A few weeks ago when I went on my day and a half beer trip, the brewery that inspired our trip to the areas South of Jackson was a newer brewery that I hadn’t been to yet. For brewing license number 467 visited in the State of Michigan, we had to pay a visit to Big Pines Brewing Company in the town of Hillsdale, Michigan. Big Pines was established in the year 2022 and finally opened their doors to the public in 2024.
Upon our visit to the brewery, I began to chat with Kevin Robinson. Kevin is the owner, brewer, bartender and just overall Master of the Universe at Big Pines Brewing Company. Kevin like many others got his start by being a homebrewer. After developing his interest in homebrewing and being really good at it, Kevin went on to start brewing professionally at 127 Brewing in Jackson, Michigan. Kevin spent 6 and a half years honing his craft at 127 Brewing before he decided that maybe it was time to start his own brewery. This is when he decided to start working towards opening Big Pines Brewing Company.
When you enter the brewery the first thing that you will notice is that this is a very community based brewery. Everyone knows everyone, there were approximately 15 people in the bar during our visit and they were all chatting it up and having a good time. Although there are only about 10 seats at the bar, everyone was either seated at the bar or standing around the bar area. No one was sitting at tables in the entire place. Since I had some notes to take and needed a charge for my laptop, we opted to sit at one of the tables, of which there are approximately 10 of them throughout the brewery.
Within a few seconds of sitting down at our table, Kevin was right there to take our order. I don’t want to misquote what he said when I sat down but Kevin made a light-hearted joke about me having a super important job because no one brings their laptop to the brewery on a Sunday. Within a few minutes of going around and taking notes on my laptop, locals were coming over and offering us food (They had a community potluck going on during our visit, where they had an absolute smorgasbord of different foods everyone brought in to share) and even though we were not locals everyone treated us as though we had known each other for years.
The community feel of this brewery is very strong, as is the case with most small-town breweries. This is one of the many reasons that I enjoy my travels to all the wonderful breweries that our great State has to offer. I love hearing all the stories of the different people that I meet at all the different places I go, learning of the local legends and stories behind the towns and how the local brewery brings the community together to tell these stories. Big Pines is a brewery that encourages this environment. I learned quite a bit about Hillsdale and its people in the small amount of time that I was at the brewery.
I mentioned earlier in the article that they had a potluck going on during our visit. Big Pines does not offer a kitchen on site but they do allow you to bring in outside food and will have food trucks at the brewery on occasion. Check their social media to see if they will be having a food truck during your visit to the brewery.
While I was chatting with Kevin in between my chats with the locals, I asked him what his plans for the future of the brewery were. One thing that he mentioned was that in the near future, he is looking to add a few picnic tables to allow for outdoor seating on a nice summer day. In addition to adding outdoor seating, he hopes to be able to start a Barrel-Aging program at the brewery soon.
Now that I have introduced you to Kevin and his brewery, it is time to move onto our favorite part of the article, the beer. During our visit to the brewery, we tried a flight of 6 of their beers. The first 5 of those beers were the Irish Red, Utah Wheat, The “IPA”, Stout and Sap Sauce- Hard Seltzer. My favorite beer out of the ones that we tried on our visit was the Cabin Beer Light. This beer checked in at 4.7% ABV, which is nice and sessionable for an all day drinker. This beer had a mellow hop presence to it with some earthy notes to it and a smooth finish with slight citrus notes on the back end. I could drink this beer all day if the opportunity presents itself in the near future.
For your next brewery trip in the South Central area of the State of Michigan, I highly recommend that you make it a point to visit Hillsdale and Big Pines Brewing Company. The atmosphere created by the locals is worth the trip alone, as an added bonus they serve pretty tasty beers to go along with it. Cheers!
#cheers #Beer #beerlovers #michiganbeer #craftbeer #brewery #brewerylife #drinklocal
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