Dark Horse Brewing Company
511 S Kalamazoo Ave, Marshall, MI 49068
It’s pretty incredible that Dark Horse Brewing Company began functioning out of a dorm room bathroom in the basement of Northern Michigan University (NMU). As a student of NMU, I was very intrigued to find out how this business unfolded. I myself had a roommate who ran a hair salon out of our dorm room. Which worked great for haircuts until she tried dyeing student’s hair in our bathroom shower. Luckily, we had a special handicap dorm in a recently constructed building, so our shower was large and had a seat in it. It was still difficult to avoid stains by making people lay on the ground to rinse out product. So, I can’t imagine how these guys managed to run a brewery out of a dingy 1997 bathroom. I’ve been in the Hunt Hall bathrooms, and they barely have enough room for one person to walk through. Although the company has expanded its business to a legal brewery in the southern half of the state, they still harbor the messy and rebellious attitude they had when they were college students.
They were so successful that the band Nickelback offered an opportunity for the brewery to be in their music video for their 2008 Dark Horse album. Aaron Morse’s refusal to accept Nickelback’s opportunity made headlines, demonstrating his true rebellion against the status quo. If you’d like to learn more, there is a season long documentary on History Channel about their microbrewery called “Dark Horse Nation” that aired in 2014. Dark Horse Nation shows the group of friend’s feats of opening up the business in more detail. There are hundreds of mugs hanging from the ceiling and walls where they serve Bourbon Barrel Plead (which ranked 51 among Beer Advocate’s top 250 beers in the world). There is a seating area called the fountain where they play live music in person or online via Facebook. You can find out about any events they host on their website’s blog. Overall, visiting Dark Horse Brewery is worth a sliver of experience in a characteristic story.
Big Lake Brewing
13 W 7th St, Holland, MI 49423
Founded in 2009, Big Lake Brewing started as the concept of three engineers Travis Prueter, Nic Winsemius, and Greg MacKeller. Two of them brewed from home for years in a garage in a true Microsoft style. By 2013, the pub grew into a 7k square ft. brewery and kitchen. They focus on hyper-local distribution on the Lakeshore and state of Michigan. Big Lake is known for its colorfully labeled IPA cans, with illustrations like tye dye and sunsets behind camper vans . The space focuses on live music in the beer garden, offering classic American entrees alongside the craft beers. The tavern has a simple industrial-style interior with a curved bar to serve the large influx of customers. Going to Big Lake Brewery, grabbing a beer, and heading to the beach could be a perfect summer day in Michigan.
Cedar Springs Brewing Company
95 N Main St NE, Cedar Springs, MI 49319
This brewery is located right in front of White Pine Trail in Cedar Springs, Michigan about 30 minutes from Grand Rapids. It was founded by owner Dave Ringler in March of 2013. Ringler wants to bring Gemütlichkeit to West Michigan. The word Gemütlichkeit conveys the feeling of friendly warmth and good cheer. The doors opened up to the public in 2015, in hopes of bringing the German fatherland to the new world. Their motto is “Schmeckt Gut!,” roughly translating to “it tastes good!” in English. And it certainly does taste good. They have freshly crafted Bavarian beer and make food in their environmentally sustainable kitchen. They have an American smokehouse pub fare for their bar food, which is to be expected, but they also have an entire delicious German entree menu with Oberbayern (Upper Bavarian) dishes. If you are a local or regular, you might appreciate their “Stammtisch” club (German for a regular table) that gives you access to special seating and discounted beers as well as other perks. CS Brew has a great outdoor patio biergarten with picnic benches covered by a metal canopy, and a heating system for the cold weather. The outdoor seating area is where most live music and events are held such as Jeep nights or Red Flannel Festival activities. This is a great spot to visit in the meantime until they open up Küsterer Brauhaus in Grand Rapids.