Archive for the 'Detroit Beer Co.' category
Detroit Beer Co.
Hey guys. I know we don’t usually review brew pubs in these parts, but I went to an exceptionally good one tonight, and it’s my blog, so I figured I could break the rules a bit. So, I’m in Detroit this week for a bit of work-related hassle. I’m bound to foot travel for the week, and it just so happens that the Detroit Beer Company is just a few blocks down the road. Now, usually, brewpubs like this tend to have maybe one or two beers that are up to snuff and mildly impressive. The rest are generally passable, but lackluster when compared to the more refined or adventurous brews of larger American craft brewers. Detroit Beer Company, however, seems to have bucked the tradition. First of all, it’s a great atmosphere – this is an older building in downtown Detroit that is narrow and deep and has obviously been around for a few decades. Besides the requisite giant copper fermenters behind the bar, there is a myriad of flat screen TVs on which to meet all your sporting needs (Comerica Stadium is about a block away). They also have a tasty and fairly adventurous food menu. Now, the beers. I sampled three of what they had to offer. I started with a seasonal wheat offering they had on tap that I felt to be exceptional by brewpub standards. It was light and sweet with a medium citrus punch and little of the metallic aftertaste that often plagues smaller batches of this variety. It was extremely refreshing and, to be honest, I wanted to drink another. However, by this point, a rabid Tigers fan had sat down beside me – he happened to be a member of the ‘mug club’ – and informed me that the Detroit Dwarf is ‘the s***’. So, obviously, I needed to try the Dwarf. This brew amounted to a malty red ale with an extra dose of hop to give it a rather pronounced floral note. This brew could be compared to the Oskar Blues Gordon, albeit a bit weaker. However, at 6.8% abv, it’s still nothing to sneeze at. Finally, I finished off with their house IPA which, for a standard IPA, is pretty ballsy. It rings in at 6.4% abv, is cloudy and aromatic, and tastes very bitter and exceptionally fresh and floral – frankly, one of the better brewpub IPAs I’ve ever tasted. In closing, this place was a great place to stumble upon. My buddy convinced me that I might as well buy a $5 ticket to the Tigers game tomorrow night, he convinced me to try the Dwarf (I would’ve anyway), and I had some great Spaetzl and beer. Be sure to stop by here if ever in the bowels of the Motor City.
