My husband and I took a short camping trip in Northern MI last weekend and on our way home, decided to pay a visit to Short’s Brewing Co. in Bellaire, MI, which is in the Northwest portion of Michigan’s lower peninsula, northeast of Traverse City. Since opening in the mid 2000s, this place has really, really grown! It now occupies three storefronts in downtown Bellaire, and also features an outdoor patio area.

Outdoor patio area.

We first visited Short’s the year they opened, and it only occupied one storefront in Bellaire. We liked one of the beers we tried (can’t recall which one), so we asked if we could get a growler to take back to a local cabin we’d rented. The owner Joe Short himself said no can do – because he didn’t have any growlers on hand yet! So he gave us a couple of liter-sized glass bottles with Grolsch-style caps on them instead. We kept these things for years, until giving them a friend who was brewing his own beer.

 

We stopped in at exactly the right time and snagged two open seats at the bar, which quickly became full. The beers we tried were called Small Heath, an English mild served from a hand–pulled nitro tap. Alcohol wise, it weighs in at only 3.9 % ABV, so it’s a good one to have while “on the road!”  Arcadia Brewing Co. in Battle Creek, MI used to make a similar beer in 2000 which I LOVED, but they stopped making it. This beer is the closest to this style that I’ve had since then. Too bad I had to limit myself to only one, and because it was a nitro pull, growlers weren’t an option.

The beer board at Short’s – if you don’t find a beer/cider on here you like, then you’re probably way too picky!

Expanded space in the “third storefront,” which used to be offices for The Antrim Review, a local newspaper company which moved to a different location outside of downtown Bellaire. This place was BUSY! Packed house on a Sunday afternoon!

That’s it for now! I’ll have some other blogs about my recent travels posted soon…I just got home from two nights of rustic camping and LORD do I need a shower! 🙂 I still smell like a rose compared to that outhouse at Fisherman’s Island State Park (ugh)! I also smell slightly like my husband’s Old Spice “sport” scented deodorant/antiperspirant (oops I forgot to pack my deodorant)!