to go, but we can make Detroit Beer Week into a world class event. After all, we have an advantage over most other locales; we have the best beer! Whooo!!

See you at the MBG Fall Festival!

Detroit Beer Week

Gentlemen, (and ladies,) start your livers!

DBW starts tonight:

Tonight, Tap:Detroit at St. Andrew's Hall, previously detailed here, looks downright overwhelming; we will do our best to take advantage of all the foody and beery goodness on offer.

Sunday, while recovering from tonight's inevitable excesses, (and while hopefully brewing a batch of Dortmunder,) Mrs. Cicerone and I will be working out the final details for Thursday's Beer vs. Wine cheese pairing event at Motor City Wines. Tickets are $20 for approx. 8 pairings, a steal!

Tuesday night, we'll be staying out past our bedtime at Cliff Bell's, swankiest place in town, for their beer dinner, featuring Kuhnhenn Bros. and Dragonmead beers.

More Info:

The Free Press did a nice, thorough piece about Jon, Jason, and DBW here on Thursday, with events listed, and the Facebook list is updated constantly. Also, at my new favorite blog, Dining in Detroit, Nicole is "blogging the hell" out of DBW. Check it out.

Mrs. Cicerone On TV

Annette was asked on somewhat short notice to appear on Channel 2's Saturday morning news show, to plug the Michigan Brewers Guild's Fall Festival. She was in three segments, and managed to get the plug in on the last one. Here are the clips, in the order they appeared:







Being on TV (or in any interview-type situation) is weird. It can be hard to get your information out there when someone else is steering the conversation, under tight time restrictions. Kudos to Mrs. Cicerone for doing a great job under pressure. (Now if I could just get used to being referred to as her 'entourage.') Chef Kelli was very cool, a good communicator, and a consummate professional. Here are links to the recipes from the two segments: Pancakes, Potato Salad, Fondue

The Michigan Brewers Guild Fall Festival will be on October 23rd at Eastern Market, from 1-6PM. More info here.

...Full post

Upcoming Cool Stuff in the Great Beer State

Our home state may have more than its share of problems, but if you like beer, it's one of the best places to be. Here's a quick rundown of some of the reasons why for October:

Harvest Festival at Fort Street Brewery

Wednesday, September 29th - Saturday October 2nd
Saith Doug:

We'll have a special menu of Michigan grown foods and Michigan inspired recipes all week, and a new beer will be released each night as well!

Slows BBQ 5th Anniversary Party

Roosevelt Park | Michigan Ave + 14th Street, Detroit
Sunday October 3 | 12-8pm
Bands, Beer (24+ Taps), Reasons and Mac from SLOWS, Grub from Mind Body Spirit, Cornhole Tournament (sign-up info below), and an Art Opening at the Imagination Station. Admission is free. Food and Beer for sale $5 cash. All proceeds from the event go to the redevelopment of Roosevelt Park. The party is on, rain or shine. We have tents.

Detroit Beer Week

Friday, October 15 – Saturday, October 23, 2010

My day job forced me to be out of town for the inaugural DBW, but this year I'm going at it with guns blazin'! The organizers have some info here on
Facebook
PDF of Press Release here.

2nd Annual Michigan Brewers Guild Fall Beer Festival

October 23rd, 1-6PM

Last year's festival was great, and those of us in the near suburbs appreciate having an MBG festival so close to home.