Yooper Ale Trails

Ale Trail
2

Tahquamenon Falls, Grand Marais, Munising

Until 1994, there had never been a brewery in Luce or Alger Counties. Then, two years after the passage of a Michigan law permitting restaurants to serve their patrons with beer brewed on the premises, Lake Superior Brewery at Dunes Saloon opened in Grand Marais. In 1996, Tahquamenon Falls Brewery opened on a two-acre plot of private land in the middle of one of Michigan's largest state parks. It would be over a decade and a half before another brewery opened in these counties. Pictured Rocks Brewery at Shooters Firehouse Brewpub opened in the town of Munising in 2013, but closed in early 2018. East Channel Brewing Company and ByGeorge Brewing Company, which opened in Munising in 2017 and 2020 respectively, are still operating.

Why after decades and decades of no breweries, did the two counties have five, four of them not just surviving, but thriving? There is a simple answer: tourism. The number of visitors who came to the UP from the Lower Peninsula, other states, and other countries, has exploded since the turn of the century. In the summer months of 2021, over a million people visited Tahquamenon Falls State Park and the Picture Rocks National Lake Shore, which stretches from just west of Grand Marais to Munising. Large numbers were knowledgeable about and enjoyed craft beer.

(3) Tahquamenon Falls Brewery and Pub at Camp 33

Tahquamenon Falls Brewery and Pub (photo by Gina Harman)

Address: 24019 Upper Falls Dr, Paradise, MI 49768 (Upper Tahquamenon Falls)

Phone: 906-492-3300

www.tahquamenonfallsbrewery.com

The second stage of "my circ-ale journey" began as I drove on 6 Mile Road west from Sault Ste Marie. A few miles out of town, it turned into West Lake Shore Drive and then Lake Superior Shoreline Drive. Around the edges of Whitefish Bay were several sandy beaches, interspersed with stretches of wooded areas where long driveways led to very large vacation homes. The scenic drive ended at State Route 123, which headed north to the unincorporated community of Paradise, noted for its summer blueberry festival and rumored in one version of the legendary tales to have been the birthplace of the logging-era hero Paul Bunyan. Then I turned west toward my destination, the Upper Falls in Tahquamenon Falls State Park, the second largest state park in Michigan.

A little early for my meeting with Lark Ludlow, the owner of the Tahquamenon Falls Brewery and Pub, I parked and ambled down the wide, half-mile long paved pathway to the Upper Falls, which is the second largest falls, in terms of volumes of water per second cascading down the fifty-foot drop, east of the Mississippi River. I recalled reading that the establishment of the large parking area a fair distance from the falls had been one of the conditions of a bequest from Jack Barrett, who in the middle of the twentieth century had donated 164 acres of land to the recently created state park. He wanted the parking lot to be far enough away from the falls so that visitors would walk through the forest and experience more fully the natural wonders around them. He also required that two acres next to the proposed parking lot remain private land, which he would own. It was here he erected a building that resembled those found in old-time logging camps, named it Camp 33 (logging camps had numbers not names), and leased the premises to people who, for many years, ran a shop that sold souvenirs and over-the-counter food. Some forty years later, Lark and Barrett Ludlow, his grandchildren, bought the two acres, tore down the now dilapidated building and developed new plans for the property.

When I met Lark a few minutes after returning from the falls, she continued the story. "Barrett had been living in Marquette, but I was working in upstate New York. So, in 1990 we built the gift shop. It was basically a seasonal operation. But I felt that having a restaurant would make the perfect finish to a visit to the falls, be it in any of the four seasons. I'd learned about the craft beer industry that was beginning to grow across the country and thought that being able to offer dinners the craft beer brewed a few dozen feet away from where they were eating would cap the experience." With the help of "Chumley" Anderson, the brewer at Marquette Harbor Brewing at the Vierling Restaurant in Marquette, she began brewing on a 10-barrel brewing system that had been built in Hungary.

Tahquamenon Falls Brewery and Pub opened in December 1996. "I remember going around the restaurant with a tray loaded with little glasses of Falls Tannin American Red, our first beer, and offering samples to the diners. Some of them were puzzled; it was the first craft beer they'd ever had."

"We've come a long way since 1990," Lark remarked, looking around her. At one end of the large dining room stood a stone-faced, wood-burning fireplace. The log walls were adorned with pictures, maps, and skins of wild animals that had been hunted during logging days. Behind the stand up bar gleamed the four serving tanks that held the beers that capped the Tahquamenon Falls experience.

Although she owns and manages the restaurant, Lark seems most proud of her role as what she referred to as "Brewster," a term applied long ago to women brewers in Europe. "We make our beers lighter and less hoppy than you would find in a lot of other places. We have visitors from all over the world and we have to please a wide range of palates. The beer is a complement to the food. After many years, the brewpub is a destination, second, of course, to the park and the falls."

She waxed almost poetic about the water used to make the beer, calling it "a brewer's dream." At that point she went over to the bar and poured me a large glass of it. It tasted very good, with no traces of chemicals. "It comes from our own eighty-foot well. If this were city water, we'd have to do all sorts of things to get rid of chemicals that could ruin the beer."

Eight beers are made from this water, four of which are on tap at any given time. "I work with the recipes that came with the equipment, but I have tinkered with them over the years." At the time of my visit, the four on tap were Wolverine Wheat Ale, Birdseye Maple Amber, Porcupine Pale Ale, and Black Bear Stout. Wolverine Wheat Ale is a Belgian style wit, which uses Saaz hops to give it a little zing. It serves as the base beer for the fruit beers offered at various times of the year, including the very popular Blueberry Wheat Beer. "Chumley and I made it originally to celebrate the August blueberry festival in Paradise. Now we brew it as often as we can." Other fruit beers have included Raspberry, Peach, and Cherry. Porcupine Pale Ale (ABV 5.0 percent) is an English-style ale, with earthy malt tones balanced by spicy, floral notes contributed by the East Kent Golding hops. It is replaced in the autumn by Falls Tannin Red (ABV 5.0 percent) which is named after the rusty color of the Tahquamenon River. It is an American-style red ale that uses Munich malts to give a sweet, biscuit taste that is balanced by the spicy, floral qualities of the Willamette and Liberty hops. Black Bear Stout is advertised as a Guinness-style dry stout. A combination of dark malts gives a coffee taste to the ale, while Perle hops add spicy, pepper, and evergreen notes. Birdseye Maple Amber, a spring offering, uses recently harvested maple syrup. The beers also serve as ingredients in some of the restaurant's menu items: the stout in barbecue sauce and the wit in beer cheese soup and beer cheese spread. There's a beer batter for the white fish entrees.

I noted that the parking lot had begun to fill up and remarked that I'd better leave, giving Lark the time to prepare for the people who would soon be coming through the doors: "Do you ever wish you could get away from it all and take a rest? You're in the middle of the woods, but you're surrounded by people nearly every day."

She responded enthusiastically: "I've been doing this for a quarter of a century. I still love it. And it's fun to know that I was the first craft beer brewster in the UP."

(4) Lake Superior Brewing Company at Dunes Saloon

Lake Superior Brewing Company (photo by author)

Address: N 14283 Lake Ave, Grand Marais, MI 49839

Phone: 906-494-2337

www.grandmaraismichigan.com/lsbc

www.facebook.com/LakeSuperiorBrewing

In traveling from Upper Tahquamenon Falls to Grand Marais, the shortest route is County Road 37, which heads northwest off of Michigan 123 approximately ten miles north of Newberry. However, portions of the road are gravel and cell-phone reception is iffy. I usually proceed southwest down 123 until I reach Michigan 28-the major east-west road across the northern Upper Peninsula-and then head west twenty-two miles to Seney and then north on Michigan 77 to Grand Marais. This route lacks the scenic grandeur of 37, but passes some significant historical spots. On the northern outskirts of Newberry is the Tahquamenon Logging Museum, well worth an hour stop to look at pictures from the logging era as well as tools used by the loggers. There's a gift shop and, if you're around on Saturday mornings during the summer, you can enjoy a traditional loggers' breakfast....