Today, we made our first stop in our West Michigan Brew Tour. It was already getting late on a Friday evening, so we decided to go someplace close to home. The Mitten Brewing Co. is a small place off of Leonard St. in Grand Rapids, with a baseball (mitt) theme. It was pretty crowded, but I suppose that should be expected on a Friday night. There were no seats when we first arrived, but I stalked some people as they left the bar and we swooped right in. Tom ordered a sampler flight of the four beers they had available today:
Eighty-Four (Double IPA) - 8.% Pale Wheat - 4.5% Peanuts & Cracker Jack Porter - 6.4% Hefeweizen - 5.1%
Of those four, Tom's favorite (and probably mine, too) was the Peanuts & Cracker Jack Porter. With a taste redolent of the ballpark, this porter really did have a good peanut flavor to it. It was different, unique, and apropos for the establishment. The least favorite for both of us was the Hefeweizen. At first we couldn't identify the strange taste this had to it. We finally realized that we were picking up notes of banana. Weird. It was unfiltered and cloudy with a taste neither bitter nor sweet. Apparently Tom doesn't care for the high-yeast beers in general, though. We also ordered a Sweet & Spicy pizza, made with a habanero sauce. It was very good, but definitely had some kick to it! Total bill came to under $20 -- that beer flight was only 4 bucks! Good deal, indeed.
