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Small-batch experimentation pushes Brewery 4 Two 4 to innovate
Written by Joe Boomgaard | Tuesday, 27 February 2018 10:12 |Tucked away in a nondescript strip mall in Holland’s Beechwood neighborhood, Brewery 4 Two 4 takes experimentation to the max. That’s somewhat out of necessity, since the brewery produces its beer on a tiny half-barrel system at its 321 Douglas Ave. taproom.
YELLOW BEER? Michigan brewers go back to basics — with a modern twist
Written by Joe Boomgaard | Thursday, 01 February 2018 10:43 |Pilsners speak to me because they’re both easy drinking and complex beers if you want them to be. Luckily, Michigan craft breweries have started to embrace pilsners and lagers in growing numbers. At Revue, we decided to try several new or refreshed offerings, and those we missed in a 2016 taste-off.
Java Junkies: Michigan coffee beers, rated
Written by Joe Boomgaard | Thursday, 04 January 2018 11:15 |The top-rated selection in a blind tasting of Michigan-made coffee-themed beers happens to be from a lakeshore brewery that’s making some waves of its own.
Darkstar Stout from Holland-based Big Lake Brewing LLC earned top honors in the Revue coffee beer taste off. The beer slightly edged out selections from Short’s Brewing Co. and Muskegon’s Pigeon Hill Brewing Co.
Confession time: I’ve fallen out of love with IPAs.
Call it palate fatigue, call it a reaction to too many bad/unbalanced beers in the marketplace, but my beer of choice has shifted quite a bit in the last year. Now, I still like the style and I enjoy tasting the flavors of different hops, but the thought of drinking a hop bomb really turns me off.
Q&A: Seth Rivard and Jeff Sheehan, Co-owners, Rockford Brewing Co.
Written by Joe Boomgaard | Thursday, 07 December 2017 09:22 |Rockford Brewing Co. scored big in the competition at this year’s Great American Beer Festival. Revue sat down with owners Seth Rivard and Jeff Sheehan to discuss the praise the brewery’s been receiving and how they’re not letting it get to their heads.
TO CELLAR OR NOT? Revue conducts a 5-year vertical blind tasting of Founders KBS
Written by Joe Boomgaard | Tuesday, 31 October 2017 11:51 |High-ABV, bourbon barrel-aged beers can do well in the cellar, meaning that their flavors can develop over time, mellow out and even improve.
But it begs the question of whether age does these beers any favors and at what age they begin to fall off.
To find out, I pulled from my cellar a five-year vertical of KBS from Founders Brewing Co. spanning the years of 2013 through 2017 and convinced my cohorts at Revue to conduct a blind tasting.
With Hop Field, Brewery Vivant launches new flagship Farmhouse IPA
Written by Joe Boomgaard | Wednesday, 04 October 2017 15:55 |After a year in planning, Grand Rapids-based Brewery Vivant has launched a new flagship IPA.
Love at First Sip: Craft brewers recount when they converted to craft beer
Written by Nathan Peck | Tuesday, 03 October 2017 15:17 |At some point in most craft beer drinkers’ lives, they move from the stale kegs of pale fizzy mass-market beers in young adulthood or college to something with more substance. For craft brewers around the state, that first experience of brews beyond the stale set them on a sometimes circuitous paths toward brewing beers to their liking. Revue spoke with six regional brewery owners to discuss the drink that set them on their careers.
In an unending game of one upmanship, brewers are always looking for strange ingredients and off-the-wall techniques to bring their crazy concoctions to their fervent fans. Here are a few of the weirder beers we’ve heard about lately.
Going ‘Shark Style’ with Sharkman: West Michigan’s leading heavy metal DJ and craft beer aficionado
Written by Mark Deming, photos by Katy Batdorff | Monday, 02 October 2017 10:48 |If the West Michigan craft beer and hard rock community had a superhero, it would have to be Sharkman. By day, he’s a mild-mannered husband and father who runs a painting business. By night, he dons his old-school denim jacket laden with dozens of patches, puts on his mirrored shades, slips on a few skull rings and goes “Shark Style,” spinning vintage metal and classic rock from his sizable collection of LPs.
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