Let’s continue our story of the epic beer trip from July of 2020. On July 27th, Crystal and I woke up in our hotel bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to continue our trip along the Westside of the State to cross breweries off the list.
When we left off last, we were not able to make it to New Holland Brewing Company because of my new found infatuation with Our Brewing Company. There was a beer on tap that Crystal really wanted to try at New Holland and I had never technically visited the location in Holland, so we had to drive back into Downtown Holland before we continued our trip South to have a beer. She was infatuated with trying the Blue Sunday which is a Sour Beer that has a limited release and was on tap at the time at New Holland. So we went over to the brewery so that she could grab a pour of Blue Sunday. Not to be outdone by my girlfriend, I decided to start my day off with a pour of the Dragon’s Milk Triple Mash, which is an 18% ABV variation of their line of Dragon’s Milk. This beer will make you breathe fire just like a dragon if you have too much of it. Enjoy this one very responsibly.
After we left New Holland, we headed South into Saugatuck and our destination was Guardian Brewing Company. Unfortunately this is a brewery that is no longer with us as of last year. It is a shame too, the beer here was absolutely outstanding. We ended up enjoying a flight of beers and we had some lunch at the brewery to fuel up for the rest of the day’s travels. On Monday’s they did 7 dollar growler fills of any of their beers. Luckily I brought 6 growlers and ample cooler space to store them. I proceeded to fill up 5 of the 6 growlers with beers to take home with me, I left one growler to spare, just in case I wanted to get a growler fill at one of the breweries we would visit later in the day.
While we were sitting at Guardian enjoying our beers, we decided to check and see what Saugatuck Brewing Company had on tap for our next stop. It’s a good thing that we decided to check, Saugatuck ended up sending out a message on social media 10 minutes before we checked, stating that they were closed for the next 3 days due to a COVID-19 outbreak at the brewery.
Now that Saugatuck was no longer an option to stop and grab a beer, we began to set our sights on the next stop, which ended up being South Haven. The town of South Haven has three breweries that we were going to hit on this trip and was the last town that we were going to stop in for the trip.
Our first stop was the South Haven Brewpub, where we enjoyed a few beers. I don’t remember a whole lot about this place other than the fact that they were extremely busy and it was hard to move around the brewery or find a place to enjoy our beers at. I guess that is what you get when you visit a tourist town right in the middle of summer. As we had our beers, we began to look and see where the next brewery was located. Luckily for us, it was within walking distance and since we had a hard enough time finding parking to visit South Haven Brewpub, this was a welcome sight for us.
Up next was Harbor Light Brewery. Now due to the climate of the nation at the time, this one sticks out to me quite a bit. We got a flight of beers and sat down at our table and to say that they were taking COVID regulations very lightly here would be a slight understatement. I won’t say what they were or weren’t doing at the time but needless to say, it made us very uncomfortable at the time of our visit. We proceeded to drink our flight in about 5 minutes and we got the hell out of there. This was probably the shortest amount of time I have ever spent at a new brewery in my 18 years of traveling the state drinking beer. I have since been back to Harbor Light and enjoyed my time there. Although this particular visit made me very uncomfortable, I did not hold that against them.
Once we finished our flight, we decided we needed some fresh air and Lake Michigan in our life. We decided to take a short stroll up and down the beach before we got back in the car and headed to the other side of town to visit Three Blondes Brewing.
Out of the three breweries in South Haven, this was our favorite stop on this trip to South Haven. This was a decent sized brewery and I did a full review of the brewery back on December 30th of 2024. If you didn’t see that review, go ahead and check it out when you have a chance. I really enjoyed this stop a lot and highly recommend that you check them out next time you are in the area.
After we were done at Three Blondes Brewing, it was time to head back towards home. So we got into the car and started to drive the 2 and a half hours back to Canton, Michigan. Once we arrived at home the realization had set in that sadly our beer trip had come to an end………..or did it?
To be continued…………
Immediately………
Our car rental wasn’t due back until 1:30 p.m. on July 28th, which also happens to be my birthday. Crystal had to work on my birthday, but I did not. I woke up early and drove to Tecumseh Brewing Company to grab a few beers before our car rental was set to be returned. This is another beer trip story that I told on the page on July 28th of 2024. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I encourage you to do so.
Now to summarize our epic beer trip from July of 2020. We visited 18 breweries over 5 days, we went as far North as Frankfort on the trip and as far South as South Haven and everywhere in between. Technically Tecumseh is further South than South Haven, since Crystal did not join me on that trip, only I went that far South.
The 18 breweries that we visited on this trip are as follows:
July 24th- Tri City Brewing Company
July 25th- Five Shores Brewing
Stormcloud Brewing Company
Lake Ann Brewing Company
July 26th- Perrin Brewing Company
Brass Ring Brewing
Hudsonville Pike 51 Brewing Company
Hopland Brewstillery
Brewery 4 Two 4
Tulip City Brewstillery
Big Lake Brewing
Our Brewing Company
July 27th- New Holland Brewing Company
Guardian Brewing Company
South Haven Brewpub
Harbor Light Brewery
Three Blondes Brewing Company
July 28th- Tecumseh Brewing Company
I didn’t plan on this being a 4 part series about an epic beer trip, there was just too much too much to cover in one or two posts. I am glad that I was able to cover a trip from 5 years ago in such detail. In the comments section below, let me know, what epic beer trips have you been a part of over the years? How many did you visit? How long did it last? What was your favorite part of the trip? Do you have any epic beer trips planned in your future? I can’t wait to hear your responses. As always have fun on your epic beer trips but please do so responsibly. Cheers!
#beer #BeerLovers #brewery #brewerylife #DrinkLocal #michiganbeer #Cheers #craftbeer #roadtrip
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