Brings Its A-Game to This Year’s Beer Festival
by Mary Simkins

Grizzly Peak Brewing Co., to the untrained eye, may look from the outside like just another swanky Ann Arbor cocktail club.  But once through the doors, you find yourself in a laid-back pub with brick walls and well-designed signage.  The bar is, in a word, cool. Friendly and informative staff make sampling their unique beers fun, and there always seems to be something interesting on the seasonal rotating tap.  My favorites were the El Hefe, a German Wheat with hints of clove and banana, and the Yorkshire Angel, a Northern-English Style Oat Malt Ale.

Grizzly Peak’s regular happy hour (both bars, Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.) offers $2 off pints and 22 ounces, $5 off pitchers and $1 off well drinks, house wine, pizza and appetizers.  Late night happy hour is only available in the Den and is every night from 11 p.m. – 2 a.m. And, for Grizzly Peak devotees, it might be economical to spend $60 for a lifetime membership to the Mug Club

Grizzly Peak will be out in full force at this year’s Michigan Brewer’s Guild Summer Beer Festival in Ypsilanti with many special brews.  In fact, the only regularly rotating beer that  head brewer Duncan Williams plans to feature is the Sheerwater English IPA, which will be available both days of the festival.  He will also be bringing a small cask of Final Repose Ale (an American barley wine), Liberty Lager (an American version of a Czech pilsner), Little Giant Lager (a full-flavored, malty session lager–high in flavor, low in alcohol content), Poisson Rouge (sour, wood-aged version of the regular Steelhead Reg), Strang-Wully (a wheat-heavy Scottish Strong Ale) and Draconus, a strong, dark Belgian ale.

With great food and ever-evolving beer, there is always something new to try at Grizzly Peak, and I, for one, will be in line for some Draconus on July 22.

Grizzly Peak operates under the same management group as Jolly Pumpkin and the Blue Tractor, as well as North Peak Brewing Co., located out of Traverse City.