Atwater Brewery & Detroit Beer

At the weekend we stayed in Detroit for a few days so took the opportunity to check out a couple of breweries in the Downtown area.

Detroit Beer Co.

Detroit Beer Co. is a brewpub located on Broadway and has been around since 2003. The brewing vessels are just inside the entrance situated downstairs with the staircase wrapping around them so they are open for easy viewing.

In addition to an extensive food menu I enjoyed the following sampler beers:

• Motueka Pils (5.2% ABV, 30 IBUs) – a German Pilsner that has a lime flavor from the New Zealand hops.
• The Detroit Dwarf (5.5%, 40 IBUs) – an Altbier that has medaled at both GABF and the World Cup, it is malty with a hop bitterness.
• Broke Down Brown (5.5%, 15 IBUs) – an English Brown Ale that is roasty and slightly nutty.
• Chocolate Pumpkin Porter (7.0%, 25 IBUs) – a strong Porter that has a slight spicyness followed by a chocolate flavor.*
• Local 1529 IPA (6.4%, 60 IBUs) – an American IPA that is citrusy with some grapefruit flavors.*
• Cooked Grill (6.0%, 40 IBUs) – an ESB which has a bready flavor.
• The Trader (9.0%, 25 IBUs) – a Belgian Tripel that is spicy, has some cloves and fruity notes.*

* denotes my favorites from the above list.

Atwater Brewery

Located on the edge of an industrial area is Atwater Brewery which we visited the following evening. This brewery’s beers such as Vanilla Java Porter and Traverse City Cherry Wheat are available in many States across the USA. We were interested in seeing their facility and also seeking out some beers that you could only get at the brewery.

Inside the brewery is their Bier Stube (Tasting Room) where you can order draft pints though no sampler flights or food are available. You can however enjoy great beer, ask the bar tenders questions, and enjoy looking at all the brewing vessels, fermenters, bottling line and other equipment which fills the building.

Whilst visiting Atwater we enjoyed the following top quality beers:

• Winter Bock (7.4%, 25 IBUs) – a strong dark bock beer with some caramel notes.
• X-mas (6.0%, 15 IBUs) – lightly spiced on what we believe is a Brown Ale for the base beer.
• Dunkel Weizen (6.5%, 28 IBUs) – highly effervescent with plenty of banana notes.
• Shaman’s Porter (6.8%, 26 IBUs) – bourbon barrel-aged with plenty of oak, vanilla and bourbon aromas and flavors.*

* denotes our favorite beer which we managed to find a 4-pack of to take home the following morning at the nearby Whole Foods.

I inquired about the capacity of Atwater Brewery and was informed that currently it is 200k barrels per year but this is due to double next year thanks to the owners having taken over a production facility who will primarily contract for Atwater in 2015.

Atwater’s brewing system is 60 barrel in capacity with the first shift moving their batch over into the Staging Vessel so that when the second shift have brewed another batch they can be combined and moved over to the fermenters via the cooling system ready for pitching the yeast.

Below are some photos taken whilst at the Atwater Brewery:

If you have any question or comments, or would like to suggest other breweries worth visiting in the Detroit area then please feel free to reply in the box below.