The Upper Peninsula hasn’t exactly been its winter wonderland self this season, but even if you don’t see a lot of white flakes, look for some white suds, because Michigan’s Lake Superior country has become a beer drinker’s destination.
Starting from the west, the first stop is in Copper Country. Jutting into Lake Superior on the Keweenaw Peninsula, Houghton once was a star in the copper-mining industry. Though the last of the mines closed in the late 1960s, you still can find copper brew tanks over at Keweenaw Brewing Co. KBC, as it is known, has been so successful that it opened a production facility just outside town to keep up. Visitors may be stunned at the $2.50-per-pint price. KBC comes in cans, the latest trend in craft beer, or you can get a growler, a half-gallon jug, filled at the bar in the historic downtown. In warm weather sit out on the back deck with a view of the ship channel and the Quincy Mine up on the opposite ridge, now a historical park.
Just down the street and around the corner is The Library. Offering as many as 10 of its own beers on tap, this is a brewpub with a full menu that includes local whitefish. Collections of old books adorn the back bar and shelves around the dining room.
Farther up the Keweenaw Peninsula is Calumet, home of Red Jacket Brewing. Brewing only 50 barrels a year, Red Jacket brews are served only over its home bar inside the Michigan House Cafe. The 1905 building was built by Bosch Brewing and bears a beer picnic mural painted by the Milwaukee Artists’ Association more than 100 years ago. Come for the beer, stay for the food.
Michigan’s northernmost brewery also is one of the U.P.’s newest. Brickside Brewery up in Copper Harbor opened in June. The simple taproom with its copper-top bar has eight beers on tap, but the prime mission is distribution. Brewer Jason Robinson and wife Jessica bottle and label everything by hand. Addresses aren’t always clear in small northern towns, and the brewery name comes from a delivery description addressed to the “brick-sided building” years ago. A native to the area, Robinson worked here as a younger man when it was a grocery and a gas station, long before he dreamed of moving a brew kettle inside.
Heading east from the Copper Range along U.S. Highway 41, stop in for the eight taps at Jasper Ridge Brewery in Ishpeming and have some cudighi, a unique regional sausage created by Italian immigrants back in the day. Just 15 minutes farther east, Marquette is the U.P.’s beer capital, with three. The oldest is Marquette Harbor Brewery, which operates inside Vierling Restaurant, an eatery known for whitefish. The fresh catch comes from Thill’s Fish House across the parking lot out back, where the waters of Lake Superior lap at the shore in the shadow of a massive defunct ore dock. The structure inspired the name of Ore Dock Brewing, just a five-minute walk away.
In warm months, Ore Dock opens a garage door on the walk to let the weather in, and since opening in May it has become quite popular with the biking crowd. The brick building is right off the 16-mile bike path around Marquette. Thirsty riders stop for a pint and order in pizzas from down the street.
To complete the hat trick, head over to Blackrocks Brewing. From the street it could be someone’s brightly colored home, except for the warm-weather crowd in the front yard or on the porch with beers in hand. Named for a local I-dare-you-to-jump rock formation in the big lake off Presque Isle, the brewery keeps eight beers on tap. Brewed in small batches, the brews rotate frequently and topped out at 250 recipes in one year alone. (Rumor has it Blackrocks will renovate the local cinema and open a brewpub there as well.)
Just east of the natural wonders of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore lies Grand Marais and its resident Lake Superior Brewing. Decorated with a taxidermist’s version of what’s in the woods, the tavern brewery features a 1946 Brunswick bar (yes, the bowling people made bars). It sells “a ton of whitefish,” and beer names such as Cabin Fever ESB, Granite Brown and Lonesome Point IPA are suggestive of life up here. Six are on tap, and this is the only place you can get them.
As the highway system dips south away from the Superior coast before coming back up to the Whitefish Bay area, you can stop and see the beautiful Tahquamenon Falls, in warm weather or cold, and have a beer and a meal at the brewery that bears the same name. The falls are inside a state park, and you’ll have to pay the park fee to get to the brewpub; it’s surrounded on all sides by park land and shares the parking lot. Lark Ludlow, the U.P.’s only female head brewer, runs the whole show. The full menu includes beer cheese soup, local whitefish and local buffalo burgers. Four brews are on tap, and unlike many tourist-reliant businesses up here, Tahquamenon Falls Brewery stays open in winter (though it closes a couple weeks before and after the snowmobile season).
To finish off a Superior Michigan beer road trip, you can’t miss Sault Ste. Marie. Under a blue awning on Portage Avenue, Soo Brewing lies kitty-corner from the Soo Locks on the St. Marys River, where ships clear the 21-foot difference between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. Brewer Ray Bauer, a home brewer expressing his German roots, brought craft beer to town in 2011. The taproom, furnished with couches and church pews, serves no food other than free pretzels and peanuts but packs in fans of all kinds, including families who order Bauer’s root beer for the kids and play the board games on hand. As Bauer likes to say, “People want beer.” And in Lake Superior country, they have plenty to choose from.
Kevin Revolinski will release a guide to Michigan beer in spring. Visit themadtraveleronline.com.
If you go
Blackrocks Brewery, 424 North 3rd St., Marquette, 906-273-1333, blackrocksbrewery.com
Brickside Brewery, 64 Gratiot St., Copper Harbor, 906-289-4772, bricksidebrewery.com
Jasper Ridge Brewery, 1075 Country Lane, Ishpeming, 906-485-6017, countryvillageresort.com/httpdocs/html/brewery.html
Keweenaw Brewing Co., 408 Shelden Ave., Houghton, 906-482-5596, keweenawbrewing.com
Lake Superior Brewing Co., Lake Ave., Grand Marais, 906-494-2337, grandmaraismichigan.com/LSBC
The Library Brewpub, 62 Isle Royale St., Houghton, 906-487-5882, thelibrarybrewpub.com
Marquette Harbor Brewing/Vierling Restaurant, 119 South Front St., Marquette, 906-228-3533, thevierling.com
Ore Dock Brewing Co., 114 Spring St., Marquette, 906-228-8888, ore-dock.com
Red Jacket Brewing Co./Michigan House Cafe, 300 6th St., Calumet, 906-337-1910, michiganhousecafe.com/brewpub.html
Soo Brewing Co., 223 West Portage Ave., Sault Ste. Marie, 906-632-4400, soobrew.com
Tahquamenon Falls Brewery, M-123 Upper Falls Drive, Paradise, 906-492-3300, tahquamenon fallsbrewery.com
