Lakeside, Michigan

This past week Julie and I rented a house with four other friends in Lakeside, Michigan. This was our first experience using Airbnb and it worked out really well. The house was walking distance to a private beach on Lake Michigan which is all we were really looking for. We spent the majority of our time at the beach and cooking at the house.

Bells Brewery

Before checking in to the house we headed up to Kalamazoo to checkout Bells Brewery for lunch. I was really impressed with their huge selection of beers on tap. Julie and I each did a tasting and then I had a couple more before we hit the road. By far my favorite was the Quinannan Falls Lager. Lunch was really good as well, mostly BBQ sandwiches. I was really disappointed with their ‘No Growler’ policy. I had planned on filling three growlers for the week. We did stop at their general store but the beer selection was less than what I see at my corner store in Wrigleyville.

Three Oaks
Before dinner on our last night in town we headed over to the town of Three Oaks to check out the Journeyman Distillery and a couple of bars before dinner at Soe Cafe.

Journeymen Distillery

Journeyman Distillery was setup much like FEW Distillery with the addition of its own bar and event space. The tour included three tastes which I believe is some kind of Federal regulation. Like other small craft distilleries, Journeyman distills Gin, White Whiskey and Rye Whiskey.

Pleasant House

Our tour guide at Journeyman suggested we stop by the nearby Pleasant House Brewing Company which recently opened a small brewery/bar. Pleasant House is the sister location of Pleasant House Bakery in Chicago which is a small restaurant that specializes in meat pies. This location has the same food setup, basically British comfort food, with the addition of the bar and three of their own beers. I had the Dry Stout and tried the ESB, both were great.