Over the weekend I took a short trip north of Grand Rapids and visited Cedar Springs Brewing and Cellar Brewing company, take note it would have been easy to add a stop at Rockford Brewing too but I did some shoe shopping instead.
I’d never been to either of these great breweries but I’ll be sure to visit them more in the future. Stopping first in Cedar Springs at the newly completed brewpub we saw a crowd waiting to be seated at the large communal style tables popular in Germany but luckily if you just wanted to drink you can skip the line and visit the bar. Cedar Springs brewery has a nice list of German inspired beers along with pale ale, ipa, sangria, cider and root beers for the kids. A quick sampling surprised me that the IPA was less hoppy than the pale ale and the Hefewiezen had very strong banana flavoring for me (I loved it). The food also got rave reviews from the people sitting at the bar and again was very German inspired fare. I’m excited to revisit in the spring since the building has many glass garage doors that should open to the outdoors and a large beer garden out back.
Our second stop was in Sparta at Cellar Brewing which we almost missed while driving, the building wasn’t really eye catching but once inside it felt warm and inviting despite it’s large industrial size. Cellar isn’t just a brewery though, they also distill liquors and make wine too so you’ll be sure to find at least a few libations to please every palate. The “Michigan Sunshine” stood out as similar to Blue Moon and a bit ironic because when we arrived it was a typical cloudy Michigan day but the beer was good! Actually all the beers hit the mark on their respective styles. I also liked the fact the brewery has a large selection of table games to play as well as a pool table, shuffleboard table and Foosball with plenty of tables for people to sit and sip their brews.
Next time you head North on 131 consider stopping at these two great breweries! Also I wore my Brewsader tshirt and at both breweries people stopped to ask about it, so it’s a great way to make new drinking buddies.