MISSION: IN SEARCH OF THE BEST TAPPED BEER

The Wild Shamrock All-Time Suds List

RANK	DATE HAD	BEER	STYLE	BREWED AT	TAPPED AT
1	4-17-21	Cherry Bomb Blonde	Fruit and Field Beer	Front Street Brewing	Front Street Brewing
2	6-9-18	Ghost River Golden Ale	Kolsch	Ghost River Brewing	Ghost River Brewing
3	4-7-18	Zombie Dust	American Pale Ale	Three Floyds	BJ McMahons
4	10-7-17	Space Station Middle Finger	American Pale Ale	Three Floyds	Deja Brew
5	8-15-17	Gum Ball Head	American Pale Wheat Ale	Three Floyds	Deja Brew
6	7-15-17	Oberon	Wheat	Bell’s	Brentwood Tavern
7	5-27-17	Star Chicken	American IPA	Greenbush	Greenbush
8	6-15-21	Highway Robbery	Blonde Ale	Hop Lot Brewing	Hop Lot Brewing
9	12-28-17	Casper	Gose	Jackalope	Jackalope
10	11-23-18	Kidnapped by Vikings	American Pale Ale	Solemn Oath Brewery	Crusade Burger Bar
11	8-7-21	Two Women	Lager Helles	New Glarus Brewing	Toffler’s Bar & Grill
12	9-21-19	Downtown Hottie	American Pale Wheat Ale	Evil Horse Brewing	Evil Horse Brewing
13	1-4-18	Hofbrau	Munich Helle Lager	Hofbrau Brewing	Hofbrau Brewing
14	5-10-19	Argus Lager	Red Lager	Argus Brewing	Argus Brewing
15	3-15-19	Argus Lager	Red Lager	Argus Brewing	Gilhooley’s
16	5-5-25	Schnitzky	Hefeweizen	Petskull Brewing	Petskull Brewing
17	3-29-25	Prairie Juice	Hazy IPA	Hickory Creek Brewing	Hickory Creek Brewing
18	10-13-18	Pontius Pilate	American IPA	Beer Church Brewing	Beer Church Brewing
19	10-12-19	Traktor	Blonde Ale	Greenbush	Greenbush
20	2-16-19	Nuke the Whales	Farmhouse Pale Ale	Burn’Em Brewing	Burn ‘Em Brewing
21	1-18-25	H.B.C.	American Pale Ale	Homewood Brewing Company	Homewood Brewing Company
22	5-18-24	Wolverine Premium Lager	American Lager	Wolverine State Brewing Company	Wolverine State Brewing Company
23	11-23-19	Freshly Squeezed	American IPA	Deschutes	The Stray Dog
24	12-12-20	Weed Wacker	Wheat Pale Ale	Arrowhead Brewing	Arrowhead Brewing
25	3-30-19	Daisy Cutter	West Coast Pale Ale	Half Acre Brewing	Public House
26	7-28-20	Solid Gold	Lager	Founders Brewery	The Mermaid Bar
27	11-15-19	Storm Cat	American Amber/Red Ale	One Trick Pony	One Trick Pony
28	10-16-19	Ghost Runner	West Coast Pale Ale	Soundgrowler Brewing	Soundgrowler Brewing
29	10-16-19	Grinder Punch	West Coast Pale Ale	Soundgrowler Brewing	Soundgrowler Brewing
30	6-27-20	Surf Garden West Coast IPA	West Coast IPA	Ghost Isle Brewing	Ghost Isle Brewing
31	6-6-21	Lug Wrench	American Pale Lager	Evil Horse Brewing	Evil Horse Brewing
32	2-10-24	Low Life	American Wheat Lager	Greenbush Brewing	Greenbush Brewing
33	5-18-24	3 On Three	Wheat IPA	Blue Tractor Brewing	Blue Tractor Brewing
34	5-30-25	Lager of the Lakes	American Lager	Bells Brewery	Bells Brewery
35	2-3-24	Spruce Willis	Pale American Ale	Three Blondes Brewing	Three Blondes Brewing
36	1-20-24	Cold Shot	Lager	Horse Thief Hollow	Horse Thief Hollow
37	11-25-20	Rocket Surgery	New England IPA	Surly Brewing	Berger Station
38	11-23-18	The Old Firehouse Ale	American Cream Ale	Oswego Brewing Company	Oswego Brewing Company
39	8-6-21	Spotted Cow	Farmhouse Ale-Saison	New Glarus Brewing	Baumgartner’s
40	10-30-18	Speculator	Cream Ale	Open Outcry	Open Outcry
41	10-8-18	Hofbrau Oktoberfest	German Marzen/Oktoberfest	Hofbrau	The Stray Dog
42	4-13-24	Lite Thinking	American Pale Ale	Pollyanna Brewing	Pollyanna Social Club
43	6-12-18	Spacedust	American Double/Imperial IPA	Elysian Brewing	Chimes
44	11-28-20	Lexical Gap	American IPA	Pollyanna Brewing	Nick’s
45	2-4-18	Invasion	American Pale Ale	Cigar City Brewing	Wild Monk
46	6-26-20	Country Drag	Pale Ale	Greenbush	Greenbush
47	3-30-18	Lawn Mower Lager	American Pale Ale	Baderbrau	Baderbrau
48	12-29-17	Gerst Amber	Amber	Yazoo	55 South
49	5-6-17	Oberon	Wheat	Bell’s	Deja Brew
50	1-29-23	Light House Table Lager	Light Lager	Seedz Brewing	Seedz Brewing
51	5-14-22	Auto Blonde	Blonde Ale	93 Octane Brewing	Monk’s Pub
52	3-14-17	Zephyr Golden Lager	Lager	Flossmoor Station	Flossmoor Station
53	3-22-25	Begyle Blonde Ale	Blonde Ale	Begyle Brewing	The Quarry Ballroom
54	3-16-25	Foggy Loggy	Germany Style Lager	Shoreline Brewing	Shoreline Brewing
55	12-27-23	Mini Unicorn	American IPA	Pipe Works Brewing	Berger Station
56	3-13-20	Light Hearted Ale	American IPA	Bell’s Brewing	Black Oak
57	11-27-19	Ridge Rider	American Pale Ale	Horse Thief Hollow	Horse Thief Hollow
58	12-10-21	Local’s Light	American Lager Light	Shorts Brewing	Villa Nova Pizzeria
59	9-16-23	Zombie Ice	Imperial IPA	3 Floyds	Thornton Distillery
60	12-3-22	Axeslinger	Amber Ale	Rabid Brewing	Rabid Brewing
61	6-12-18	Voodoo	American Pale Ale	Tin Roof Brewing	Manning’s
62	6-17-21	Toes in the Sand	American IPA	South Haven Brewing	South Haven Brewing
63	5-15-21	Hath No Fury	Helles Lager	Arrowhead Brewing	Arrowhead Brewing
64	11-9-19	Exit Strategy Pale Ale	American Pale Ale	Exit Strategy Brewing	Exit Strategy Brewing
65	11-21-19	Reverse Repo Rye	Rye Pale Ale	Open Outcry	Open Outcry
66	7-21-19	Yuengling	American Amber/Red Lager	Yuengling	The Tavern
67	5-19-18	Sun Crusher	American Pale Wheat Ale	Revolution	U.S. Cellular
68	7-15-17	Right Meow	American Pale Ale	Grand Rapids Brewing	Hopcat
69	12-28-17	Yazoo Pale Ale	American Pale Ale	Yazoo	Mellow Mushroom
70	7-30-17	Thunder Hop	IPA American	Church Brew Works	Church Brew Works
71	11-11-17	Chicago Pilsner	Czech Pilsner	Baderbrau	Baderbrau
72	5-13-17	Gandy Dancer Honey Ale	American Pale Ale	Flossmoor Station	Flossmoor Station
73	8-5-17	The Sharkman Cometh	American Pale Ale	Greenbush	Greenbush
74	7-29-17	Yuengling	American Amber/Red Lager	Yuengling	Pickleburgh Fest
75	4-29-17	Anti-Hero	American Pale Ale	Revolution	Jack Desmond’s
76	2-27-17	Pinball	American Pale Ale	Two Brothers	Deja Brew
77	12-9-17	Southside Pride	Munich Helles Lager	Baderbrau	Baderbrau
78	7-23-20	Round Barn Kolsch	Kolsch	Round Barn Brewing	Featherbone Tavern
79	10-8-17	Crooked Cross	Cream Ale	Beer Church Brewing Company	Beer Church Brewing Company
80	11-25-18	Vacation	American Pale Wheat Ale	Round Barn Brewing	Round Barn Brewing
81	7-14-18	Beer Church Lager	Lager	Beer Church Brewing Company	Beer Church Brewing Company
82	6-12-18	Bird Bath	American Pale Ale	Wayward Owl	Chimes
83	6-10-18	Swamp Thing	IPA	Bayou Teche	Dat Dog
84	4-28-19	End All	New England IPA	Solemn Oath	The Girl and the Goat
85	8-1-19	Spike Driver	IPA	Twisted Rail Brewing	Twisted Rail Brewing
86	8-7-19	Hamm’s	American Adjunct Lager	Hamm’s Brewing	BJ McMahons
87	12-29-23	Narragansett	American Lager	Providence Brewing Company	Zorn Brewing Company
88	6-23-24	Buzz Lite Beer	Honey Golden Ale	Imperial Oak Brewing	Imperial Oak Brewing
89	12-27-17	Neck Hole American Lager	American Pale Ale	Against the Grain	Against the Grain
90	11-28-20	Basement Party	American Lager	Temperance Beer Co.	Three Corners
91	6-17-21	Golden Spike	German Pilsner	The Filling Station	The Filling Station
92	5-9-20	Station Master Wheat Ale	American Pale Wheat	Flossmoor Station	Flossmoor Station
93	6-18-19	New Buffalo Pilsner	Pilsner	Ghost Isle	Ghost Isle
94	6-24-17	Full Lemonty	American Blonde Ale	Pollyanna	Pollyanna
95	4-27-17	Harp	Euro Pale Ale	Guinness	Clancy’s
96	3-5-17	Zyweic	Euro Pale Ale	Zyweic	Flo & Santo’s
97	8-2-17	Iron City	American Lager	Pittsburgh Brewing Company	PNC
98	4-12-23	Flight Path	Pale Lager	Short Fuse Brewing	Sebastian’s Ale & Whiskey House
99	4-8-23	Flipside Lager	Lager	Flipside Brewing	Flipside Brewing
100	3-17-17	Guinness	Irish Stout	Guinness	Deja Brew
101	7-7-24	Bikini Bottom	Wheat Ale	5 Cities Brewing	Court Street Pub
102	1-20-23	Ideate	IPA	Open Outcry	Open Outcry
103	10-5-19	Wytch Racer	Pale Ale	Rabid Brewing	Rabid Brewing
104	6-18-19	Peach Bum Blonde	American Blonde Ale	Ghost Isle	Ghost Isle
105	12-11-19	Just a Crush	Pale Ale	Flossmoor Station	Flossmoor Station
106	4-27-19	Son of a Juice	American IPA	Maplewood	The Brass Tap
107	11-10-18	Flossmoor Station Oktoberfest	German Marzen	Flossmoor Station	Flossmoor Station
108	3-25-17	Kitchen Sink	Pale Ale	Horse Thief	Horse Thief
109	12-2-17	Alaskan IPA	IPA	Alaskan Brewing Co.	Black Oak
110	9-26-20	Galactic Wheat	American Pale Wheat	Brothership Brewing	Brothership Brewing
111	2-16-19	Golden Grain	Cream Ale	Zorn Brewing	Zorn Brewing
112	9-16-23	Busia Rose	Polish Pilsner	One Trick Pony	One Trick Pony
113	10-28-23	Miller High Life	American Lager	Miller Brewing Company	Dakota Inn
114	11-28-20	Carlsburg	Lager/European Pale	Carlsberg Brewing	Hughie McClafferty’s
115	6-27-20	Hop Field	Farmhouse IPA	Brewery Vivant	Bentwood Tavern
116	3-14-20	Wonderbrew Pre-Prohibition	American Lager	People’s Brewing	Wonderburger
117	10-7-18	Greenbush Oktoberfest	German Marzen	Greenbush	Greenbush
118	9-29-18	Das Boot Oktoberfest	German Marzen	Imperial Oak Brewing	Imperial Oak Brewing
119	10-28-18	Leinenkugel Oktoberfest	German Marzen	Leinenkugel	Firewater Saloon
120	5-15-23	Moon Man	American Pale Ale	New Glarus Brewing	Brix
121	6-12-18	Andy Gator	Maibock Helles	Abita	Abita
122	6-11-18	Ragin’ Cajun	Kolsch	Bayou Teche	Jimani
123	6-22-19	Lotus	American Wheat	Rabid Brewing	Rabid Brewing
124	12-29-18	Five Bridges	Kolsch	Blue Island Brewing	Blue Island Brewing
125	10-27-18	Goose Island Oktoberfest	German Marzen	Goose Island	Konow’s Corn Maze
126	9-23-18	Great Lakes Oktoberfest	German Marzen	Great Lakes Brewing	Three Corners
127	6-13-18	Red Stallion	Vienna Lager	Crescent City	Crescent City
128	6-12-18	The Big Easy	American IPA	Abita	Abita
129	6-12-18	Golden Export	Dortmunder/Export Lager	Gordon Biersch	Gordon Biersch
130	12-30-17	Action Comics Pale Ale	Pale Ale	New Albanian	New Albanian
131	11-25-17	Center Line	American Blonde Ale	Alter Brewing	Trio Restaurant
132	10-27-17	Old Style	American Lager	Pabst Blue Ribbon	BJ McMahons
133	6-16-21	LaBatt Blue	Lager	LaBatt Blue Brewing	Mulligans
134	8-1-17	Iron City Light	Light American Lager	Pittsburgh Brewing Company	Luke Wholey’s
135	10-11-18	Pipe Works Oktoberfest	German Marzen	Pipe Works	The Wild Monk
136	10-7-18	Samuel Adams Oktoberfest	German Marzen	Boston Beer Company	Skip’s New Buffalo
137	2-25-22	Disco Infiltrator	Hazy Pale Ale	Horse Thief Hollow	Horse Thief Hollow
138	2-15-22	Orange Haze	Hazy West Coast IPA	Soundgrowler	Soundgrowler
139	2-4-22	Foggy Orchard	Apple Wheat	Three Blondes Brewing	Three Blondes Brewing
140	11-25-18	Barley Fife	English Stout	Round Barn Brewing	Round Barn Brewing
141	3-25-17	Purple Cow	Stout	Horse Thief	Horse Thief
142	6-18-19	Swamp Dust	German Schwarzbier	Ghost Isle	Ghost Isle
143	10-7-23	Ichabod	Pumpkin Ale	New Holland Brewing	Union Pier Social
144	12-21-19	Once	American Pale Ale with Tamarind	Blue Island Brewery	Blue Island Brewery
145	2-5-22	Busch	Lager	Anheuser-Busch	Black River Tavern
146	6-11-18	Abita Amber	Vienna Lager	Abita Brewing	Steamboat Natchez
147	12-28-17	Saffron IPA	IPA	Mantra Artisan Ales	Mantra Artisan Ales
148	7-31-17	Straub	American Lager	Straub	Hotel Loyal
149	12-28-17	Hot Yoga	Witbier	Mantra Artisan Ales	Mantra Artisan Ales
150	12-30-17	Hacksaw Jim Dunkel	Bavarian Dunkel	New Albanian	New Albanian
151	6-13-18	Paradise Park	American Pale Lager	Urban South	Tujagues
152	12-28-17	Battleground	Saison/Farmhouse	Mantra Artisan Ales	Mantra Artisan Ales

2025 Suds List

RANK	DATE HAD	BEER	STYLE	BREWED AT	TAPPED AT
1	5-5-25	Schnitzky	Hefeweizen	Petskull Brewing	Petskull Brewing
2	3-29-25	Prairie Juice	Hazy IPA	Hickory Creek Brewing	Hickory Creek Brewing
3	1-18-25	H.B.C.	American Pale Ale	Homewood Brewing Company	Homewood Brewing Company
4	5-30-25	Lager for the Lakes	American Lager	Bells Brewing	Bells Brewing
5	3-22-25	Begyle Blonde	Blonde Ale	Begyle Brewing	The Quarry Ballroom
6	3-16-25	Foggy Loggy	German Style Lager	Shoreline Brewing	Shoreline Brewing

Kalamazoo, Michigan is home to one of the best breweries in the world. Bells, where they make one of the best summer beers around in Oberon. They also make Two Hearted Ale, another gem made by Bells Brewing that is so good, but so dangerous at the same time. The percentage in one of them can easily come back to bite you on the rear. After a few you could be walking sideways.

The bottles & cans have the fish on the label which I like. My neighbor friend at one of the local beer festivals had the Bells Brew Master sign his shirt. It was like watching some girl so star struck about a band having the musician sign her breasts. This is not my first go around at Bells Brewing right in the middle of a college town where my nephew went to Western Michigan. I took him to the brewery as a matter of fact. I have blogged a few of Bells’ beers. Why not add another one to the list? The wise men followed the Star of Bethlehem. In the town of Kalamazoo you follow the sun to get to Bells Brewery.

Bells Brewery is a huge establishment with plenty of seating inside and out. They have an enormous tap room with a beer menu that seems to never end.

You can order food and drink at the bar to seat yourself wherever. You can also sit down and eat and drink, and have a waitress at your service. We just arrived in town, so we needed some food. We knocked it out of the park starting with the appetizer.

The devil made us. For my main course I went with the burger, and I was not disappointed.

My plate was piled high with fries and a zesty pickle with my first choice which was an Oberon. I had to start with a brew I knew and loved before I ventured out to another gem made by Bells.

NAME: LAGER FOR THE LAKES

STYLE: AMERICAN LAGER

ABU: 4.8%

BREWED BY: BELLS BREWERY

Anything with lakes in the name along with boat oars on the can, I’m sold not even having a sip. The Lager for the Lakes is a simple American lager. I would say it is a step or two up on the beers your daddy used to drink – those typical lager domestics. The menu says the Lager for the Lakes is an easy drinking American Lager. Clean and balanced, light malt character, and a dry finish.

The pour is a golden amberish with a light clouding of suds around the perimeter of the pint glass. The aroma is simple malts and grain, nothing special there. Each sip is crisp, clean, and refreshing. It’s flavorful. The malts are crackery with a hop bite at the end to seal the deal. It’s not an overpowering flavor which makes this an easy drinking beer. Another solid choice made by Bells Brewery.

It was not too crowded for a Friday night. I thought the dining area had that cozy feeling of the fireplace and loft style windows bringing in the sunshine. The brick gives the place that refurbished look. They also have that sun above the bar which draws your attention too. The tap room is spacious as the wood shines from the lighting. They have a package goods spot to get your to-go beers. They make it nice & easy to get your favorite brews to take home.

The Robocop painting definitely caught my eye. On the walls of the brewery in the tap room they have multiple paintings that are eye catchers.

The outside is lit up with plenty of easy parking to get in and out of. Bells Brewery is a must do in Kalamazoo in a town that has many solid drinking establishments. With Bells you can’t go wrong. For the Lager for the Lakes I have it coming in at number 4 for the 2025 calendar year. I have the Lager of the Lakes making it in my top 50 beers. I have it slotted at number 34 overall.

This next brewery I’m blogging about with the name Petskull Brewing, may make you think of something coming out of a Stephen King Novel.

Suddenly your pets are coming back to life and drinking beer at a brewery. The Petskull is not that brewery blasting the heavy metal music which makes you hope bar rescue will come right at that moment to save the day.

Instead on a brisk spring Sunday afternoon, a New Orleans style orchestra is belting out old tunes in the beer garden of Petskull Brewery. The garden was packed with patrons watching and listening to all the instruments play in harmony. The doors were open from the beer garden to the brewery itself. Inside the brewery, people gather for what seems like a retirement party. It is Cinco De Mayo day and the brewery has prepared chorizo brats tacos. Did I forget to mention we were in Wisconsin?

Most breweries are known for their upscale type of food. Many breweries go with food trucks or let you bring your own food in. The Petskull brewery in Manitowoc is killing the theory that you can’t judge a Pet by the color of it’s skull. They are not what the cat dragged in. Mantitowac is a town in Wisconsin that makes you think you have stepped into a time warp. The technology there seems behind the 8 ball. The popular hair metal bands from decades ago are playing like they just hit the number one spot on the music billboards.

The chorizo brats tacos were a brilliant idea and tasted fabulous. I imagine they were only around for the Cinco De Mayo weekend festivities. Let’s get down to the important stuff. Beer.

The Petskull brewery had about a dozen beers on tap. To me it looked like they were all made in house. The brewery also makes their own flavored seltzers as you know White Claws have been sweeping through the nation invading beer turf.

Johnny from Cobra Kai quickly went back to the Banquet beers after tasting a flat seltzer. It was a work trip for me and the guy I was with likes the seltzers and was impressed with what Petskull had. The one beer I needed to try was called SCHNITZKY. I started off with an Irish Red & then went Schnitzky the rest of the way because every time you order one, the staff would scream the name “SCHNITZKY!!!!” It felt like Norm walking into Cheers where the patrons yelled “NORM!!”

NAME: SCHNITZKY

STYLE: German Hefeweizen

ABU: 5.75%

BREWED BY: PETSKULL BREWING

It says on their beer menu: “You say Hefe, we say Schnitzky, it doesn’t matter what you call it.”

The name Schnitzky sounds like an old Chicago Bears defensive player that played with the Midway monsters in the 1960’s. The glass is a monster filled with the Hefe that is straw colored with lots of foam swimming at the top of the big glass.

Petskull brewery’s description: With perfect banana and clove balance. It’s cloudy and fresh like a German Weissbier should be. C’mon Schnitzky!

The aroma smells like autumn. The Schnitzky is an easy drinking beer that has Belgian flavors along with the banana and cloves with some other unknown spices the tongue can’t quite decipher. Some slight sweetness along with a pleasant hop bite finish.

Inside, the brewery is well lit by the sunlight shining through many windows. It looks like Petskull brewery took over an old warehouse and turned it into a brewery. Very spacious inside. The hardwood floors you notice right away as they are shiny. You can hear each footstep you take as you mosey on to the bar. They have the normal silver vats in eyesight where they make all of their lovely creations.

Out front looks like a square building and your typical ware house. The brewery is close to the water on the outskirts of town perhaps in a area that was at one time industrialized. The brewery seems like it always has something going on like live music trivia and who knows what else. Dig up your old pet day for show and tell. I ate the special of the day, but the normal food menu had lots of options. I imagine they do specialties all the time because the chorizo brat taco was out of this world.

No shovels are being handed out to dig up your pet’s skull. Or place your dead pet in the pet cemetery, which they do NOT have out back. Overall I did dig this place. The atmosphere for a Funday Sunday was electric. The staff were great. As for the beer, I definitely have to come back for more. My man Schnitzky, I should adopt and put his name on the Bears roster for shits and giggles. I have this Hefe coming in number 1 overall this year. I have it in my top 20 on the big bad ass suds list coming in at the new number 16. SCHNITZKY!!!

The Hickory Creek Brewing Company in New Lenox, Illinois is home to this gigantic submarine. The song from the Beatles comes to my mindset. “We all live in the yellow submarine,” seeing the big submarine on the wall you can live in. Not exactly.

The story of getting that submarine there has to be interesting even for how the owner found it in the first place. This is the second place for Hickory Creek Brewing as they moved to this location a few years back from another spot in the suburb of New Lenox.

The new location looks like an old school. You could say it looks like an old storage place. The parking lot looks like it is fenced in to prevent the horde of zombies from attacking. Some of the beer names have animals in the title like the squirrel on the glass window.

My favorite animal beer that Hickory Creek Brewing has is a Porter called “Whack the Beaver.” Maybe a nun from the past haunted the owner in grammar school, a guy who’s now living the dream. He’s always there having a great time living out one of his favorite hobbies in life. He worked in the oil refinery industry for 28 years before retiring to live the dream – bringing his beer creations to everyone in the area and beyond.

NAME: PRAIRIE JUICE

STYLE: NEW ENGLAND, HAZY IPA

ABU: 6.2%

BREWED BY: HICKORY CREEK BREWING

Brewery notes: Hazy, Hoppy, and floral. Floral hops aromas from large amounts of citra-mosaic, and EL-Dorado hops.

It pours dirty, hazy, & amberish, with golden tan colors. There’s a lacing of suds around the perimeter of the pint glass. The aroma is very tropical, with a lot going on. There’s multiple fruity scents. The taste is tropical with sweet malts & fruity with hints of pear. It is very easy drinking as the hops explode in your mouth after each gulp. It goes down sneaky smooth where you could indulge with multiple Prairie Juices in one sitting. Sort of a higher alcohol percentage, so you have to be mindful of that. I like the most that it’s not a hazy beer that stays with you later on. Some hazy IPA’s come up on you hours later after your last pint.

The Hickory Creek Brewery has plenty of seating & plenty of seats at the bar. It’s a laid back style bar with the dim Christmas tree lighting. They have televisions so you can’t miss the game. They were setting up as they have live music on the weekends. They seem like they have a calendar of events they like to do every month to keep the atmosphere happening.

If you’re a pinball wizard, there is a selection of pinball machines to get the high score on. Every brewery has its selection of board games if you’re itching for something else to do. For food they have upscale beer snacks. They do frozen pizzas. They have a pizza joint a few doors down to help ease the stomach hungry hungry hippo in your badass self. No need to bring a Snickers bar to soothe the beast inside you. The Submarine has its own room with all kind of cool Navy hats decorating the walls and interesting historical facts about one of America’s top-notch armed forces & their underwater machines.

The bands set up their equipment in the submarine room and play from there. Tables are set up in there when the bands are not present. They even have some tables outside where you can get your drink on. Hickory Creek offers wine and about ten homemade brews that are brewed on site.

They even have domestic beers for you-know-who. Those family members and friends who don’t get a freshly brewed beer straight from the tap. The service is always top notch as the owner will always carry on a conversation if you have any questions.

I’ve been wanting to write about the Prairie Juice for quite some while. I never get everything blogged. I do circle back and this is my top beer right now on the 2025 beer list. I have the Juice in my top 20 on the Big Beer Suds List. I have it coming in as the new number 16. I will go back for others in the future. Right now I’m glad I got the Submarine and the Juice in one segment.

This next establishment was a hidden gem named after what the town is known for the most. The Quarry in Thornton, Illinois brings you back in a time warp. It’s like a 1950’s Bedrock from the Flintstones with their own gravel pit which is the Quarry, where they’ve been digging rocks for decades. The town has a history of old time Chicago gangster activity like the most known crook of all-time, Al Capone. Who may have been the original gangster. Some will argue and say the original O.G. is the Olive Garden.

Even though the Quarry was only established in 2022, I find it hard to believe it was not something else before. This place looks on the outside like a place where your daddy would get his drink on after a long shift at the Quarry breathing rock dust all day. The outside looks like a typical tavern next to the hot dog stand that is going to be most likely dinner unless the owner fires up a frozen pizza time in time for his patrons.

If you dare enter your daddy’s world thinking it’s just where a bunch of Joe Six Packs sit around talking sports and their wives, you’re only half right. The name of the place is the Quarry Ballroom which is a music venue. They have all kinds of live music going on during the weekends. Inside you can see your typical bar. You can see some of your typical beer signs on the walls flashing “drink me get drunk to me.” You will also see a stage, white piano, & a drum set with the name of the tavern on them. You have to love that Animal from the Muppets is on the wall. Greatest drummer in the world. All the military history brings it back to that VFW hall feeling perhaps where your other daddy served this country and remembered. The old ceilings & the windows are just the start of how cool this place is.

The beer tap list is all local breweries. The Quarry Ballroom had a few beers in neighboring towns and a few breweries from the city of Chicago and that’s where I went.

NAME: BEGYLE BLONDE ALE

STYLE: BLONDE ALE

ABV: 5.3%

BREWED BY: BEGYLE BREWING

The brewery NOTES: Brewed with locally sourced Midwestern honey, our blonde ale is clean and balanced, with subtle fruity notes in the fermentation profile and a dry finish.

The Blonde ale pours a nice golden blonde color wise with some rainy clouds of foam. The aroma is fruity notes with perhaps hints of honey. The pint had medium or so carbonation as this was a very nice easy beer to drink. The taste has some fruit and honey that tickled my taste buds. It also has a little pepper in each gulp that disappears it seems in the middle of the pint. Overall a tint of spice, sweetness, and juiciness that can grow on you. It’s a good beer to have all day if this was one of the choices.

The place is obviously a music venue. It has that hipster craft beer feel. The televisions had the games on. It was a mix of different people. It was a chill environment.The food was extraordinarily delicious because they do not have some pimple nose fry cook back in the kitchen. They have a chef and his name is not Boy R Dee. The Pizzas he was cranking out of the oven were not frozen. They were tavern thin crust style that goes well with all the beers they carry even what your daddy drank in cans. Tall cans for the hipsters. I wrote about the pizza in the pizza section of the Wild Shamrock blog and rank it very high. The menu had plenty of other options that looked amazing going by. If that does not work for you, the hot dog place next door makes a great dog. As for my blonde: I rank her my second squeeze of the year at number two on the 2025 beer list. Overall the Blonde Ale by Begyle is in my top 50 as the new number 50 on the big suds list in the clouds.

Whatever place that is your weekend getaway, you may try to get out of town to multiple times a year. You might have a few places you like to stop in to keep the weekend or vacation alive for another beer. Another meal. Maybe some shopping. Located in Michigan City by the Lighthouse outlet mall, we found a brewery that has been a staple of the community for years. Michigan City has a few interesting breweries that make a great pit stop on the way back from the state of Michigan. We had to hit the outlet mall so Shoreline brewing was looking at us right in the eyes. Hearing the bell ring to make a run for the border for Taco Bell. Let’s not forget the crave smell of White Castles bringing you through the drive-thru hook, line, and sinker. We knew someday we were going to go in and finally pulled the trigger while putting other spots on hold. It did not disappoint.

We may have been the first ones to belly up to the bar on this Funday Sunday. We came rushing in with a rumble in our tummies and thirsty tongues. A new beer brewery is like running down the stairs when you were kids seeing what Santa got for you. Shoreline Brewery makes beer on the premises. They have a full food menu and we were ready to continue our weekend making sure we got every drop of what was left as we started off with a nice golden beverage straight from the tap.

NAME: FOGGY LOGGY

STYLE: GERMAN STYLE LAGER

ABV: 5.5%

BREWED BY: SHORELINE BREWING

The name of this beer got my attention first on the Shoreline Brewery menu. The Foggy Loggy, I love it. I notice the bubbles inside the pint glass after the bartender set the beer on the coaster. Lots of carbonation that is champagne-like. Happy New Year to me I guess. The suds on top of the pint glass pop away and vanish immediately. It pours a golden yellow. The aroma senses are malty & maybe hay-like. The description on the menu says it’s nicely balanced as a light and crispy German style lager. Each sip has plenty of carbonation. It has some sourness but some sweetness as each sip is very smooth. It is a light tasting beverage as this beer you could drink all day long watching the games on the weekend. What it comes down to it at the end, it is similar to most lager beers. There’s just more carbonation than others and perhaps smoother down the wind pipes.

The food menu at Shoreline has a variety of stuff to fill up your tummy. The appetizers feature a scotch egg and all sorts of starters to knock your socks off. They have salads and soups. They have sandwiches along with burger choices. They have entrees which many of them would be solid dinner choices. They have pizzas that looked pretty good going by. They have a kids menu as I did see some enjoying their mac and cheese not knowing what mommy and daddy were doing in getting their drink on. I’m a big submarine sandwich kind of guy. In the old sitcom Wings, they talk about the big sandwich.

Count me in when it comes to the big hoagie that needs more than one person to carry in. My annual Superbowl parties feature a big sub sandwich. Not as big as the one on Wings but it’s deliciousness. On the Shoreline food menu, they had a Hearth-baked Italian Grinder sandwich with all the mixed meats, cheese, and oils slather all over in between the bread. It’s a pretty big sandwich which I took down in two meals. Normally it would have vanished right in front of me sitting at the bar stool. Overall it was agreat place to eat and drink. We did miss out on their St. Patrick’s Day Corned Beef special which was gone immediately, I was told. I’m believing that has to be something epic for another time.

I have the Foggy Loggy in the number two spot for the 2025 beer season. I have it coming into my top 50 overall beers on the big bad suds list I have created. Shoreline Brewing is a definite return to. Many of their other beers sound very intriguing to me. I took a different beer to go which I enjoyed at my home bar. Great place to eat. Great service. I love the atmosphere. Laid-back with no death metal music. I was impressed with the little take home beer selection they have. Plus, if you like swag they have some cool stuff.

We heard something new was brewing in the town of Homewood, Illinois. A brand spanking new brewery is now towering over the downtown area in the south suburb of Homewood. It has that simple name called Homewood Brewing like the town’s local garbage company is called Homewood Disposal. The new building sits on the lot that use to be Bogart’s Steakhouse which was bulldozed for this monstrous brewery with roof top view. The downtown part of Homewood has one of the best downtowns in most of the suburbs in Illinois. Lots of little mom and pop shops. Great choices for plenty of dinner options. A very nice place to do a pub crawl with multiple options in walking distance. This brewery is dedicated to the late rapper Jared Higgins, aka Juice WRLD, who accidentally overdosed on some drugs he had in his possession which he was trying to hide from the authorities.

Jared Higgins was originally born in Chicago. The family moved to the suburb of Homewood where Juice WRLD went to high school at HF (Homewood Flossmoor) High School. His mother opened up the brewery as a tribute for her son. Camela Wallace also wants to give back to the community with this state of the art brewing company. Some of the sales will go to help mental illness and substance abuse which is logical since her son was into the drug scene. Which is a shame because he was a very talented musician and one of his hits called Lucid Dreams peaked at the number two spot on the Billboard charts. Homewood Brewing brews their own beer on the premises. They have multiple choices on tap. They also serve upscale bar food by one of the top line chefs in the area. The place has three levels of which the 3rd level has the roof top. The second level does have a bar as the seating views the main floor from the top. The main level has plenty of seating and a long bar that seats plenty of patrons.

NAME: H.B.C (Head Beer in Charge)

STYLE: AMERICAN PALE ALE

ABV: 5.5%

BREWED BY: HOMEWOOD BREWING

The H.B.C. pours a pure golden color as the pint glass has a ring around the collar of white fluffy clouds. The menu at the brewery describes their Head Beer in Charge in a few words: citrus, tropical, & smooth malt. The aroma is floral. The taste is juicy-like with fruity flavors. Crisp hops. Nice body. Fresh. It’s light and refreshing which equals out to an easy drinking brew. The brew master definitely checks all the boxes making this a solid American Pale Ale. Each glass comes with the Homewood Brewing logo on it and with the H.B.C. being only 5.5%, multiple beers can happen in one sitting. I like it so much I left their establishment purchasing a crowler of their Head Beer in Charge. They did not have any growlers left as the brewery opened up in October of 2024.

The food is fancy, but affordable. Not big city prices that would leave you broke after the night was over. I recommend the H.B.C. chips. If you like homemade potato chips that they usually make at steak houses, these are the ones. They are seasoned with a Cajun seasoning that will send your taste buds into orbit. I went with the smashburger as it was game day for some post-season NFL football. The burger was juicy with all kinds of flavoring from the top-of-the-line meat, with melted cheddar cheese and the tasty drizzle of the aioli on the bun. Great place to bring the woman because of all the interesting choices on the menu. Splurging for the upscale food always gives you a good grade for the weekend overall.

The atmosphere brings a nice mix of people to Homewood Brewing. All colors, all shapes, and all sizes. They play a variety of different music to please almost everyone. Some thoughts that you think of walking into the doors for the first time include… Will it be all rap and pop style music playing on the speakers? I’ve been to quite a few breweries in my time. How many times have you heard loud heavy metal music blaring through the speakers of these breweries? I found everyone different there. Ages and gender. Everyone was out for the same three things: fun, food, and to get your drink on. That is checking all the boxes. The bar also makes some great looking mouthwatering cocktails. They serve about ten different beers. Once it gets warmer out the roof top may mean a nice night to stop by for a few drinks and take it all in.

The H.B.C. is the first beer blogged of the year. It has that number 1 slot for right now. On the Big Suds List of All-Time, I have it ranked in my top 20. The Head Beer In Charge is ranked number 19 overall.

THE 2024 BEER LIST

RANK	DATE HAD	BEER	STYLE	BREWED AT	TAPPED AT
1	5-18-24	Wolverine Premium Lager	American Lager	Wolverine State Brewing Company	Wolverine State Brewing Company
2	2-9-24	Low Life	American Wheat Lager	Greenbush Brewing	Greenbush Brewing
3	5-18-24	3 On Three	Wheat IPA	Blue Tractor Brewing	Blue Tractor Brewing
4	2-3-24	Spruce Willis	Pale Ale American	Three Blondes Brewing	Three Blondes Brewing
5	1-20-24	Cold Shot	Lager	Horse Thief Hollow	Horse Thief Hollow
6	4-13-24	Lite Thinking	American Lager	Pollyanna Brewing	Pollyanna Social Club
7	6-23-24	Buzz Lite Beer	Honey Golden Ale	Imperial Oak Brewing	Imperial Oak Brewing
8	7-7-24	Bikini Bottom	Wheat Ale	5 Cities Brewing	Court Street Pub

I’ve been to many bars, saloons, pubs, breweries and taverns over the years. It seems like many towns have a bar across the street from their local courthouse. Which is good business sense. If you win your DUI case you can test your mindset, go have a drink, and decide if you get behind the wheel afterwards. Good or bad… a nice pub after court if you work there or visiting going across the street for lunch and some drinks after is always a good idea. I was not there for court as it was a summer day on the weekend in July on vacation. We decided to stop for a few drinks at Court Street pub in a little town called Ottawa, Illinois which is not very far from the Iowa border.

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon so we bellied up to the bar at the Court Street pub. The Court Street pub is home of Sunday Funday, two of my favorite weekend words. The pub had plenty room for tables with a long bar where many patrons can sit & watch the game. They had a wonderful tap list and great food sounding menu.

From the pub’s website the Court Street Pub is rather new to the Ottawa downtown area. They had the doors open, seating outside, slot machines right behind me on a sunny day with a cold summer brew in front of me. I went with a local Iowa beer from a place in Bettendorf called 5 Cities Brewing which I learned wasn’t that far away from Ottawa. The beer was called Bikini Bottom.

The girl in the bikini was not included with the purchase of this pint.

NAME: BIKINI BOTTOM

STYLE: WHEAT ALE

ABV:5.7%

BREWED BY: 5 CITIES BREWING

From the description of Bikini Bottom this Iowa beer raised in corn country will take you to right to Hawaii. It reads the classic American Wheat beer was hit with a healthy dose of pure pineapple, giving off a sweet taste that’ll remind you of a Hawaiian breeze.

Maybe that’s how Shoeless Joe’s ghost teleports to a warmer climate during the cold Iowa winters taking a bikini bottom breeze with his bat straight to Hawaii. The Bikini Bottom pours a pale yellow color in the pint glass with a little haze at the top of the glass. The aroma is hints of pineapple and tropical fruit. If you don’t like pineapple you better move on from this summer breeze. You can smell hints of the wheat. Which makes sense it’s a wheat style beer. The taste is sweet & a tad tart as it goes down clean and crisp at the finish line. This definitely a summer classic. Great for a lazy Sunday Funday day at your local pub.

The Court Street Pub food menu had a lot of intriguing items to eat. It was your typical pub food menu with appetizers, sandwiches, burgers and more. One burger I had to try was called the Bad Ronald which was their version of the McDonald’s Big Mac which had the secret sauce everyone knows is Thousand Island.

I can remember back in the day those Big Macs were enormous growing up in their Styrofoam containers. The Court Street Pub’s Bad Ronald was delicious. I would envision going back to Ottawa in the future and I would have to stop by there to get another one. I imagine this was how the Big Mac started off until the corporate bastards downsize their meal deals.

The Court Street pub has a laid-back atmosphere. They had a steady flow of people going in and out on a Sunday afternoon. Still had plenty of seats available. The service was excellent and had a good vibe. The Bikini Bottom makes me want to see what else is tapped over in Bettendorf, Iowa at 5 Cities Brewing because they got me hooked. I love wheat beers, but I have had better than Bikini Bottom. It was a unique beer. I would have it again if I see it out during the summer. I would not go out of my way to bring it home. I feel like I would indulge in other beers that 5 Cities Brewing makes. It does have me on the hook there. I have Bikini Bottom at number 8 for the 2024 beer list. I have it overall on the big suds list as my new number 95, so it does crack my top 100 brews. I may indulge with more Bettendorf beers in the Court Street Pub. It depends on what happens first, the chicken or the egg.

Sunday Funday led us out to an afternoon of fun at the ole local brewery. We drove to Imperial Oak Brewing in Willow Springs, Illinois by car. Some patrons pedaled a few miles on a bike brewery crawl which featured Pollyanna in Lemont, Illinois to Imperial Oak and maybe back to Pollyanna.

It was not Sons of Anarchy riding their Harley Davidsons. It was a middle aged group of regular bikers there in all colors, shapes, sizes and multi-colored helmets. June is the 10th anniversary of Imperial Oak which we found out as we bellied to the bar. On Sunday, our motivation was deep-fried food from the food trucks. Then their always great beer.

I guess if you’re a biker pedaling all those miles back and forth, you need fuel of food and beer. Remember bikers are humans too.

NAME: BUZZ LITE BEER

STYLE: HONEY GOLDEN ALE

ABV: 5.5%

BREWED BY: IMPERIAL OAK BREWING

The Buzz Lite Beer pours like a deep red amber golden oak color. The beer has nice suds around the collar of the glass. On the beer menu, they say this beer is brewed with local honey. The honey flavor with sweetness is mixed with a honey malt and flaked corn. The honey does tickle your nose with the aroma. It smells sweet and fresh like it was just made that day. Everyone will think that honey beers are nothing but sweetness. Like the old candy Bit O’ Honey.

It has tints of sweetness along with a bitter taste to the Buzz Lite Beer. You can taste the corn that reminded me of some lager beers, but this one had an aftertaste. It was refreshing & went down easy. The beer grows on you with each sip, each pour. At first I thought I would be one and done. By the time I was halfway through with the first pint, it was game on. Cheers to the Buzz!!! This was one of the better honey beers I’ve ever had.

The Sunday turned into an infinity and beyond.

Then Sunday turned into the remakes of some of the greatest classic movies, like Godzilla and Jaws. There were vintage pinball machines in back of the brewery. Sunday I became a pinball wizard inside only my own mind as a few Buzz Lite beers meant I was going to infinity and beyond.

Imperial Oak is spacious with a huge bar & multiple seats. The way they have things set up with old jugs of beer as lighting. The bar I imagine is made out of Oak. They have cool murals of guess what… an Oak tree. They don’t have televisions plastered all over the brewery. They have a few televisions, so you can see a game and drink. They do not have food. They often get food trucks visiting. They have a pizza place next door which looked very busy as bikers were all over that. They even have multiple tables outside to enjoy some beer and food on a nice summer day. This was not the first go around at Imperial Oak. They have a awesome Oktober Fest which should be coming up in a few months in fall.

PREVIOUSLY AT IMPERIAL OAK

Das Boot Oktoberfest #110

I love most Oktoberfest beers, but I like other types of beer better. That’s why Imperial Oak’s Das Boot is ranked number 110. I would indulge in another.

If you get there early enough, you have a chance at one of those booties but the small version glass not the big foot boot.

I have the Buzz Lite Beer buzzing right now at the lucky number 7 spot for the 2024 season.

I have it ranked number 82 on the all-time suds list as it did better than the only selection done by this blog at the Imperial Oak, Das Boot, which was 110. Honey beers are seasonal beers. I will dabble in them a few times and go back to regularly scheduled programming. The Imperial Oak Brewery should be a must do for any brewery lover. They have quite a selection of beer so I will have to get back there and find which one their gem is.

When drinking my next beer, I promise you I was not on the battlefield with the Russians like in those cult following movies of Red Dawn. I did however come across some Wolverines in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The town of Ann Arbor is home of the University of Michigan which has the nickname, Wolverines. Very fitting the town has a brewery with the same name called Wolverine State Brewing Company.

The Wolverine State Brewing Company’s first beer on their board is called the Wolverine Premium lager. I’m all about lagers. Not ordering a Wolverine in Wolverines territory may get you lynched by the Russians. Let’s not let me sway away from this brewery.

NAME: WOLVERINE PREMIUM LAGER

STYLE: AMERICAN LAGER

ABV: 4.7%

BREWED BY: WOLVERINE STATE BREWING COMPANY

The chalk board says the Wolverine Premium Lager is crisp, clean, and smooth. It pours a brightly golden color with a circle of light clouds around the perimeter of the glass with some bubbles popping inside the pint glass. They have their logo on the glass. They pretty much have that logo on everything. Like the Nazi party back in World War II. The smell is bready with perhaps malt or grain. It tastes like lightly toasted bread with notes of corn and some sweetness with a tint of spiciness. The chalk board is correct that it is crisp, clean, and smooth. It’s a lighter style beer and easy to make this the game day beer as well.

The food menu is outstanding here. I loved the Italian Grinder sandwich. We also ordered a pastrami sandwich that was quickly finished. They call them craft sandwiches and it’s no lie. We bellied up to the bar and we feasted while drinking a few of these tasty beverages. They also have BBQ which looked impressive coming by. They brew the beer on site.

The atmosphere was laid back. Some breweries don’t even have televisions. This was a great place to watch a game. Since I’m only in town for one day and night, I can only guess this place probably gets crowded during the school’s football games. The bartenders knocked it out of the park. They had one guy, the summer help, learning & perfecting his bar-tending skills. The older bartender was all about business and had that dry sense of humor giving the youngster some fun jabs to deal with while working. Great conversations with the both of them made the visit that much better.

MY FINAL THOUGHTS

Not a fan of Michigan University. In the Big Ten I grew up on University of Illinois, the Fighting Illini. The Wolverines knocked my Flying Illini out of the Final 4 back in 1989. Still hold a grudge. I will not hold that against this brewery. I have the Wolverine Premium Lager at number 1 on the 2024 list of draft beer. This has been a great year in my opinion about the beers I have blogged. All awesome. The Wolverine Premium Lager will be placed in my top 20. I have it at 19 on the big suds list.

POLLY WANTS A CRACKER

What kind of people are you going to meet at a typical social club? Upscale cocktails are going to be served. Mineral water. Small appetizers upscale-like. Do they even offer any kind of beer? What kind of element hang out at a Social club? Yuppies, freaks, lots of noticeable tattoos and piercings on people. Musicians. The businessman or salesperson perhaps with clients.

Snappy threads. All over the map style of music. Fancy snacks made from cat food. In Lemont, Illinois they have a beautiful downtown area with tons of restaurants and bars. Lemont is home to Pollyanna Brewing. I’ve been there and done that. It’s always worth stopping there for a beer as they have some nice outdoor seating as well. Pollyanna has a few breweries and not just the one in Lemont. Now they are dabbling into the social club atmosphere with the fancy cocktails, but for beer lovers they have a selection of some of their own stuff on tap. The social club is only located a few blocks from the brewery so we decided on a Saturday afternoon to take a flyer on the new hot spot in town.

It was not very crowded on Saturday afternoon as we bellied up to the bar at which most of the patrons were sitting. They have the fancy hotel lobby furniture along the bar area with huge cushioned booths throughout the club. It looked like a hippy coffee house in one area with round cushioned chairs and coffee tables. On this day they had some stranded Wedding guests that were getting their drink on in between the mass and the upcoming reception later that afternoon. The bar was set up for cocktails as they did have some tapped beers. Bottles and bottles of spirits. The female bartenders were shaking up all different kinds of concoctions.

They were talented bartenders and the cocktails looked rock solid. It was like watching the old movie cocktail as we waited for the bartender to flip the bottle in the air and catch it for the pour.

I found a Pollyanna beer at the Social that I’ve never had. In the past we have done two Pollyanna beers, one at a local bar in the area. The other one was at the Brewery not too far away.

PAST POLLYANNA BEERS

#38 Lexical Gap, #85. Full Lemonty

NAME: LITE THINKING

ABV: 4.7%

STYLE: AMERICAN LAGER

BREWED BY: POLLYANNA BREWING

Lite Thinking pours like a Miller High Life & with the bubbles it looks like champagne. The color you can say is golden yellow with some snow on the roof of the glass. The aroma has some corn notes going on. Many lagers consist of corn. Lite Thinking is made from Midwestern corn and Land of Lincoln water. Not sure if that is anything good to brag about according to the summary of their beer. The water, not the corn. Lite Thinking is a refreshing easy drinking beer. Each sip has some corn taste but not overwhelming. It has a hint of citrus as well in each gulp. It’s not heavy on the stomach. This is beer you can drink all day with. I found out that Lite Thinking was the 2019 Gold medal winner at the GABF Great American Beer Fest. This beer beats all the domestic light beers like your Coors, Bud, and Miller. It has flavor not just water and it’s not a diet beer. It’s 4.7% which is a good choice to drink for the triple header of the sportings.

MY FINAL THOUGHTS:

If you are big into the cocktail world, the Pollyanna Social is well worth trying. This is not a place to watch the game. I think it’s a perfect place for a before dinner drink or a night cap afterwards. I’m not trendy enough to exchange my bar stool for a couch seat with fluffy pillows. They may do entertainment to hook me in on a good live music band in the future. This is not my first choice of a place that I would do multiple times. I did like the beer I got. It was better than my past beers I blogged at Pollyanna. I have Lite Thinking in my top 40. I have it rocking at number 37. I have it number 5 for this year which right now is Last of the Mohicans in 2024. I think it will hold its own and stay afloat with future beers I blog. This year so far has been an all-star line up of beers I have tried. All of them have been in the top 40. Lite Thinking would be an easy choice to pick when I come across it next time. May be a beer to take to go at the brewery.

This next beer takes us to Ann Arbor, Michigan. Home of the Wolverines of University of Michigan. Not really a fan of Big Blue or the Big House they call the University’s football field. The town of Ann Arbor, a college town with downtown filled with shops, restaurants, bars and breweries, is where my story of my next beverage comes from. Found the Blue Tractor brewery, a great stop for lunch. They serve up BBQ and who does not want to eat smoked meats and cheesy Mac and cheese with a cold brew. Signs signs everywhere tell you to drink there and you will find happiness.

The brewery had that rustic feeling with the woods and metals throughout the bar and establishment.

It was nice with the open windows with fresh air coming from the street as we bellied up to the bar.

I noticed the old steel beer can collection behind the taps. The Blue Tractor offered multiple choices on tap beer they brew in the basement. The brewery offers sizes in glassware as I like to go big and not stay home.

NAME: 3 ON THREE

ABV: 5.5%

STYLE: WHEAT IPA

BREWED BY: BLUE TRACTOR

I went with 3 On Three which is a hybrid beer. A mutt. A wheat IPA which is interesting. I love wheat beers such as Bell’s Oberon, especially drinking them in the summer. Especially drinking them in Michigan. It poured a nice copper golden color with clouds of foam on the big boy glass. The glass is sweating. This was a very refreshing beer and an easy drinkable beer. The 3 on Three had that citric fruity flavoring with a nice hop to it. Not too hoppy. Sweetness with some bitterness but not too much. I downed two of these baby at lunch where we had an assortment of food to devour. Bring on the BBQ.

We ate like savages. Basket of fried chicken. The cheese on the Mac was so good you could just lick it off each noodle. The chicken chili came with homemade corn bread which was outstanding. For lunch on Saturday, it was not crowded at all. Laid back atmosphere as they had some strange movie on the boob tube.

Excellent service. What’s a Blue Tractor name without pictures of tractors on the wall?

The bathrooms are downstairs. As I took a look around at the operation, I found the keg rooms. Then they had these strange pictures on the wall downstairs.

I guess if the Hills have Eyes, so do strange guys that drive farm equipment to the brewery. As I recalled an old family story on my mum’ side back in the old country of Ireland. The drunken farmer was told by local police not to drive his car to the pub no more. The next day he pulls up on a tractor. Downstairs at the Blue Tractor is another room of tables they may use for banquets or conspiracy theorists on why the aliens are here and we don’t know it. Tom Brady went to the University of Michigan. That may be him in one of those pictures.

MY FINAL THOUGHTS

I have 3 on Three with full court press coming in at number two for the 2024 beer list. It also makes my top 30 list all-time coming right in at the new 29th spot. So far this year it has been a close horse race with the beers I have come upon. If you are in Ann Arbor, Blue Tractor is definitely worth the time. I came away with a cool beer mug I purchased and overall just a good vibe and desire to ride the Blue Tractor. Once in awhile you have to ride in the slow lane and enjoy life.

The small Michigan town of South Haven is picturesque any time of the year. South Haven is a beach town on Lake Michigan and they were having their annual Ice Breaker festival a week before the Superbowl kicked off. On the outskirts of town, one of the town’s best breweries is located. Three Blonde’s has been a must do every time we venture into South Haven.

Three Blonde’s operation gives you multiple home brewed beers to choose from. The brewery has a full size menu of great food options. Plenty of seating. They have a great looking beer garden. Being winter we bellied up to the bar. The brewery also checks the boxes for being a great place to watch the game. No football weekend & nothing sports related on the television struck my fancy. The beer on tap have some interesting names like a Boom Boom Betty.

My thoughts went to the name of the character on the old sitcom of All In the Family, Boom Boom Turner. The brewery may have such a story for that name. Many of these beers Three Blondes have are made from fresh ingredients in Harbor Country. This was not my first rodeo as I blogged on Three Blondes’ beers previously.

PREVIOUSLY BLOGGED BEER: Foggy Orchard ranked number 127.

The Foggy Orchard did not do well. It was an apple wheat. A seasonal item on the menu at Three Blondes. I remember other beers I had tried that were remarkable. I only wrote about the Foggy Orchard because it was a unique beer, an apple wheat. I did not have one of those on the blog. I knew coming in I would have something this go around to rock my socks off.

NAME: SPRUCE WILLIS

ABV: 6.5%

STYLE: PALE ALE AMERICAN

BREWED BY: THREE BLONDES

I went with the Spruce Willis due to the actor we all love, Bruce. It pours a golden amber with some nice fluffy white clouds of foam around the rim of the pint glass. The brewery says the Spruce Willis is finished with fresh cut spruce tips. I guess we are just tapping a tree and drinking the sap. The aroma had hints of pine. Not as strong as the little tree fresheners that dangle from your car’s rear view mirror. It’s a pale ale so it had hints of citrus, pine, and floral with a splash of American hops on the taste buds. It was smooth and an easy drinking beer. It has a high volume of 6.5%. Food with a few of these is needed. From the lunch menu I had one of their amazing wraps.

They call it the Platinum Wrap. This baby is fully loaded with Bob’s Bacon. There’s roasted turkey, shredded sharp cheddar cheese, garlic aioli, and spring mix on a tomato wrap. Any aioli spread I’m down for. I went with the fries as the side. They have a solid food menu with plenty of choices for everybody.

I figure I had to throw in some great Die Hard lines by Bruce Willis. Along with some great Die Hard highlights as well.

I love the name of the Beer, Spruce Willis. Definitely a better beer than the Foggy Orchard. I have Spruce Willis sandwiched in the middle of the 2024 rankings so far at number 2 for the year. All three beers so far this year are in my top 30 all-time on the big suds list of greatness. I have Spruce Willis at the 29th floor of the Nakatomi Plaza. I’m sure I will have other selections from Three Blondes brewery in the future. I did sample a few others as it’s a brewery like, so I’m like a kid in a candy store. Stay tuned.

One of my favorite GI-JOE characters went by the code name Low Light. He was a sniper for the Joe’s. I thought of him when I was up in Michigan, my getaway place, at a familiar haunt of mine Greenbush Brewing in Sawyer.

Greenbush Brewing, 5885 Sawyer Road, Sawyer MI, 49125

It was on the brewery’s beer menu as one of the names for their beer.

The beer was called Low Life, not Low Light. I know plenty of Low Life’s in my world. I decided to order a Low Life and see if it tasted better going down than dealing with one face to face. It was a conversational piece as we bellied up to the bar on the last day of the trip to coat our stomachs with plenty of tasty food at the brewery. I knew I would indulge in some Low Life’s and if I had to deal with more than one, the chili and BLT would be able to handle what this pond scum brings to the bar top.

The chicken also is to die for. Greenbush Brewing is known for providing excellent beers and a fantastic food menu. They also advertise about their bacon and the condiments they make in-house.

We have been coming to Greenbush for years as I came in having 4 of their beers blogged. This is a brewery that has brewed many, many beers. They have their staples. They have their guest stars. I still have one in my top ten. I have two in my top 50 of greatest tapped beers.

PREVIOUS BEERS BLOGGED

#7. Star Chicken, American IPA, #36. Country Drag, Pale Ale, #61. The Sharkman Cometh, American Pale Ale, #103. Greenbush Oktoberfest, German Marzen,

NAME: LOW LIFE

ABV: 5.3 %

STYLE: AMERICAN WHEAT LAGER

BREWED BY: GREENBUSH

The Low Life pours a dirty gold coloring with not much dandruff on the top of the beer mug. Since being part of the mug club, I get the discounted pour into the big Greenbush mug.

The aroma of this Low Life is not of a homeless beer. It has that wheat with a hint of citrus. The Greenbush menu describe the Low Life as: American Wheat Lager that is malt forward, light, and exactly what you need. The wheat gives it nice body without that corn taste. It does not have that corn taste which many of your daddy lager beers have. The Low Light is as crisp as a seltzer water, but beer tasting. It has hints of citrus, a tad bitter but somehow savory. The wheat gives this beer a nice end game flavor that is light as it goes down smoothly. Only 5.3% means more than one is in the cards at this outing.

It was a Sunday afternoon & it was not very crowded on a February Winter day. Greenbush closed out the weekend for us. You could easily spend hours there. We took back some leftovers and ordered their homemade mac and cheese for dinner later on, which was another pro to this stop. Greenbush is one of my favorite weekend away out-of-town watering holes.

How did Low Life do? It did very well. Only two beers blogged in 2024 and I have Low Life in the driver’s seat at number 1. I also have this wheat beer in my top 30 on the big suds list coming in at number 28 right before this years Cold Play beer from Horse Thief Hollow. Two very good beers already posted in 2024, both in my top 30.

During the winter months after football, ice hockey is the game to enjoy with a cold beer bellied up to the bar. It’s been mostly a mild winter so far this year in Chicago. We had some snow. We had some cold chilly days. Our hockey team is in a rebuild. We patiently wait for the baseball season to begin. To only be disappointed. Baseball brings warmer weather and at that time, the Stanley Cup playoffs in the NHL. During the winter, sometimes warming up with the local yokels seems to be the best idea. The local brewery. The local watering hole. One of my local breweries is the Horse Thief Hollow on the south side of Chicago.

Address 10426 S. Western Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 60643.

The Horse Thief Hollow has great food and not just burgers, which are great as well. They have BBQ and upscale style food they offer on their menu. Most of time we get in there to eat have some of their tasty beverages. I have blogged 4 Horse Thief Hollow beers all-time in my beer blog.

PREVIOUS HORSE THIEF HOLLOW BEERS: #45. Ridge Rider American Pale Ale, #94. Kitchen Sink Pale Ale, #123. Disco Infiltrator Hazy Pale Ale, and #127 Purple Cow, Stout

The Ridge Rider made my top 50. The Kitchen Sink has been a main staple at the brewery since they opened.

When I saw the lager, they had up on the boards they use for the brewery menu, it was called Cold Shot with a hockey stick in the middle of winter. I felt like a slap shot hit my taste buds in a good way. 

NAME: COLD SHOT

ABV: 5.2%

STYLE: LAGER

BREWED BY: HORSE THIEF HOLLOW BREWING

Cold Shot pours like an old man lager beer. Brightly golden with the rim of the pint cloudy with foamy bubbles. The brewery’s beer menu claims Cold Play is a crisp/clean lager with mid German Hop finish. I can see it as being similar to Hofbrau, a very tasty German lager. The aroma is light malts. The taste has a tint of pepperish spice with a balance of malts and hops. The taste stays with you like the beers your daddy would drink. This is a better version of the typical domestics you get at the store.

Sat at the bar right at the end with the stainless steel vats of their home made beers to the left of us. The bar they have has so much character with the Greek God-like looking dude stenciled or engraved into the wood work. The steer hanging above. The puma looking down on everyone. The wooden plank style bar top. Nice weekend afternoon drinking a tasty lager with a hockey theme. I thought of my favorite Chicago Blackhawks enforcers over the years as we talked about the great fighters wearing the Indian head on the sweater.

These are the best enforcers of my time I have watched on the ice that used the ice as a Gladiator arena. Bob Probert and Stu Grimson are two of the best enforcers of all-time in league history. Dave Manson was just bat shit crazy. A guy you have to love when he’s playing on your side. Then John Scott. If he got you, man you are having a bad night. Cold Shot has the perfect amount of amp to be that beer I can drink multiple pints of in one game of hockey. Includes overtime. Cold Shot is the first beer of the calendar year of 2024 and easily in the first slot. Overall, it’s the best beer I have had at the Horse Thief Hollow. I have Cold Shot in my top 30 coming in at number 28 on the Big Bad Suds List.