2013 Brew-Ski Festival & Petoskey Brewing Co.

Last year, we discovered the BrewSki festival at Boyne Highlands -- which happens to be right around the corner from our family cabin in Harbor Springs, Michigan. We went up north this past weekend so that we could attend BrewSki and had a good time with my brother and his wife, along with a couple friends. I must say that I was beer-ed out by the end of the weekend. I think these things are more fun when you actually like beer. I know, I know...it's blasphemous to attend a beer festival and write a beer blog when you don't like beer. All I can say is: I'm sorry, and I AM learning to at least appreciate beer, even if it's not something I want to be drinking...

My brother & sister-in-law checking out
this year's sampling options!

Anyways, the BrewSki festival was pretty big this year, and there were tons of options to sample. Tom got 10 tickets, and I actually used two of them myself (hence being beer-ed out...after 8 ounces)! I recorded our ratings of each beer, along with ratings from our friends Brandon and Tracy. I was going to post them here, but I seem to have lost the sheet! Yikes! Well, the above photo shows some of what Tom and I tried. I missed photos for two of them. The ones I tried were Short's Soft Parade -- which I rated a 3.5. -- a decent tasting fruity beer; and Atwater's Vanilla Java Porter -- which I gave a 4. It was pretty good...the vanilla was reminiscent of something I couldn't quite put my finger on -- perhaps vanilla Tootsie Rolls? I have decided that I like porters and stouts best because they have such strong (and good) flavors that overpower the real "beer" taste. Actually, our friend Brandon got a sample of Dragon's Milk from New Holland there and I tried a taste. For whatever it's worth, I think that was the best beer I have ever tasted. It was so smooth and rich, with a great depth of flavor -- good flavor! I give that one a 5/5 star rating. Brandon gave it a 4, but he gave everything a 4, so...I'm not sure what that means.

Because a beer festival wasn't enough, we had to check out a local brewery later that night: Petoskey Brewing Company. It's a pretty cool place, housed in an old brick building that was actually a brewery long ago in a former life.

Tom tried and liked the Hopseed Double IPA. I can appreciate an IPA, but the doubles are still a bit much for me. Tom thought it was smooth, though, and gave it high marks.

Several people got the Red Brick Hard Cider, which was crisp and refreshing with a very clean taste. Somebody commented that it would make a good drink for a hot summer day.

Tom also tried Tucker's Pale Ale, which he gave 4 stars, citing that it had a good hop profile for a Pale Ale.

The makings of raspberry mead --
yum!!

In other brew news, Tom currently has four different batches underway -- a beer, an apfelwein, and two meads! I like mead, so I may actually have a home brewed beverage I want to drink soon. Well, sort of soon. Meads take forever...so maybe by sometime this summer!

at the Water's Edge