Winter Microbrew Festival...

A couple of weekends ago, Brian and I headed up north with our good friends, Sherry and Billy, to check out the 3rd Annual Traverse City Winter Microbrew & Music Festival.  What a fun time we all had! :)

The Microbrew fest was held outdoors in the Village of the Grand Traverse Commons.  It's a pretty cool location considering it used to be the home of the Traverse City State Hospital (formerly known as the Northern Michigan Asylum).  They've renovated many of the hospital buildings and turned them into indoor marketplaces filled with eclectic shops and fun little cafes and coffee shops.  Meanwhile, they've turned the grounds into a very pedestrian friendly park with hiking and biking trails. It's definitely a far cry from what it used to be! I'm definitely eager to go back and check it out this summer... From what I hear, they hold lots of festivals and concerts there during the warmer seasons... And, to make it even more enticing, they have a farmer's market set up there during the summer... Woohoo!!  I'm definitely going back! :)  But, I digress... Let's get back to the Microbrew Fest... :)

The festival consisted of about five huge tents set up around the grounds.  Each tent housed about 10 different Michigan Microbreweries, a couple of food stands selling local eats, and a music stage.  And, being that it was pretty chilly outside, the tents were also heated... Yay! :)  So, we basically wandered around from tent to tent, sampling lots of delicious beers (all of them being from our lovely state of Michigan! :)) and listening to some really great music!  There was typically a theme for each tent, and we found ourselves attracted to the European themed tent (go figure!) which consisted of beers which are typical to European countries.  We also found the music in that tent to be far better than any of the other tents we were in!  They had a fabulous modern polka band called the Kielbasa Kings that we loved listening to!  They played modern music with a touch of polka...  Lots of fun! :)  And, the food in that tent was delicious!!  Pierogies and Kielbasa... Yum!! :)  And don't even get me started on the beer in that tent...  Lots of yummy hefeweizens, Kolsch style beers, and some delicious "hoppy" IPA's! :)  (I have to admit, after our few years in Germany and my love affair with hops, I'm now finding myself drawn to the hoppy flavored IPA's... Delicious! :))

Overall, it was such a fun-filled evening!!  It was so fun to wander around outside in the snow, warm up around the bonfire, listen to great music, sample fantastic beers brewed in Michigan, and just enjoy spending time with good friends!  We're already looking forward to next year's festival! :)

Sherry and Billy waiting for the shuttle to take us to the festival... 

Can't wait to get there! :)

The Village at Grand Traverse Commons...
This used to be the old State Hospital... 

Good times with great friends! :)

Sherry prosting to a fun-filled evening! :)

Prost!!

Sherry fell in love with Grandma's Perogies!  They were delicious! :)

Clearly, Brian was enjoying his Kielbasa! :)

The Kielbasa Kings...
They were fantastic and so much fun! :)

Singing and dancing along with the Kielbasa Kings! :)

Brian and Sherry were making friends around the bonfires! :)

Cheers to a great festival!!
Can't wait until next year! :)