Pure Michigan Pints

How To Go on a UP Beer Tour

1. Stop at Bière de Mac on the way up before the bridge. They specialize in Belgian/French ales and have perfected their shit overtime. Enjoy a flight and chat with the owner; he’s friendly enough. Note the award-winning Fleur de Mac. Sip and enjoy. Know it’ll go down smoother than it should.
2. Enjoy going over the bridge. Ignore the thin guard rail and the fact that your car could easily plummet hundreds of feet to your death. It’s scenic. Not many people get to experience this.
3. Have four dollars in cash at hand on the bridge. Fan it out so the toll booth operator sees it. Otherwise, you’ll look like a fucking tourist; you’ll delay the line.
4. Piss on a lakeside rest stop along 2. Take your time and walk to the outlook and bask in Lake Michigan’s awe. These will be the best rest stops you’ve ever stopped at.
5. Ignore the small towns you pass on your way up. Don’t wonder about their drug addictions and how they survive regularly. (Especially in wintertime when they close the highways.)
6. Once you make it to your campsite on Lake Superior, enjoy it. Despite forgetting the stakes for your tent and having to buy some. They’re friendly enough and will loan you a hammer from their home.
7. Note that it’s 20 degrees colder than your hometown, but you’re Michigan so anything around 50 degrees is warm to you. (But it feels like spring opposed to summer in these parts; be prepared, someone will comment on your flip flops, and they’ll smirk at your shorts.)
8. Get a whitefish dinner looking at Lake Superior in a janky camping town. Note the freshness. Forgive the brewery for only having three of their own beers on draft. Appreciate the ESP that compliments the fish. Forgive their blueberry wheat that every  brewery has this time of the year even though it’s respectable (but a tad too sweet).
9. Bundle up and bring out that extra blanket you thought you wouldn’t need.
10. Wake up early because you’re only here for a few days; you have breweries to visit and sites to see.
11. Drive to Munising but on the way stop at Sable Falls and Logslide Overlook (but don’t venture down it; it’s too steep and you won’t have time to make it back up). Don’t be surprised when your phone and GPS fail to navigate and you have to wait until you get reception on the way. Pay attention to the directions you need to travel in.
12. Make it to the boat before it heads out to Pictured Rocks. Run if you have to; they say they’re leaving at 11 o’clock sharp and they’re not bluffing. Take plenty of pictures along the way and spend most of your time at the back of the boat to enjoy not only the scenery but the ride, that feeling and smell of fresh Lake Superior air.
13. Beer time after. The breweries are in walking distance of your car. Hit them both up. Choose the OG location at East Channel Brewing. Do a flight. Order a blueberry pizza from The Cooking Carberry’s Wood Fired Pizza;  it sounds weird but you won’t regret it.
14. Swing by ByGeorge Brewing. It’s in walking distance. Order a flight and treat yourself to a Blueberry pancake Pilsner. It sounds odd, but the brewer nailed it perfectly.
15. Stop by Tahquamenon Falls. Enjoy the root beeresque color of the water. Snap some pictures. If you’re thirsty stop by the brewery. If not, you won’t really be missing much. Remember you’re a tourist. If you forgot, this place will remind you.
16. Drive up to Whitefish Point in the morning when you’re rained out from hiking. Walk around the Shipwreck Museum. Note the history and ask why so many boats sank there.
17. Try to ignore the mosquitoes that’ve been biting at you since dawn. Spray your “deep woods” repellent on but know these fuckers have some type of hypo-immunization; you’ll get eaten alive and the itching and sunburn for the next two days will remind you of your trip.
18. Make your way back down and pretend that two days was enough time in the UP to experience everything you wanted.