Pure Michigan Pints

East Channel Brewing Co.

Munising, Michigan

I’ll start off and just say it: their website is confusing. They offer two locations but don’t really specify the difference in these two locations. I (briefly) visited both. First, I stumbled upon the brewery/tasting room. I asked about it, and the bartender informed me the other building offered food and was the original location. When given an option, I’ll always opt to go a place’s original location over a tasting room or outlet.

Beer Selection—2.5/5

East Channel offered seven beers on draft ranging from an IPA to a blueberry lager (go figure), a raspberry lager, blood orange “hefeweizen”, and a stout. For having as many beers as they had, they failed to really offer anything unique or noteworthy. But I will admit their beers were in season—it’s blueberry beer time as well as Oberon time; it’s not like their list surprised me, but I was seeking and hoping for something a little bit more.

Vibe—3/5

“Old” is the first word to pop into my head when thinking about the vibe of this place. It felt ancient. And I’m not sure that it necessarily made the place work. At the same time, I didn’t think it was awful. The bar proved to be pretty standard and inviting. The outside area looked even nicer (as I had just been in the sun for a few hours I opted to sit indoors). There was a small upstairs as well which I actually liked.

Service—5/5

The bartender chatted with me quite a bit, providing information on the place’s history and even talked about other breweries as well. We both realized we suffer from plantar fasciitis. (It’s always nice exchanging tips about this when I come across someone with the same ailment.)

She also gave me a heads up on how food works (it’s a separate business that only accepts cash) and told me which pizzas were good. She made sure I never ran out of beverages either.

Beer Quality—2/5

I’ve had better. None of the beers really stood out and popped to me. The blueberry beer proved to be standard. Calling the blood orange a “hefe” seemed like a bit of a stretch. The raspberry one bored me. Even the IPA—one of their best sellers (or so I’ve heard)—registered as a below average IPA on my pallet. Not bad necessarily, but not something to tell all your friends about.

In conclusion, I expected more from a brewery that’s been around for ten years.

Food—5/5

The food really shown through. The Cooking Carberry’s Woodfire Pizza and Catering (try saying that ten times fast) offered small personal thin crust pizzas. I became stuck between getting the Chicken Cordon Bleu pizza and the Savory Blueberry pizza (sounds weird, right?). The ladies in the kitchen (it was all women) nudged me to get the blueberry pizza—a pizza with mozzarella, blue cheese, ham, bacon, onion, and blueberries topped with blueberry/balsamic vinegar, fresh basil, and parmesan cheese.

The pizza sounds odd but they assured me it wasn’t too sweet. And they were right. While I like blue cheese, I’m not always in the mood for it. Here, it blended in seamlessly to create a very interesting pizza I’ve never seen before. It deserves all of the praise it gets.

Overall—Recommend (For the Blueberry Pizza)

If you’re hungry after a boat tour, this is the place to go. Try the blueberry pizza. Yes, it sounds weird, but I promise you won’t be disappointed. I’d be curious to explore other pizzas on the menu as well. If you’re going for the beers, I wouldn’t say don’t try them, but I can’t recommend this place on beer alone.

Rating: 12.5/20