Craft, Yoopers and Waterfalls: Tahquamenon Falls Brewery & Pub.

Over and over again on our show, we've proven the Rule of the Exceptional: You'll find Craft in amazing places. Even in the middle of a 50,000 acre State Park in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Tahquamenon Falls, near Paradise, MI. The Upper Peninsula, y'all. It's magical.

The Tahquamenon River's tannin-rich, tea colored water flows through the northeastern Upper Peninsula, old canoe/portage shortcut for the natives that were traveling along the southern shores of Lake Superior to trade in Sault Ste Marie to the west. And unbeknownst to many, in the midst of that river line is the second highest waterfall east of the Mississippi, beaten in height only by Niagara Falls. The entire park contains wonder after wonder - stunning views, hiking and cross-country ski trails, nature as varied as moose, martens, black bear, wolves, and... Craft Beer?

Camp 33.

Jack Barrett of the Barrett Logging company purhased the land adjacent to the falls because he and his wife, Mimi, enjoyed the beauty of the area so deeply. In the 1950s, he built a road to the site near the falls and gifted most of the land to the State for use as a Park, with a detail in his instructions that the road must terminate 3/4 of a mile from the falls, near Camp 33. If you want to see the water, you've gotta walk. 

With "Brewster" Lark Ludlow at the Brewery. Jimmy's drinking the Stout, BTW. Nice.

"People come in the restaurant and say, 'Oh, I can't see the falls from the window here,' laughed Lark Ludlow, the Owner and 'Brewster' of Camp 33, or the Tahquamenon Falls Brewery. "And my answer always is, 'Nope. No, you can't.'" They want it that way.  

Lark is Jack's granddaughter - the family set aside a 2 acre parcel at the termination of the road into the Park that they still own - a rare private property inside of a State Park - and perhaps the only one in the US that has a Craft Brewery on site. The structure was christened Camp 33 when originally built, as most logging camps are numbered instead of named, and it would be the 33rd logging camp of the Barrett Logging Company. The grandkids rebuilt it in 1990 to serve the Park, and in 1996 Lark had the idea that maybe this 'Craft Beer thing' might be a good addition. But who would brew? Well, she did. And still does.

She started brewing onsite with a 10 barrel system in 1996, making her only the 3rd Craft Brewer in the Upper Peninsula, after The Vierling Brewpub in Marquette and Lake Superior Brewing in Grand Marais (also a brewpub).  She offers a rotating lineup of beers, and had 4 taps running the day we visited. Our favorite was a lovely Stout that leaned towards the sweeter side, with plenty of roasty/chocolate-y notes. A full restaurant with a menu of local items (get the whitefish!) offers plenty to pair with. 

Camp 33 is an unusual and extremely welcoming part of a trip to a gorgeous area - The Happy Hour Guys recommend a beautiful drive, an even prettier walk to the thundering falls, and the capper (as always) a terrific pint to make the day even more memorable. 

And we'll see you next time. Cheers!

Video #308, Lagunitas: Flyin' high in NorCal.

FINALLY! The Happy Hour Guys have flown/driven coast to coast to get some coverage in NORCAL. We begin our tour in Petaluma, CA at Lagunitas Brewing, a friendly, music and herb driven collective that has gone from founder Tony Magee selling kegs out of his car in 1994 to a nationwide force in Craft Brewing that is selling world-changing beer. Click play to be introduced to this craft family, and big thanks to Matt Fabiano and Kevin Carolan for some stellar camera work.  Cheers!

With Chief Marketing guru Ron Lindenbusch, "The Beer Weasel".

VIRGO SUPER CLUSTER.

WHOA.

Video #307: The Celebration continues - Ale Street News, at Ginger Man!

Passing the milestone of our 300th episode has been humbling, exciting, and loads of fun; and what better way to continue the party than with a keen look at two East Coast Craft Beer institutions - a visit to The Ginger Man, a classic NYC beer bar that opened its doors in 1996, and a chat with Ale Street News, a Craft Beer periodical (that's newsprint, folks - actual physical newsprint!) that has been in circulation since 1992. Enjoy!

Video #306: Hot Thoughts w Newburgh Brewing - Sweater Brewer Talk.

Sometimes an on-camera conversation goes to a deeper level than just reviewing the property we're visiting - and last summer at Newburgh, we got into some very cool issues - on a pretty hot day. Press play for some Deep Thoughts and Sweaty Brewers (and Happy Hour Guys.) Enjoy!

Video #305, At GABF 2014 - BEERicon.

*** OUR 300TH VIDEO EPISODE!!***

It's been 4 years since Jimmy and Mark dropped in to the Mother of all Beer Festivals in Denver; and goodness, how things have changed. Old friends meet new ones at, is it the Super Bowl of Craft Beer? Nope... it's BEERicon.

Featuring:

5 Rabbit Cerveceria (Chicago), Breckenridge Brewing (Denver) New Holland Brewing (Holland, MI) The BeerVangelist, Atwater Brewing (Detroit), handlebar mustaches, Whos (from CraftBeerVille?), Wayne and Garth, WomenEnjoyingBeer.com, BeerDrinkersSociety.com, Julia Herz (the Brewer's Association), Carhartt, Magnolia Brewing (San Francisco), the Big Blue Bear, and a bunch of people wearing... well click play and just see it. 

Cheers!

Atomic Liquors (and a Vegas Quickie) with Sam Merritt!

UPDATE: Check out Jen Reviews: 100 Best Things to do in Vegas - it's a go-to for LV coolness. And yes, this article is included!

Jimmy and the one and only Sam Merritt.

Jimmy here, reporting from the desert:

One of the things we love about being Happy Hour Guys; now that we've been doing this for a while (I mean, we shot the pilot in 2006!), we often get a chance to reconnect with old friends. And last week offered a chance to catch up with one of our best and brightest from here out East, Sam Merritt. I got a last-minute gig in Las Vegas doing an Industrial, and while I was excited to see the Las Vegas Strip again, I knew that Sam could take us to places much cooler. Sam used to be with us here in the East Coast, where he has done everything from being a beer rep for Brooklyn Brewery to running his own Cicerone Beer Certification program called the Civilization of Beer. (Civ of Beer is a terrific course, by the way - we've taken it.) A couple years ago Sam decamped to points further West, and now serves as one of the Beer Education mavens for Southern Wine and Spirits of Nevada.

A draft list at Aces & Ales (Tenaya Way).

We met up with Sam at Aces & Ales, on Tenaya Way quite a ways north and west of the Strip. Aces is easily one of Nevada's best craft beer bars, and would land in the top ten list of any high-end craft beer enthusiast worth his or her salt... anywhere. I have to say when I walked in and looked at the draft list, I wanted to genuflect, kiss the ground and weep happy tears. There were beers that rarely, if ever, get off the West coast, and if they do, out East we almost never see them on draft.  Not only that, but the bartenders are happy to do a six glass tasting flight of these ridiculous liquids - for $16. Sixteen bucks to taste beers that would be hard to find even if you went to the individual breweries and begged the men and women responsible for making them to pour! Also, speaking to the badassery of the bartenders, when they have 40+ beers on tap, doing flights is a tall order - and our guy (Assistant GM Matt Alexander) handled us with aplomb. So I was able to taste six astonishing beers within minutes of walking to the door. And in keeping with their name, Aces is has gaming (including video slot machines) on site, so you can possibly make back the money to pay for your order. Riiiiiight... remember folks, the House always wins! It was pretty amazing; Aces & Ales has it going on.

Old school and proud of it.

The bar at Atomic.

Next up was Atomic Liquors, in the Fremont District of Las Vegas, which is actually what we like to call 'Old' Vegas. This is the part of Las Vegas that existed before the Strip, where the old school casinos are, and all the neon (including the terrific Neon Museum), - the whole area is kitschy, throwback fun. And Atomic Liquors did not disappoint. Atomic is the oldest free-standing bar in the entire city, and also boasts the first package liquor license in the history of the State of Nevada, gotten in 1952. The story is that back in the day, people (including the Rat Pack) used to gather and head up to the rooftop of Atomic with their lawn chairs, to watch the nuclear test explosions that were occurring miles down the road in the Nevada desert. Joe and Stella Sobchik, the owners at the time, thought it might be a good idea to get a liquor license and serve drinks while folks were watching the tests. They were also responsible for constructing the beautiful wraparound bar downstairs. Today, Atomic boasts an incredible craft cocktail program as well as a terrific lineup of spirits and craft beer; and the atmosphere is second to none, right down to the poster for "Miss Atomic Bomb" - which was actually a thing. Nuclear bombs and Showgirls, anyone? Atomic Liquors– you really shouldn't miss it.

Her bathing suit is a mushroom cloud. Seriously?

At that point, our evening with Sam was cut short, because I had to get down to the Strip to Showstoppers at the Wynn Casino (Kerry O'Malley singing Sally Bowles and Mama Rose, I mean COME ON) - also I may have ended up getting hammered at the Blackjack table later, but all in all, for a short visit, it was a very productive one. And we have Sam to thank for it.

Our advice: The next time you visit Vegas, definitely check out the big casinos on the strip, but get off the strip as soon as you can. Go see the Old Vegas, and find the nooks and crannies. And check back here before you go - you never know what we'll have for you.

And, we'll see you next time. Cheers!

Pappy Van Winkle is amazing...and everything that's wrong with the booze industry.

Jimmy had a shot of Pappy Van Winkle the other night. He was at a bar with some friends, one of which was having an auspicious birthday, and wanted to celebrate. The bartender whispered some magic words: "We have Pappy 20, and 23. Off menu." So Jimmy ordered a shot of the 20, neat. It arrived, everyone tasted, and all praised what was a lovely, lovely brown spirit.

Then, the bill came. $150. For a single 1 and 1/2 ounce of liquid.

Let's put that sticker shock in perspective: Given that there are about 16ish shots in a 750 ml bottle, that means that this bar will make around $2400 for that brown liquid. Not a bad profit, even considering that this bottle likely cost them (because it was off-menu and likely purchased retail, from a profiteer - they wouldn't tell us exactly where) around $1000. (EDIT: A reader, Jim, correctly states that 99% of the time restaurants and bars pay wholesale for Pappy, if they have the chance to purchase. And AN ENTIRE BOTTLE of Pappy 23 retails in some markets for $149!!)

Now, we get it - we live in a free country with a Capitalist system: There are lots of popular drinks out there, astonishingly well crafted, and the producers of these drinks, if they are lucky enough for it to achieve the cult status that Pappy has, can charge "whatever the traffic will bear" as it were. But when there is rarity or cultishness around a 'WHITE WHALE' (as these types of drinks are called), profiteering inevitably comes into the picture. And we believe that it spoils the intent with which the drinks were made in the first place.

According to our sources, some distributors in the US are now tying whether or not a liquor store receives bottles of Pappy to quantity sales of other whiskies, some of which are exceedingly hard to move in large batches. In other words, a store must move X cases of another product to earn the right to 'get Pappy'. This leaves the smaller Mom and Pop stores at a huge disadvantage, as they simply can't move the number of bottles necessary to qualify. In the Craft Beer world, pursuit of rare releases like Cigar City's Hunahpu Stout have led to black/gray markets springing up, in which a profiteer will buy multiple bottles at the brewery, then sell them online for a steep markup.

Buy it from a retailer you trust.

We've spoken to the good folk at Cigar City; in the case of Hunahpu Stout, they just want to make great beer, and they've set what they believe to be a fair price this beer - the fact that someone who had nothing to do with making the liquid is profiting from a black market re-sale is an insult to the work that they've put in to making it in the first place. 

In both cases, the producers have the best and worst kind of success; their drinks have become astonishingly popular, but a great deal of the money that is changing hands over them never makes it back to their pockets, where it belongs.

Our advice? Stay away from profiteers. The point of having these amazing beverages is to experience them the way the producer intended - in the case of Cigar City, buy from a reputable retailer like Bruisin' Ales, or GO TO TAMPA YOURSELF - because bev-touring is awesome.

And as far as Pappy goes, we agree that it's wonderful, amazing, astonishing; but there are many, many other fantastic, aged bourbons out there that won't deliver such a blow to your wallet. Want to be super cool? Find the next one that less people know about. The Elijah Craig 23, for instance.

What about you? What are your feelings about Bev Sticker Shock, and Profiteering? Leave us a comment below.

And we'll see you next time!