Leelanau.com Blog
leelanau county news • traverse city news • michigan news

Hey everyone, we're super sorry that we've been away so much. To try and make it up to you, we're going to give someone on our email list* a pair of tickets to the Traverse City Winter Microbrew and Music Festival tomorrow morning!! This year is the 3rd annual, and it takes place this Saturday February 11th at The Village at Grand Traverse Commons.

The annual festival is produced by Porterhouse Productions and features over 40 breweries, wineries, cideries, and meaderies - most from Michigan - along with local food vendors and beer & food pairings. A highlight of the festival is a wide range of entertainment featuring Funktion, Heatbox, The Crane Wives, Whitney Morgan and the 78s, Dragon Wagon and Rootstand. There's also fire dancers, live polka music and a silent disco. Click the poster to the right for all the details, and as it's an outdoor festival (with tents) you know that fashion = warm! (ie: Carhart over Calvin Klein!)

*If you're not on our list sign up at the top right. If you don't want to get our weekly email, just post a comment on the Leelanau.com Facebook or send an email to andy@leelanau.com saying you want to win and we'll add you to the list we draw from!

Speaking of polka, here's one of the polka bands that will be at the Microbrew festival, Squeezebox. There's a little dancing, but nothing like what you'll probably see closer to the polka capital of the USA, Cedar Michigan.

Pat Stinson has a nice feature in the Glen Arbor Sun on how Sugarfoot Saloon has formed a beer-making partnership with homebrewer Brian Bartos and is serving microbrewed beer:

“I thought it would be really nice to have crafted beer for our customers,” said Sugarfoot owner Pete Bardenhagen, who persevered through paperwork required for brewpub licensing, (which took seven months), while Bartos selected equipment and fine-tuned his brew recipes.

When he isn’t controlling sea lamprey populations in Michigan streams as a US Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, Bartos brews up trial batches of beer for the ’Foots. Currently on tap are “Liquid Sunshine” (4.5 percent ABV), described as a citrusy, Belgian wit (wheat) style ale with clementine zest and summery spices, “a taste of sunshine for those cloudy days;” “Bavarian Hefeweizen” (4.5 percent ABV), a light-bodied wheat beer brewed in the German tradition with a smooth, banana flavor and a hint of clove; and a higher octane porter (5.2 percent ABV) that’s “filled with flavor yet deceptively smooth.”

“It’s a good, rich, dark beer,” said porter drinker John Rabideau, a Sugarfoot neighbor and patron and the owner of Grand Traverse Timberpeg, a builder of timber homes.

Next up on the brew menu is a chocolate ale, soon to replace the vanishing “Hefi,” and too new to appear on the bar’s whiteboard descriptions. The saloon’s brew menu currently changes about every three weeks, which is a point of pride for the “pub” and a note of caution for those who fall in love with a particular style. Enjoy it while you can, because it may be gone all too soon.

Read more at the Sun and I have to say that Right Brain in Traverse City has done very well indeed with a similar format - good thinking Pete!

Leelanau and northern Michigan is home to a new crop that we're seeing more and more of as we travel around - hops! This WZZM video feature looks at some northern Michigan farmers who are finding success with hops:

Farmers Nikki and Steve Sobkowski are relying less on cherries, and more on hops -- a key ingredient in making beer. The hops crop was grown widely on the peninsula 50 years ago, but a disease in the plant brought that practice to an end.

The Sobkowski's have 20 acres of hops in production and grow even more on the Leelanau Peninsula. At a manufacturing facility the Sobkowskis turn the plant into pellets, which brewers prefer.

A brewer already using the Old Mission hops is Mike Hall, master brewer at the North Peak Brewery. Hall and his staff created the "Furry" and the "Wanderer." Hall says the locally grown and processed hops is fresher and has a superb aroma. Now he'll be making fewer orders for hops grown in the Pacific Northwest.

You can see more photos at Chuck Psenka's leelanauhops.com! Photo credit: Empire Hops Farm by 1Cher

This Saturday, September 18, 2010, The Glen Lake Chamber of Commerce will host the 3rd Annual BBQ & Brew Festival in downtown Glen Arbor from 12 - 6pm. The festival will take place on State St. by the tennis courts under tents and feature more brews, more BBQ, more entertainment and more fun!  Admission is $15 for adults, $10 for nonalcoholic,  and children under 12 Free. The Glen Arbor Sun says:

A few new features for 2010 include: a new location, a larger amount of Michigan microbrews, a new food format, and also live music by members of the Fabulous Horndogs.

Michigan microbreweries featured this year comprise of: Right Brain Brewery (Traverse City), Bell’s Brewery (Kalamazoo), Short’s Brewing Company (Bellaire), New Holland Brewing Company (Holland), Mt. Pleasant Brewing Company (Mt. Pleasant) and The Livery (Benton Harbor). Additionally, non-alcoholic options, including Cherry Republic (Glen Arbor) Cherry Ginger Ale & Root Beer, plus teas from Great Lakes Tea and Spice (Glen Arbor), will be available for sampling.

For more information, please call the Glen Lake Chamber of Commerce at (231) 334-3238.

Check out photos from the 2009 BBQ & Brew Festival.

Photo: Lucky Kids by J.Renee.Photo

In northern Michigan, we are lucky to have The State theater in our location, because they bring us interesting and unique films. Coming Monday is Swim with Aliens, video shorts covering a wide range of topics, from Sunrise on the Boardman to Alien Invaders of our Waters. Coming next month is the Red Carpet Premiere of Christina! Summer would not be complete without a little polka music at the Annual Cedar Polka Festival. And although, you may have missed the Artist in Residence, Charles Murphy's Reception and Exhibit at the Old Art Building, he still has events this summer worth checking out.

Week's Weather

June 16: Cloudy & 60 (65/54)
June 15: Rain & 67 (72/61)
June 14: Mostly cloudy & 65 (68/61)
June 13: Partly sunny & 68 (74/61)
June 12: Rain & 64 (68/59)
June 11: Rain & 66 (76/55)
June 10: Mostly cloudy & 60 (64/55)

Post your comments about the week's news, observations of the weather or the natural world or events below! You'll also want to check out the Leelanau Calendar and the latest news and features from Leelanau, Traverse City and the surrounding area in our blog! Here's the June 2009 archives, and Leelanau Almanac: June 3 - 9.

The 7th Annual Empire Asparagus Festival will be held May 14-16, 2009 and features a slew of asparagus-themed events including a fun run (or walk), Asparagus recipe contest, the Asparagus Parade, chalk art, music & dance and kids games. And, again this year, the popular Asparagus Eats/Wine and Beer Tasting! Check out the list of food and beverage vendors below.

For a full list of events, visit the Empire Chamber of Commerce website.

The Empire Asparagus is one of the world's weirdest festivals, check out the video:

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Livability, which touts America's most livable cities and explore the best places to live, work and play picked their list of 10 Surprising Food Cities. At the top of the list was a photo of a Leelanau winery and...

1. Traverse City, MI

Known as the Cherry Capital of the World, the Lake Michigan resort town of Traverse City does a pretty good job with other foods, too. With plenty of award-winning restaurants, wineries, farmers markets and dairies, Traverse City has been called “a new foodie haven” by The Huffington Post, and Midwest Living magazine recently named it second on its list of the region's “best food towns.” At the heart of the accolades is an emphasis on the farm-to-table philosophy. At Trattoria Stella, where chef Myles Anton was nominated for a 2010 James Beard Foundation award, the menu of Italian fare takes care to note ingredients from local farms and dairies. For wine lovers, the city's Leelanau Peninsula and Old Mission Peninsula wine regions lie along the 45th parallel— the same latitude that gives the Bordeaux region of France its famous reputation. Get started with a self-guided foodie tour.

We offer congratulations to Myles but feel compelled to point out the two more Beard Award nominees from the Leelanau Peninsula: Randy Chamberlain at Blu in Glen Arbor and Guillaume Hazaël-Massieux of La Bécasse near Maple City!!

There is a good chance you might catch sight of a lucky leprechaun on Sunday, March 14 at Kilkenny’s Irish Public House located at 400 West Front Street in Traverse City. The Lucky Leprechaun Ball, sponsored by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, features music, dancing and singing to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. This year, the event will also benefit The Father Fred Foundation.

“We are so fortunate to have the Ancient Order of the Hibernians supporting us through their Lucky Leprechaun Ball,” said Martie Manty, Executive Director of The Father Fred Foundation. “Because we do not accept any federal or state funding, community events like these are crucial in helping us provide food, clothing and financial assistance to our neighbors in crisis.”

Doors open at 5:00 p.m. for an evening full of fun events and live music by Song of the Lakes. Hopefuls of all ages are encouraged to join in the Danny Boy singing contest. This may be a step on your way to American Idol! An Irish Trivia Contest will be followed by the Couch Potato Auction, and an evening of music from The Wild Sullys is on the auction block for the House Concert Auction. The winning bidder will enjoy an hour of great entertainment at their place of business or residence.

“The Lucky Leprechaun Ball is designed to be very family-friendly; it’s smoke free and we’re offing a kid’s menu with items under $5. Admission is $10 for adults; free for kids under 16,” said Mike Sullivan, event organizer.

Tickets are available at Nolan’s Tobacco Shop, The Father Fred Foundation, NorthPeak, Kilkenney’s or at the door.

For those unable to attend this event, a secure donation can be made online at fatherfred.org, or mailed to The Father Fred Foundation, P.O. Box 2260, Traverse City, MI 49685-2260.

The Father Fred Foundation is a non-denominational charity providing food, clothing, household goods and financial assistance to families and individuals in crisis who live in the five county Grand Traverse region. Visit www.fatherfred.org or call (231) 947-2055 for more information.

When the New York Times decided to "draw a stylistic standard for a planned tasting of Belgian golden ales," they knew that they would find diversity, but didn't realize some of the beers would be so good that they wouldn't conform to their parameters.

We had beers that tasted of spices, like coriander and cloves, and those that tasted like fruit. Some were aged in oak barrels. One beer resembled the most exotic sort of lambic, a type of beer that is brewed using wild yeasts rather than those selected by brewers to produce predictable results. It had a sour funkiness that is a taste well worth acquiring. Another was so bitterly hoppy and dry that the beer seemed to have the texture of cotton, which was actually not unpleasant.

The lambic beer that they were referring to was Leelanau Brewing's Good Harbor Golden Ale, which they chose that the the # 4 beer of their top 10. Michigan's Jolly Pumpkin took top honors for the Belgian beer contest. Behind the taste of both of these beers is Ron Jefferies, who is the founder of Jolly Pumpkin, and partners with Leelanau Brewing's Charles Penska.

MyNorth.com caught up with Penska for a little scoop on his "funky" brew.

It is a beer that was designed to drink on the beach at sunset. Its distinction is its sour notes, which are all naturally occurring. We also age all of our beers in French Oak. The truth is, however, we’re just lucky to have Ron brewing our beer. His work literally changed my life, and I think he’ll go down in history as one of America’s greatest brew masters.