It’s always good to have options on hand, especially when it comes to beverages.
Now that a huge swath of West Michigan is familiar with the basics of craft beer, cider and seltzer, it’s time to move into the experimentation and innovation phase. This has led to the latest trend in craft beverages: variety packs.
These packs are hardly new, but more breweries are releasing their own offerings than ever before. It’s a great way to not only find new favorites, but enjoy brews made exclusively for those variety packs.
While these offerings change with the seasons, here are just a few of the local variety packs we’ve seen in stores recently:
Perrin Brewing
Float Drinks
Perrin went for true variety with their summer pack perfect for tubing, kayaking or beaching. This 12-can pack has Passion Fruit Gose, a funky and fun summer brew; Willo Wheat, a classic hopped wheat ale; and Rewired Pineapple Tangerine, a fruity and refreshing hard seltzer!
Starcut Ciders
Variety Pack
If you’re more of an apple fan, check out Starcut Ciders (part of Short’s Brewing) variety pack, which includes Pulsar, a dry cider fermented with pinot noir yeast; Octorock, classic cider; Mosa, blended with orange juice; and Imago, a pack-exclusive cider with ginger and lemon.
Saugatuck Brewing
A Trip to the Art Coast
Brand new to shelves is this themed variety pack made of classic styles. The pack includes the new Rainbow Rodeo IPA, made with 5 different hops; the new Vienna Lager, a malty, amber take on the style; Bonfire Brown, a fan favorite; and Lake Street Lager, another easy-drinking mainstay.
Founders
Green Zebra Pack
Love fruity goses? If so, this is the pack for you. Watermelon, pineapple, mango and peach—you get three of each of these slightly sour, slightly salty brews.
Founders
All Day Variety Pack
The beer that helped grow Founders into a huge success deserves a variety pack. If you like IPAs so much, you want to be able to drink multiple throughout the day and not fall over, this is the pack for you. The pack has the classic All Day IPA, a Hazy variation, a West Coast IPA variation, and a Red IPA variation called Crimson Sky, which is exclusive to the pack.
Brewery Vivant
Farmhouse Flight
Vivant-heads love the classics, so that’s what this farmhouse brewery is offering with their first pack. Nine cans, three beers, each one pint: Farm Hand farmhouse ale, Hop Field farmhouse IPA, and Big Red Coq red IPA.
Bell’s
IPA Variety Pack
Bell’s is known for a lot of great things, but if you had to pick one, it would probably be Two Hearted Ale, one of the most popular IPAs around anywhere. So, they built their variety pack around this brew, along with Official Hazy IPA, and two pack exclusives: Juicy Gossip, a juicy session IPA, and West Coast Hazy IPA, which is exactly what it sounds like!
Odd Side Hard Seltzer
Variety Pack
It’s not all IPAs and lagers! Odd Side now has enough different hard seltzer flavors to have multiple different variety packs. One pack in stores includes tropical flavors like POG, Lemon Elderflower, Fuzzy Navel, and Pina Colada. Another pack focused on cocktails, offering Blueberry Mojito, Cosmopolitan and Moscow Mule.
New Holland Brewing
Variety Pack
This year, New Holland has introduced a new beer (or rather, returning) exclusive to the variety pack, Zoomer, a nice and sessionable wheat ale. The pack also includes Hazy River, a New England IPA; Tangerine Space Machine, a citrusy hazy IPA; and Lightpoint, a very crushable (it’s just 3.7% ABV) white ale.
