I am heading to Detroit in a little over a week to check out my brewhouse that has been built by the folks at Craftwerk in Lake Orion. While I'm up there, I'd like to check out some local brewpubs and breweries. The only things I'm familiar with in the area are Jolly Pumpkin (an hour or so away in Ann Arbor), Founders in Grand Rapids is even further. Dragonmead (maybe the closest that I'm familiar with is about 30 min in the opposite direction), and would be a good 1-2 punch with Kuhnhenn like 15 minutes away. Bell's is in Michigan, and I'd love to see their facility, but that's a hike at like 2-2.5 hours by car. New Holland is out of the question, 3 or so hours away. Dark Horse would be a stop if I were to go to Bell's, it's like 30 minutes closer on the way, but probably not going to be able to make it out that way. Perrin Brewing is way out of the way, so a no go as well.
So based on the Michigan breweries I can think off of the top of my head, Dragonmead and Kuhnhenn seem like the only viable options. If I have an extra day, then maybe Jolly Pumpkin. But what about the Detroit area itself? Anyone have recommendations there, or between Detroit and Lake Orion?
Sorry for the disorganized rambling, and thanks for any tips. I'd especially be interested in any decent brewpubs up there. You can get JP, Bell's, NH and packaged bees outside of MI, and I can ship myself a bunch home from a bottleshop. But a brewpub is what I'm opening, so I'm especially interested in seeing those operations as it is.
Thanks!
