Detroit’s Eastern Market was the scene for the Michigan Brewers Guild 7th Annual Detroit Fall Beer Festival.

7th Annual Detroit Fall Beer Festival

It boasted an all star line-up of over 80 breweries and more than 675 beers. All of the usual suspects were in attendance and even a few mysterious characters.

Who is Keyser Soze?

(If you watched the 1995 movie, The Usual Suspects, this post will make perfect sense, if you didn’t just play along.)

We’ve identified a few persons of interest who may be the mysterious mob boss.

Person of interest #1: the man with the dark sunglasses

Person of interest #2: the man behind the camera

Person of interest #3: the “Dude” from Batch

Person of interest #4:  this colorful, um unicorn 

Person of interest #5:  this guy who is like “who cares, I’m trying to read the microscopic print on the program! Just drink some beer!” 

All the Usual Suspects

Bell’s Brewery

I loved the Uberon from Bell’s Brewery. It is a Strong Brewed Oberon aged in whiskey barrels. We are on a mission to try their 30th Anniversary Ale Imperial Stout.

Short’s Brewing Co.

We tried two beers from Short’s Brewing, the Maple Bourbon Barrel Magician — BBA London Red and the Michigantuan, Michigan Cherry Double IPA. And of course, these were both good. The IPA was a bit tart and unusual. You could really taste the maple goodness in the Magician.

Greenbush Brewing Co.

Sorry, Beach there is a new “cover boy” for Greenbush Brewing Co  but we still love you and you are totally awesome. You are welcome to stay with us anytime. Greenbush offered so many choices; we had so few tokens and brain cells. Everything from Greenbush is good, so you really can’t go wrong. We sampled Tropicanabush and Uncle Benjamin a Rice Imperial IPA. Chuck thought the Tropicanabush was orangilicious (not sure that is a word).

Wolverine Brewing

The crafty people from Wolverine Brewing thought they could sneak past us, think again. We may have been drinking, but we saw you!

Dark Horse Brewing

Dark Horse Brewing Co. was hidden in Shed 5. When we finally found them, we had the Maple Bourbon Black Ale and yes, “Loved it.”

Blackrocks Brewing

The crew from Blackrocks made the long journey from Marquette to Detroit. It was their first Detroit Fall Beer Festival but you’d never know based on the demand.  We were hoping to try their King Korn, a craft malt liquor, but it blew just as we arrived. So we opted for the Flying Sailor Red Rye IPA. We have never drank a Blackrocks beer we didn’t like.

Kuhnhenn Brewing Co

Detroitonator, a Doppelbock with maple and pecan and the Simcoe Sillier, a dry-hopped Belgian Golden Strong ale were our beverages of choice from Kuhnhenn Brewing Co. Yep, both were delicious. I think Chuck actually got sillier after that one.

Detroit Beer Experiment

As part of a collaboration called “The Detroit Beer Experiment” five Detroit breweries were pouring their own Weizenbock style beer made from their own recipe using the same Michigan-grown hops from Hop Head Farms.

Atwater Brewery

Atwater Brewery  brought a great line up of beers, including their Detroit Experiment and this beautiful woman who was pouring for them. I personally don’t remember trying any of their beers. I have no doubt all were good.

Batch Brewing Company

The Detroit Experiment Weizenbock was just one of Batch Brewing Co.’s excellent beers. I didn’t actually taste any of Batch’s beers on Saturday. I’d gotten sidetracked by Cowboy Doug. Chuck couldn’t resist their Dicksmasher. While it may sound painful, he said it was actually quite enjoyable.

Detroit Beer Company

Detroit Beer Co known as the “The Brewery on Broadway” brought four beers, including the Detroit Experiment.

Motor City Brewing Works

Known for their Gettoblaster, Motor City Brewing Works arrived with it and their “Underground Resistance – Detroit Collaborative Weizenbock.”

Detroit Fall Beer Festival Favorites

Saying you have a favorite beer is like saying you have favorite kid. You know it will create bad “mojo” at some point, but you can’t help asking, “So which beer was your favorite?”

Bitter Old Fecker Rustic Ales

Fresh Hop Strutter – BBA Double IPA from Bitter Old Fecker Rustic Ales was our favorite beer. My intention was to sample Arlen – Autumn Rye with toasted hickory bark, but I sampled Chuck’s “Strutter” and had to have my own. I even got a second sample, which may be why it has taken me so long to write this post. Chuck thought the grilled apples were a nice touch to the Riker.

Stormcloud Brewing

Not only was Stormcloud’s beer damn good, they definitely get the nomination for the best beer name, “A Yooper & a Troll Kissing in a Tree” which by the way was made from ALL MICHIGAN ingredients. Just beautiful!

Plot Twists

We are always thrown when we find a new brewery, mostly because we think we know everything and are shocked there is brewery we didn’t know about, talk about a plot twist. All of these breweries were new to us, so we trolled their websites for details. If you know more, please leave a comment or send us a message.

Canton Brew Works

Canton Brew Works is obviously in Canton. I’m looking forward to visiting their tap room soon. Chuck thought the Alien Authopsy double IPA was packed with great hops flavor and a nice full body (jeez sounds like he’s talking about a woman!)

River Rouge Brewing Company

River Rouge Brewing Company in Royal Oak is a nano brewery making unique ales for the local community. The I-75 IPA had a big hit of basil for a really interesting taste and a dry finish.

North Center Brewing Company

North Center Brewing Company with their TA’s IPA and Marzen Lager were big hits with us.

Roak Brewing

Chuck says Roak Brewing‘s Kashmir Belgian Strong Dark Ale rocked like Led Zeppelin; Big flavor with a nice punch.  I didn’t try it, but I can say their Live Wire IPA is excellent.

Axle

Axle Brewing Company‘s slogan is “Never boring, always a bit Left of the Dial”. We like that and Frank (the black IPA) was a nice fella to meet.

Tenacity Brewing

Tenacity Brewing is located in Flint, just a hop, skip and jump from us. The Harvest IPA was an easy drinker and perfect for relaxing after raking up the leaves.

Music

The Strapping Owls

A beer fest wouldn’t be complete without music and the Detroit Fall Beer Fest was once again in great form with outstanding bands. The first up was The Strapping Owls, who flew in from Chicago and jammed some seriously soulful blues and R&B.

This band was smoking hot. Nicholas Barron (guitar/vocals) has a wonderfully soulful voice and played some fine guitar. His guitars looked very cool as well with interesting artwork on the body. Keeping the groove down home and funky were Fred Buetlmann (aka The Beer Evangelist) and Jordan Kozer (drums). Fred got down low on the tuba too. Who knew the tuba could be a soul loving sex machine.

Taken Aces

The next band we had the pleasure of hearing was Detroit’s own Taken Aces. These guys were a Nitro fueled funny car of sultry rock riffs. Anyone that loves the sounds of Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk, and Humble Pie would dig this band.

They played a great mix of original hard rock and some kick ass covers, including a smoldering rendition of “What is and What Never Should Be” by Zeppelin. You know a band is good when they can flawlessly pull off Zeppelin with all its original fury.

If you get a chance to see this band, do it!

Food

Slows Bar B-Q

Slows was serving food again this year! The best damn BBQ in the state and they serve up some vegan options which are tops in our book.

Grand Trunk Pub

I don’t remember seeing Grand Trunk Pub at last year’s festival, things get a little fuzzy. We didn’t have their food at the festival, but we have been to the pub and it is a great place to enjoy great beer and food.

Mudgies Deli

We were super excited to see Mudgies serving food. We make special trips to Detroit just to eat there. 

Beer Googles On

At a certain point in every beer festival, things go a little sideways.

Stay In Touch

We have almost 300 pictures in the gallery. I promise you there are plenty more fun and interesting photos for your enjoyment. If you were at the festival, we would love to hear from you. Share your story with us by leaving a comment or send us a message.