Inaugural Detroit Harvest Beer Festival: The Late Re-Cap

Posted by GirlyDrinks | Filed under Detroit MI, drinks, events, food, music, people, uncategorized

My first post also happens to be the 400th post on the Urbane blog - congratulations to Eric and all the other bloggers!

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Arcadia Brewing Company, featuring the Jaw Jacker Pumpkin Spice Ale

Last month I attended the Inaugural Harvest Beer Festival, also referred to as “Detroit Beer Week,” at Eastern Market in Detroit. Put on by the Michigan Brewers Guild, the festival featured over 40 Michigan microbreweries, 200 beers, music from local bands, and great food from local restaurants.

The festival, which took place on October 24th, began at 1 pm and lasted until 6 pm. Despite the cold weather, cloudy sky, and on-and-off rain, when my group finally arrived at 3 pm, the tents were packed. At the entrance, you were able to pay the $40 ticket fee ($35 for people who were smart enough to pre-purchase tickets online) which got you a plastic sample cup and 15 tokens to be used for samples. Each token bought you a 3 oz sample of any beer, or you could upgrade to a 6 oz beer with 2 tokens.

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Copper Canyon: Home of the Apple Streudel Tripel

Here’s where I’ll start losing the beer aficionados. I write for a site called “Girly Drinks,” so you might not be surprised when I tell you I’m not a huge beer drinker. The drinks I tried at the Beer Festival included an Apple Streudel Tripel and Blueberry Vanilla Cream Ale from Copper Canyon Brewery, the Funkin Pumpkin from Short’s Brewing Company, the Bam with Juniper from Jolly Pumpkin, and the 18 Proof Pepper Smoker from Original Gravity Brewing Company. Don’t be scared off by my list, however. There were plenty of manly, chest hair growing, and - not to exclude any girls that aren’t sissy or guys that aren’t fond of chest hair - great tasting beers that weren’t of the fruit variety, including stouts, pilsners, porters and seasonal ales. The variety of pumpkin ales and stouts was awesome - pretty much every table and brewery had at least one seasonal beer to choose from, ranging from pumpkin ales to Autumn harvest blends and Oktoberfests. You can see a sample of all the beers that were available on the Harvest Beer Festival landing page.

If you missed out on the Inaugural Harvest Beer Festival this year, you can still look forward to the Michigan Brewers Guild Winter Beer Festival which takes place February 27th, 2010; tickets go on sale December 1st.

And, if you’re still really sad about missing the Detroit Harvest Beer Festival, or you just want something to do this weekend, head up to the Grand Rapids Wine and Food Festival, which will also be featuring a few Michigan breweries.

For more information on Detroit Beer Week or Michigan beers, become a Fan on Facebook, visit Michigan’s Brewers Guild, check out The Mash, or keep an eye out on the Metrotimes Harvest Fest landing page.

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  2. Stuff to Do: the Ferndale Blues Festival
  3. Berkely Front At The Top Of Your List For Places With Great Beer
  4. Join the Champagne Cruise in Berkley, support Forgotten Harvest
  5. Ferndale Film Festival

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Permalink | November 13th, 2009

3 Responses to “Inaugural Detroit Harvest Beer Festival: The Late Re-Cap”

  1. DominiqueKing Says:
    November 14th, 2009 at 12:43 pm

    Sounds like it was a great event! We weren’t able to get down there that day, although I’m mighty fond of beer myself. I don’t mind a fruity beer if it isn’t too sweet and overpowering. I’m thinking I would have liked to try some of the pumpkin ales.

    Congrats on your first post here :)

  2. GirlyDrinks Says:
    November 16th, 2009 at 6:13 pm

    Thanks, Dominique! The pumpkin ales were amazing. There were so many different seasonal pumpkin beers to choose from, though - it was hard to narrow it down to the ones I really wanted to try :)

  3. Ashley Says:
    November 17th, 2009 at 8:58 pm

    Dude, I am not a beer fan either, but all of my friends came back drunk as skunks. I’ve heard through the grapevine that it almost surely will be back next year. Thanks for the great read!

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