You can find it anywhere.

Place:  close to Newberry, Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  Pickelman’s gas & truck stop & subway & eatery.  

These days, with all the miles we’re traveling, The Happy Hour Guys make a regular practice of scoping out beer coolers in local truck and gas stops.  Most of the time it’s a disappointing exercise, a macro-beer and wine mess featuring nothing local or interesting. 

But things seem to be changing.  

In a truck stop in the Eastern U.P., Jimmy wanders back toward the beer cooler and finds a veritable cornucopia of local and small craft brews on display and ready for purchase.  Great Lakes Brewing out of Cleveland, Arcadia from Maine of all places, Dogfish Head, and a new big favorite of ours, Founders Brewing out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.   In an earlier entry we found an incredible stock of New Glarus products at a small gas station in the middle of Nowhere Wisconsin.   

So what does this mean?  Truly, the craft beer movement in the US has reached a kind of critical mass if owners of small mom and pop gas and go places find it profitable to feature these kinds of brews.  There is a market for them, an audience!  

Have you seen great craft beer in unexpected places?  Email us and let us know!

Great craft/local beer:  IT’S NOT JUST FOR BEER GEEKS ANYMORE.  Woo Hoo!

Video #72: LudHaven SugarBush!

Craft beverages can mean many things to many people - and in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in early April, it means Maple Syrup! The Guys make a fly-by past a family operation that does far more that put flavor on pancakes - they share in a way of life; simple, hard work out in the woods that creates a sweet treat for everyone. Whether the beverage is alcoholic or not, The Guys keep learning the lesson; making something that you can share with others is one of the highest callings in life. Oh, and the stories are pretty good, too. Not to mention the pancakes.

Video #71: Prohibition, and The Antlers.

The guys continue their northward swing beyond Indiana into Michigan, where they come across a bar once known as "The Bucket of Blood Saloon and Ice Cream Parlor". We couldn't stop quickly enough! The Antlers is a classic bar in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with a treasure trove of history, stories, and well, yup, you guessed it, a ghost or two. Check please!