Craft booze & camping

[ovid9]

So, this weekend was all kinds of awesome. Initially, wifey and I had planned a weekend getaway LAST weekend (one of my few 3 day weekends a year). But then I was going to have to work. So, we moved it to this weekend. THEN I didn't have to work last weekend, but we couldn't move it. Oh well.

So, we drove up to southwestern Michigan harbor country. We camped at Fuller's Resort & Campground which is a nice spot. Our neighbors, who politely warned us they were going to be partying before we set up camp, were troopers. Most were up til 4:30am on Saturday and still hit it again Saturday night! I was impressed. Tired and didn't get much sleep, but impressed.

We spent most of Saturday @ Warren Dunes State Park walking the beach and building a kick ass sandcastle. Yeah, it was awesome. You'll have to imagine its awesomeness as we forgot our camera, but the most had no less than 3 tunnels and there were a total of 4 multi-tiered turrets. BOO YAAAA!

Saturday evening was spent at the Journeyman Distillery. We had a couple of drinks before the tour and then we enjoyed a selection of 5 of their offerings.

Their stuff is amazing and may spoil me on less expensive spirits. Its not outrageously expensive or anything, but its a craft distillery so the price is a bit higher.

Anyway, a rundown on some of their offerings:

Red Arrow Vodka: A delicious vodka. Very smooth, perfect to sip, make a martini, or if you like mix.

Bilberry Black Hearts Gin: WOW! This stuff was amazing. I'm not a big fan of gin. I've found one I enjoy in gin & tonics and mixed in long islands, but this stuff, wow, a gin martini would be awesome with it. The junipers make the base, but they aren't the focal point. They add bilberry, anis, bitter orange, lemon peel, coriander, and a couple other things I can't remember. It was amazing. AMAZING!

W.R. White Whiskey: It uses the same mash as the Ravenwood's Rye. Its aged 24 hours in uncharred oak barrels. It was very tasty. I prefer the aged charred stuff, but it was a nice diversion.

Ravenswood Rye Whiskey The first Rye I've ever had. Its delicious! Aged about 14 months in charred white oak barrels (they buy the barrels from a cooper in Minnesota, then sell them to a brewery also in Michigan) this Rye tastes wonderful! I have nothing to compare it to, but its just damn tasty. I'm sipping some now.

Silver Cross Whiskey A tribute to the Silver Cross, a medal that used to be given for winning some golf thing. Maybe the British open? I don't know or care. It was wonderful. Its not a scotch, but its flavor gives you a very strong scotch impression if that makes any sense.

Humdinger Jalapeno Spirit An interesting spirit, smooth, with the flavor of jalapenos. It has none of the heat of jalapeno, just the flavor, which makes for an interesting taste, you keep expecting the pepper burn and it doesn't come. However, I think this could be mixed in a variety of ways for some DELICIOUS cocktails.

Road's End Rum A white rum they produce. Had some of wifey's rum and coke. It was pretty damn good.

Featherbone Bourbon I didn't get a chance to try this, but I bought a bottle of it. I'm sure it will be good.

They have a wheat whiskey as well, the Buggy Whip Wheat, but I didn't have an opportunity to give it as well.

The doubly cool thing about the place is its located in an old buggy whip and corset factory. The name of their bourbon, the "featherbone" is taken from an invention Edward K. Warren did. Whalebone for corsets was getting scarce and expensive. So, using a feather from turkeys that wasn't otherwise being used in industry, he devised a material called "featherbone" to make corsets cheaper and more comfy.

He got rich and spent lots of money buying property to keep it pristine and liquor licenses to create his own form of prohibition. (irony!)

I want to read more up on this guy, but he doesn't even have a wikipedia article! Booooooooo.

The place is cool as hell.

[sleewell]

Sounds fun mang, glad the mitten treated you and wifey well.

[ovid9]

Sounds fun mang, glad the mitten treated you and wifey well.

It really did! Even your mosquitoes were polite after we put Repel on.

I really want to go back and check out some breweries next time.

I wish we could go up for the "Corsets, Whips, and Whiskey" event they're having. Drinks, music, dancing.

[sleewell]

Yeah man founders and bells are always having cool tastings w great food and live music. The bells beer garden is sweet. Dark horse and new Holland are close too, lots of great beaches in west Michigan too.

Glad you had a fun weekend w the Mrs, its important to get away every so often.