DRAFT Magazine

The Short's to Short's course

“Water makes beer, water sustains life, and water is fun to recreate in.”

By that reasoning, Joe Short of Short’s brewery just instituted the first annual “Short’s to Short’s” paddle on May 1.

The northeastern Michigan brewery is marking five years and a second new brewing facility. To celebrate, they are having a paddle from one brewery in Bellaire to the other in Elk Rapids.

“Five years is a pretty big deal… I think,” Joe declared. “Feels like twenty. Feels like two.”

The paddle is no simple cruise. It covers about 26 miles, which Short estimates will take most participants 12-16 hours.

“This quest is a testament of the discipline, endurance, pleasure and reward we might think to associate with our last five years of Short’s Brew,” Short noted.

The entire event seems gloriously and magically thrown together. (”Well, I plan on having some beer…” Short says about the official finish festivities.) Not unlike the brewery itself.

“It’s a damn good thing I don’t know what I’m doing,” Joe says. “Because if I did, I think it would be pretty boring.”

You know how Eskimos have hundreds of words for snow? I think they learned most of them from Yoopers.

I started writing this from the backseat of a station wagon driving through a near-whiteout blizzard. Just another day in the U.P.

My driver and guide is a incredibly chatty local 64-year-old woman named Sandy. She has one hand on the wheel and she keeps turning around, pointing out the windows and lecturing me and my fellow passengers on local lore.

This is what I wanted to say:

CAN YOU PLEASE CONCENTRATE ON KEEPING US ALIVE?!?

Also, the Beach Boys are playing on the radio right after they announce a winter storm warning with up to 18 inches of “considerable blowing snow.” Sandy is completely unfazed.

We’re on our way back to do some more snowshoeing. I bought another set of Patagonia base layers and Black Diamond gaiters at the local Downwind Sports for this occasion. I’m going to need it.

Yesterday it was a balmy 32 degrees and I went cross country skiing and snowshoeing in the Valley Spur trails in the Hiawatha National Forest near Munising. Those are the best trails I’ve ever been on. Well marked, well groomed, very extensive. I went out for hours and barely scratched the surface.

Trails of Valley Spur

Noquemanon Trails

Today we started with snowshoeing through the Noquemanon trails system in Marquette, Michigan. It’s a peaceful woods with only a few sets of tracks. We saw only two other fellow hikers and three dogs.

Then we headed toward what Sandy calls “the end of the world.”

We arrive at a trail called Wetmore Landing and snowshoe a short hike to the shore of Lake Superior. The wind is whipping. Snow is blasting. Waves are crashing over hills of ice.

Now I know what she means by the end of the world.

“I guess I took you to the right place, eh?” Sandy says.

Eh! I mean, Yes!

So that was awesome.

Now onto beer.

I don’t generally drink craft beer from a can. But in the U.P., it seems fitting. It happened last night at the Brownstone Inn in AuTrain, Michigan. (Thanks to E. Nelson for his U.P. beer suggestions in the comments.)

I was introduced to the local Keweenaw Brewing, which makes Red Jacket Amber Ale. There’s an illustration of a miner on the can, which is also a first that I’ve seen. I can’t say the beer was all that memorable outside of the packaging, but it went well with the mild whitefish fresh from Lake Superior.

They also had Founders, which is not local in the strictest sense — it’s made by the “trolls,” U.P. parlance for downstate Michigan residents who live under the Mackinac bridge. Founders makes an excellent Scotch Ale with Dirty Bastard.

Finally, I was also impressed with the New Holland Sun Dog Amber Ale I ordered from the Sweet Water Cafe in Marquette, Michigan. It went well with the huevos rancheros made with local and organic ingredients.

The first person to try ice climbing had to be certifiably insane. This would have been their thought process:

“Look, there’s a frozen waterfall. I bet if I strapped spikes to my boots and grabbed a couple of axes I could really climb the $#!& out of that thing.”

I am thankful for that crazy person.

I just tried it for the first time at Munising Falls in the Pictured Rock National Park in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. You can see a minute-long video of that climb here.

This is what I have to report: Ice climbing is the most fun you can have with all your clothes on plus three extra layers and two axes.

Ice climbing is not as intimidating as it sounds. If you’ve ever rock climbed, it’s (obviously) very similar. Except colder.

Like rock climbing, traversing the vertical maze takes a lot of concentration. It’s an exercise in mind over matter and mental problem solving as much as anything else.

Also similar to rock climbing, it works weird muscle groups that you forget you had. I felt it in my lower calves today. I guess that’s from pushing myself up with toe power.

Unlike rock climbing, you create your own hand and footholds by gouging crampons and pick-axes into frozen falling water. That’s pretty dang cool.

As for the beer scene, I’ve always been super impressed with nearly anything with a Michigan label. But local beer will come later. I’m in the U.P. all week.

After ice climbing, I sampled the extremely limited beer selection at Foggy’s in the town of Christmas, Michigan. But that was enough for me. I had the Labatt Blue on tap and a bottle of Leine’s original, which hit the spot with my steak. It’s grill your own at Froggy’s communal grill.

Next up: Cross country skiing, hiking, snowshoeing and, yes, more ice climbing. I’ll hit you back later this week.

Beer that packs a Hiii-yah!

So far, Scotty Karate is easily my favorite beer of 2009.

Who cares if the year is only a week old? This is a mighty fine brew.

This Scotch Ale is made by Dark Horse Brewing Company in Marshall, Michigan. In my experience Michigan really knows good beer. This won the Silver medal in the 2007 Great American Beer Festival.

Scotty Karate is a very smooth, drinkable beer but packs quite the hiii-yah with a full body and 9.75% ABV. A couple of these and you’ll be thrown to the mat faster than Jean-Claude Van Damme’s film career.

The martial arts angle makes this a Beer Runner beer, but there’s more to it than that. It’s actually named for a Michigan one-man band known for playing high energy shows of “honky tonk influenced, punk country songs.”

Scotty Karate himself has a extremely detailed description of his own beer on his MySpace page. Here’s a highlight:

After a big sip I found myself wearing a wool sweater on the inside of my body. A bit of yeast climbs in the backseat as we fade down a dusty road. As far as drinkability goes, the 9.75 ABV kept under control, but is not hidden, which is fitting if you’ve ever met Scotty. That said, this probably isn’t your 9 a.m. beer. But today, it is mine, suckas.

A few months ago I had the priviledge — yes, the privilege — of visiting Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Turns out, Grand Rapids is surprisingly awesome.

I biked on long bike paths. I hiked in pristine state parks and ran up and down sand dunes. I surfed (sort of) in Lake Michigan. I drank amazing local beer.

I’m sure I’ll get back to Grand Rapids in the future, because there’s too much Grand Rapids awesomeness to contain in one blog post. Those are words I never considered I’d find myself typing.

Right now I just want to focus on a classy joint called HopCat. This was one of the bars I visited during my stay, and I tried my first draft of Bridge Burner Special Reserve from Lakefront Brewery, which is made in my home of Milwaukee. And that’s damn near impossible to find that here. You can’t even get it at Lakefront Brewery’s tap.

That’s how insane the selection is at HopCat. Click here for their full list of draft beer. You’ll be scrolling for awhile.

But yesterday, I got this not-so-good news from their newsletter:

Last Sunday night, one of our employees, Josh (known to all as Opie) came up on the losing end of a bike-meets-car match-up. He’s in the hospital, and will heal in time, but will never again get through airport security without setting off the alarm… Yeah, we know it’s tough all over, but dude, you don’t have a collapsed lung (you know, unless you do. In that case, um, sorry).

To help him out, Hopcat is donating a portion of their sales as well as placing an “Opie Jar” on the bar to pay for some of his expenses. Featured new brews include Goose Island’s Bourbon County Stout from Chicago, brewed to commemorate their 1,000th batch.

So if you find yourself in the Grand Rapids area, drink up for Opie.