Beer and Art

Last weekend Lynne, Eliza, and I headed up to Ann Arbor to visit her family and attend some amazing events.

First, Lynne’s dad and I went to the Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beer Festival in Ypsilanti.  Since I’ve become a bit of a beer snob, this was right up my alley.  Also, it was great to taste beers from so many brewers I don’t normally have access to in Indianapolis since they were all Michigan microbreweries. 

Overall, there were some big winners, big losers, and lots of interesting palette action.  We each were able to try 32 different types, and for the beer geeks you can read a full review HERE (read it, it took some effort to compile).  For lazy readers, the best of the night were New Holland’s 2008 Dragon’s Milk Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout and El Mole Ocho (mole as in the Mexican sauce, not the rodent).  Worst of the night were Liberty Street Brewing’s Clementine Lemon Thyme and Woodward Avenue’s Vanilla Porter.  We had great beers at Bell’s too (as if there was any doubt), enjoyed some bbq pulled pork sandwiches, and met some really interesting fellow beer-samplers.  There were 54 breweries with over 400 beers, so we plan to make this an annual event – it’s the only way to try them all!  Next time I’ll do some pre-planning via www.beeradvocate.com, just to make sure I don’t miss out on any highly ranked beers.  Check out all the brewers that attended here and let me know what I totally missed but should have tried!

(Photos are from my phone, so sorry about the poor quality)

The city was packed with people over the entire weekend for the 51st annual Ann Arbor Street Art Fair.  It was my first time attending, and I was quite impressed.  Hundreds of artists of all types set up booths through the city and U of M campus, so no matter what type of art you were into, there was plenty to see.  Photography, paintings, metal, wood, ceramics, jewelry, you name it, it was there.  We enjoyed a lot of the photographers’ works but having learned more about the art, we found ourselves looking at pieces much more critically.  To top it all off, they had some excellent street food that went well beyond what you’d find at a state fair.  Mahi mahi, coconut shrimp, and crab cakes anyone?

I’m pretty sure we’ll do it all again next year!