Maybe We Should Lay Off Those Brewery Tours

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned how much we love to take brewery and distillery tours. This is in large part due to a brewpub in the downriver area of Detroit, Michigan. The brewer at this bar/restaurant was pure genius. I was never a big beer drinker, but having grown up in the land of Stroh's there weren't any really good beers around.

All this changed one hot summer day during their annual street fair. DH and I had worked up quite a thirst dragging our backsides around every stall on the few streets that were closed to car traffic. While no where near the size of the big college town art fair to the west, it was still respectable. I can't even say that we bought anything that year, although I suspect we did. Who can pass up those self-produced music Cd's?

Now, my DH has to check out every dining establishment available before he makes a decision, but when I saw the brew kettles in the window of this tiny little sports bar, I knew we had to try it. We were so absolutely blown away by the quality of the beer being served there. So much so, that for several years it became our favorite Friday night spot. It didn't matter that it was a 50 mile round trip for this dining and drinking experience, it was so worth it.

Those weekly trips turned us on to craft beer and gave us new appreciation for the process.

I should interject at this point, that DH was a dyed-in-the-wool J&B scotch drinker. It constantly amazes me that he had any taste buds left after drinking that stuff. I always thought it smelled like antiseptic.

On a return trip from Tennessee to Michigan a couple years ago, we stopped in a little Kentucky town for a tour of a bourbon distillery. It was just the first stop for us on the Bourbon Trail. This first stop was a self directed tour which ended in a tasting not of their world renowned bourbon, but tasting of two of their small batch bourbons. Needless to say, we were hooked. Since then we have visited three more bourbon distilleries, a Tennessee whiskey distillery, and the Kentucky microbrewery. All this alcohol is prompting me to ask two questions:

1. Why do they distill whiskey and/or bourbon in dry counties?



2. Was that really a helicopter we saw being hauled by an RV down I-75 on Sunday?