UP Notable Book Club presents a Q&A session with Jon C. Stott about Yooper Ale Trails 🍺 Craft Breweries and Brewpubs of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
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UP Notable Book Club: The Crystal Falls Community District Library in partnership with the U.P. Publishers & Authors Association (UPPAA) has scheduled author events with winners of the UP Notable Book List. The 36th event is with historian and beer aficionado Jon C. Stott who will take us on a romp through eight possible unique tours of U.P. craft breweries and brewpubs. The 170 locally-brewed lagers or ales included in Yooper Ale Trails: Craft Breweries and Brewpubs of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula are the perfect way to quench your thirst after visiting the many scenic wonders of the U.P. Tours are arranged geographically from the shores of Lake Huron, across the north of the peninsula close to Lake Superior and then east from the Wisconsin border to the shores of Lake Michigan. Short essays on each brewery introduce you to the brewers, the places their beers are served, and the flavors of the beers themselves. Stott includes road maps for each ale trail and photographs of each establishment, making the breweries easy to find
JON C. STOTT (Professor Emeritus of English, University of Alberta) has spent extended summers in the Upper Peninsula for over half a century. He is the author of five beer travel guides, including the award-winning Island Craft: Your Guide to the Breweries of Vancouver Island, as well as two other books about Michigan’s Upper Peninsula: Paul Bunyan in Michigan: Yooper Logging, Lore, & Legends and Summers at the Lake: Upper Michigan Moments and Memories. He spends the cold, snowy months in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His beer blog www.beerquestwest.com includes frequent updates on the breweries he has visited.
“Jon C. Stott has done a meticulous job of supplying the craft beer lover with everything they would want to know about U.P. craft breweries and brewpubs. As of the writing of this book, there are 29 such breweries north of the Straits. The author presents each brewery with a 2 or 3-page essay that includes a short history, a conversation with the owner, presents a feel of the bar, and describes the brewery’s signature beers. Each entry includes a photograph, address, phone number, and both the website and Facebook addresses. What makes the book totally unique are the appendices. There is a list of breweries and brewpubs by location. Following that is a listing of each brewery with its production by number of barrels, its flagship beers are named, followed by a core list of all beers produced, and its distribution area. Next is a several-page essay on how beer is brewed. There is yet another appendix on a guide to beer styles and which U.P. breweries offer which styles. There is also a glossary of brewing terms and an annotated list of books about beer. It made me thirsty reading the book.” — Tom Powers, Michigan In Books
More information about the U.P. Notable Book list, U.P. Book Review, and UPPAA can be found on www.UPNotable.com
About the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association (UPPAA)
Established in 1998 to support authors and publishers who live in or write about Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, UPPAA is a Michigan nonprofit association with over 100 members, many of whose books are featured on the organization’s website at www.uppaa.org. UPPAA welcomes membership and participation from anyone with a UP connection who is interested in writing
Transcription follows
Welcome to the UP Notable Books Club brought to you by the Upper Peninsula Publisher and Authors Association. John C Stott, professor Emeritus of English, University of Alberta, has spent extended summers in the Upper Peninsula for over half a century. He’s the author of 5 beer travel guides, including the award-winning, Island Craft, your guide to the breweries of Vancouver Island, as well as 2 other books about Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Paul Bunyan in Michigan, Yooper Logging, Lore and Legends, and Summers at the Lake, Upper Michigan Moments and Memories. He spends the cold snowy months in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Beer blog, wwwbeerquestwest.com, includes frequent updates on the breweries he has visited.
EVELYN GATHU: Yeah. Well, good. I just have to say before we start that I finished up your book last night, John, and I took some notes, and it’s pretty exciting. I think you you, I don’t know how to say it. Like, it’s pretty amazing how much you know about beer and how much I learned about beer. And I think I’m gonna learn more about beer tonight. So, I have some questions. I hope you’re ready for them later on. But do you wanna just kinda get started and tell us a little bit about how you came to know.
JON C STOTT: You said I know a lot about beer. What I know and what I don’t know is a there’s a huge gap. This is what I know, and this is what I don’t know. But I’ve learned a great deal since I started drinking illegally, in the late 19 fifties.
EVELYN GATHU: It’s good. Yeah. Well, tell us some more. So, this is not your first beer book, so maybe you wanna start with that, like, how you got into this racket?
JON C STOTT: Well, yeah. There’s a there’s a lot of things, and it all leads up to to Yooper Ale Trails. The the first thing is I’ve been writing for a long time now. Since I was about 10 years old, I wrote it in a notebook, a story about the Vancouver Island Tarzan. I love the Tarzan books. And so this Tarzan killed grizzly bears and strange monsters in the Sasquatch. Anyway but, I’ve been very interested in travel books. My first job, I had to travel across the country on the train, and I read travels with Charlie. And many years ago, I read a wonderful book called Driving to Detroit, which was, partly an autobiography travel book. And so I’m interested in themed travel books.
And when the craft beer movement came out, I thought it would be wonderful to do a book in which I traveled from my home to a destination and stop at as many of the craft breweries as I could. And that was in Western Canada where I lived. And and then I moved to New Mexico, so I had to do it. And one year, I traveled down the Oregon coast. But the UP was always in the back of my mind in terms of writing about beer.
So I love travel books. I love craft beer. And for over 50 years, since the first time I went camping at a little lake south of Shingleton, I’ve loved the UP. So it brought my love of travel books, my love of writing, my love of craft beer, and my love of the UP all went into UP rail trails, plus a lot of beer too. And, so that’s how I got started, writing travel books.
One thing in my notes I wrote down is 1971. That’s a combination of an important date for me and my family, an important date for beer in the Upper Peninsula. In 1971, we decided to go camping in the UP. That was when the UP to people living in Kalamazoo seemed like beyond going up north. You know? We always used to laugh at people saying, we’re going up north. Oh, where are you going? Oh, Ludington. You know? That seemed far south. But, we fell in. It was rainy when we arrived at the campground, but we knew this was the place we’d been looking for. And we’ve been coming back since we moved to Western Canada. We came back to the UP. I moved to Hartford.
We came back to the UP. I moved to Albuquerque where I am. We keep coming back to the UP. But 1971 was the year that Bosch Brewing up in the Copper Peninsula closed its doors. And so there was no local beer up there. You had to buy Hamm’s, which was fun because of the bear. How many of you remember the hams bear from the land of sky blue waters? Or you had to buy straws, which was firewood, but there was nothing in the UP.
In the the mid-nineties, the craft, thanks to Larry Bell in the lower peninsula, they allowed brewpubs. And so Escanaba, Hereford and Hobbs, Vierling, in Marquette, Lake Superior, in, Grand Marais, and Tuquamenon Falls Brewery at the park. And you could get local beer, but unless you had a growler, you couldn’t take it home. And then to me, what was one of the most important things is the starting of canning brewery by Kimono Brewing up in Houghton. So many people have told me, including some brewers, that when they discovered local beer, quinoa beer that they could buy and take home, they discovered they wanted to become brewers.
So you in the in the mid, 1st decade of this century, you get Keweenaw, and then it explodes. You get Black Rock, you get Upper Hand, which, unfortunately, Upper Hand is owned by Bells, which is owned by New Britain New Belgium Brewery in Colorado, which is owned by Lion Brewery, which is in Australia, which is owned by Brewery. But you get so many and now I just I I made a note down here that within 90 minutes drive of my cabin, there’s a brewery, not 1, but 16 breweries. And then there are some further afield. Close to Crystal Falls, there’s Alpha.
There’s Soo Brewing. There’s Les Cheneaux over at your end of the country, so you can go almost not everywhere, but most places and find a brewery within an hour of you. And that’s one of the great things. But the other is it’s just not beer. When I was young and learning to smoke a pipe and appear wise, that’s called being an undergraduate at the university and drinking beer to be wiser, we just drank beer. And when we asked for what kind of beer, we named the company. I’ll have a Bud or a Canadian. I’ll have a Molson’s. But now when I order beer, I order a style. And I think that’s so wonderful.
It’s just not beer. There’s so many styles. In fact, in the book, I counted, 45 different styles of beer being brewed in the Upper Peninsula. They range from the things you’d know about, like IPAs and stouts and pilsners. But there’s Goss’, wonderful German-style sour sour beer. There’s Saison, from Eastern France. There’s so many wonderful different beers, and they’re really good versions that you can get in the Upper Peninsula. So it’s gone from beer to what kind of beer and good beer.
Drinking beer has become craft beer is an experience, especially if you go I mean, to Alpha or to Vierling. When you go to Vierling, and you can look out at the at the pier. You could go to Tahquahmenon Falls. You can take a walk down to the falls. You can go to Soo Brewing and sit up on the deck and watch the votes go by. And Alpha, you can sit out and look at the circle, and and so on and so forth. And the buildings are interesting buildings.
And when you’re in there, there may be local art on the walls. And there may be music, local music. And the one brewer told me, he said, we don’t have TVs in here because we want people to talk to each other, not just to the person that came with, but to the guy down the bar. And last year when I was touring, I met so many interesting people, not just locals in the various places I went to. But there was a honeymoon couple that came to, East Channel Brewery in Munising, and they were on their honeymoon, and they were going back to Holland.
And they decided to come in and have a local beer and buy a copy of the book to take back. And we had a wonderful conversation about craft beer and Holland and beers there, and they didn’t like Heineken. They like their local breweries. So it’s going to a brewpub is an experience. It the I say it’s the 3 p’s, the place, inside and outside, the people, and the Pilsners, and, of course, all the other beers.
So that’s what’s happened to me and went into the writing of this book. That’s my little spiel.
EVELYN GATHU: Yeah. I yeah. It’s, I think the first time I kind of came in contact with these breweries or brewpubs is I taught for several years overseas, and they were quite common in, Venezuela when I was working there, and we would go to them. And they were just kind of they were nice because, you know, we like I said, my son just turned 10 today. And when he was little, a lot of times these breweries, you know, they’re they’re not open typically real late at night.
They’re more for the day, and they would have, like, blocks or puzzles or books or things for kids to do. So it wasn’t like, you know, you were in a bar with a loud jukebox or bad language. You know, it was kind of a nice place you could just have a, you know, a drink. Mhmm.
And, you know, they would have popcorn or something, and, you know, your kid could kinda play a little. There’d be other little kids too. So it it is kind of a whole different experience, and I think you do a great job in the book highlighting how all these different breweries and what they were like.
JON C STOTT: Well, it was a wonderful experience. I’ve been to several of them over the years, but 2 years ago I went to every one of them. I started out close to home in Munising at East Channel and By George, and I went over to Les Cheneaux. That was an interesting experience because I always turned west after crossing the Mackinac Bridge to go to the cabin. I never went east towards, an island and saw a whole new area.
And I know that’s your country, Sue. And, then going to the far west, going to Ironwood. And what a contrast Ironwood is to going over the bridge, to Hurley, Wisconsin. I mean, that’s, they have Hollywood dancing girls in Hurley, but they had good beer in Ironwood and museums and nice places to walk around. So it’s going around and then I had a bunch of standard questions in how to get started and what’s the hardest thing about this kind of beer, and what beers would you recommend, and and that kind of thing.
But I think what I wanted to capture was the experience of traveling and being there. And and then, I think my last chapter has me sitting on the dock of the bay, sipping a couple of the beers, and then I brought back with me.
EVELYN GATHU: Yeah. Yeah. It was really it was an enjoyable read, and, I you know, because we’re kind of a nice little group tonight. So I wanna know, I wanna hear from, like, Victor and Lori, and Lori’s nice husband who’s on tonight. And, Sue, did you I don’t know if you had a chance to read the book yet, but or or have you been to some of the breweries in the book or or even if you you know what? I’d love to hear what you guys have to say.
VICTOR VOLKMAN: Well, I’ll kick it off, I guess. I mean, I certainly read the book. Indexing it was was one of the toughest indexing jobs I’ve ever done. It’s a very, very dense index.
EVELYN GATHU: Very helpful. There’s so many appendixes in that book, and they all have a different, purpose. And they’re it’s very helpful, I think, to a person, to a reader.
JON C STOTT: Yeah. Well, we thought a lot about, you know, what’s the pertinent stuff that you wanna know. You know, can I eat there? What what do they have besides beer? That kind of thing.
And then I developed, the maps. You know, we we went into great detail so that jobs trails actually are they make sense visually, and and it would be like an afternoon’s worth of driving. Each one is accessible. So there’s a lot of intense amount of planning. And and even the beer except, Ordak.
EVELYN GATHU: Is that the one in market? One of them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
JON C STOTT: I buy that in cans down here because I like it a lot.
EVELYN GATHU: Oh, okay. Alright. How about Lori and your husband there? What do you think? Or what can you add to our beer talk tonight?
LORI: Add to a beer. The book was great. You inspired us. Steve retired this year. So we have a little extra time to do things, and we’re gonna hit some of these trails just for something fun to do and check it out. You gave us a list of things that we wanna do.
JON C STOTT: Right. You know? We haven’t been through a lot of these even though we’re living in the UP all our lives, and and it’s, you know, now I got more time to kinda, like you said, hit the road and kinda enjoy the sights and sounds and, you know, and the and the beer.
Well, one of the nice things about, beer travel for me, people say, oh, it must be a lot of fun to to just ride around the country drinking beer all day. Well, that doesn’t quite work that way. But the traveling and then the ale at the end of the trail, and have have a nice meal or just even a single slice of pizza and enjoy the wonderful beers. Yes. And it’s in the Where are you traveling from?
LORI: Manistique. Oh, that’s right. Yes. Yeah. So, I understand there’s a new one opening up in Gladstone sometime this summer. So there’s there’s another possibility.
There’s another one that’s close to us, but I like trying to figure out what type of beer I like because there’s some I like, some I don’t like. You never know what it is, but the book has been very helpful in explaining what each style is.
JON C STOTT: Well, one of the nice things that craft beer has brought in is you can get a flight, a little tray with a bunch of, 3 ounce or 5 ounce of different kinds and sample them. I was at one time, and they you could order 5 or 10. And the the man and his family next to me ordered 10. And when the father came, his eyes were open like a kid’s eyes in a candy store. He couldn’t believe all the beers he was seeing.
But that’s one way of trying. It’s just, getting a flight, or even they’ll give you a little wee taste. You know? I mean, the taste that that my grandmother would take. How about you, Sue? Over there in your neck of the woods, do you have you been to the breweries? Or are you…
SUE HARRISON: Well, I’m the odd man out here. Victor already knows this. I’m a tea teller. Okay. There is a very good reason for that. Unfortunately, in my family, that’s a necessary thing to be. Yeah. We have a great number of Native American, ancestry, great amount of native ancestry and, lot of alcoholics. And so when I was a teenager, I made that decision, and I’ve stuck with it. However, I love the distillery down in Les Cheneaux and, often go with friends or with relatives.
And, you know, their food is great. And it’s interesting for me to learn about it because brewing is a science. And to me, that is is it it really captures me. And I love to cook, and I love to figure out how recipes go together. And so it all kind of it’s some it’s an interest area for me even though I have to be very careful in my mind.
And, I’m very happy for the rest of you that you don’t have to be careful in your lives, that you enjoy this. So this can be a part of your life, And, I love learning. So thank you very much, John, for the for the learning. It’s it’s a whole new area for me. I know I I, for Christmas one year, I got a mix of bread mix.
It was a beer bread mix. And so I went to our local little grocery store just about a mile away from my home, walked there and said, I don’t have any beer, but I wanna make this bread. What kind of beer would you think I should use? Well, this was before the, craft beers or anything. And the guy who owned the store, our neighbors, says, I haven’t got a clue. I’ve never made beer for action. I said, “Oh, you know what? I really love horses, so I guess a Budweiser. Can I have just 1?” That’s kind of my story about beer.
JON C STOTT: But you know, Sue, one of the things that’s interesting, a lot of these places, a few of them anyways, I know in other places this is the case, they make their own sodas or pops.
SUE HARRISON: Yes. Yes.
JON C STOTT: I must tell you something. Down here, they don’t say pop in New Mexico, which bothers me. And they also they say Coke. They said, do you want a Coke? And I said, yes, please. They said, what kind? And they meant they meant pop. That’s what they called pop here. But you don’t have to drink to enjoy the environment of well, you know they should know down there. And up in the zoo, you can sit up on the deck that, that they built at the super and watch the boats go by and and enjoy the company.
You know, it’s not there, there’s an old barn that burnt down that’s I’m sure many of you know, and I think about it when I pass by. The what was it called? The type the Taiga, just on the way from shingle to shingle, from Munising to, Marquette, and it burned down a few years ago. And that’s not the kind of bar you would go to sit quietly and have a conversation with people. But you can move these places. And and and they it’s experience. I keep using that word that you can enjoy regardless of what you’re sipping.
SUE HARRISON: Yes. Yes.
JON C STOTT: Although I don’t review any pops in the book.
I’m going to give a copy to our son. We love recipes. Yeah. And I know, like and I think a lot of times these breweries too, like, it’s at least in alpha, usually the soda is free. They have a whole refrigerator because they want The drinker to have a free soda and or they want Yeah. To have so it’s, sometimes, you know, Sue, you’ll spend less money than your.
Well, you mentioned the alpha, which I thought was one of I would never have been to Alpha if it hadn’t been for writing this book. And as I drove in off the main highway on the way to Crystal Falls, it said welcome to Alpha, and it made you feel welcome, the sign. And the brewery, local people coming back to start up the brewery and the summer people coming And the T-shirts, he said they’ve seen T-shirts in Europe saying Alpha Michigan Brewery. So Oh, okay. They’re local places and letting the and to telling the story of local areas abroad too.
Yeah. It just ended up being kind of a a funny date today with my son’s birthday and all because, you know, we always do these on the second Thursday. You know, we have a commitment to this because Yes. Gonna try to broadcast from the brewery today, but that didn’t work out because they’re really good people over there. And you mentioned that in the book that they say they brew with a purpose, And they have so many fundraisers there, and our library this past winter was a part of a mega fundraiser, which actually pays for a lot of these UP notable book, you know, our end because we, do pay the authors for, you know, speaking to us, And they were just great.
You know, we had a a huge day there where we had, you know, raffles and soup and sandwiches and, you know, different things, and they and they they renamed one of their beers well red for that, you know, like, half of the proceeds of that beer in a 2 week period. I mean, they ended up between, Mike and Mary, which is one of the couples that run the place. And the brewery itself, I think they handed over about a grand to the library.
That’s yes.
EVELYN GATHU: So, I mean, it’s it is wonderful if you the community, you know, like you’re telling us, John, is a is a big part of it. So yeah. And Yeah. Go ahead.
JON C STOTT: They’re little communities. Maranisco, another place I’ve never heard of, until this happened. And I went in there, and local people wanted to provide a place for the community and also for the summer people. Of course, the lake is right nearby. And just and I went to, to Cold Iron in, in, Ironwood, and they were having a community gathering.
There must have been 150 people there to celebrate the volunteers for their winter ski festival. And that happens everywhere. Not the winter ski festival, but as craft breweries. It’s a gathering place.
We’re pretty lucky tonight. We got some more people hopping on. So we Nancy there in Alpena. And, you know, we’re lucky tonight, Nancy. We have such a small intimate group.
It kinda feels like being in the brewery, like, a nice little here. Did you get a chance to read the book, Nancy, or or, you know, do you think I’ve not had a chance to read the book, and I’m down here under the bridge, but I’ve got a YoOper from Escanaba sitting right here. So, I’m sure you’ve visited some of those breweries as well. Mhmm.
NANCY: Well, to to your friend, I’ve always loved going to Hereford and the hops, down in Escanaba. I’ve never been in Escanaba in the moonlight, but, I am there in the daytime and enjoy that. And even though it’s now owned by a Japanese international conglomerate going to Upper Hand as well. But you still at Upper Hand, you can only walk over to the airport. At Hereford and Hopes, you can walk all the way down to the lighthouse and back.
Yes. I live about a mile, mile and a half from Hereford and Hobbs and and Upper Hand. So familiar with both of them. I I visited them, you know, throughout the years.
And they have one of my favorites I don’t usually mention specific beers, but one of my favorite sipping on the dock of the day kind of beer is, is is called laughing fish, and it’s a cult, a light beer. And I love the name, and I love the beer too.
Absolutely.
JON C STOTT: And the names, I should say I didn’t say much about the names here, but some of the names are are so wonderful. Like, there’s one called batter up beer, and that’s, a a pilsner that’s got blueberries and maple syrup in it. And it’s sort of supposedly a beer drink with pancakes. That’s from by George. And, the silly names, if you go to, Cogniztjan, which used to be Cognizant in Ishpeming, but which is now in in Marquette, they have some crazy beers and wonderful beers.
One of their beers, they put a little do you remember those awful cereals our kids used to eat, like, blueberries and and count chocolate and things where they put a little bit of in their blueberry beer, of, blueberry cereal in it. Just a tiny bit and gave it a crazy name too. And which reminds me, if you don’t if you’re gonna start a brewery and you don’t have a blueberry beer, you’re in trouble. That somebody called it the national beer of the upper peninsula, blueberry beer. Amen.
At at 51st, State Brewing in Kingsford. He told me one day, one of his customers came in and said, I’ll have a whatever the title of their beer was, blue beer beer. And he said, I’m sorry. We ran out and turned around and walked out again. But everybody has the blueberry beer.
And some are Pilsners, some are wheat beers, some have vanillas, a bit of vanilla in them. But they’re they’re all really interesting. When I came back to Albuquerque this year, I brought a can of about 6 different blueberry beers, and we had a little tasting, of the UP, tasting all the different blueberry beers.
Yeah. I asked my husband and my father. We were just driving back from She’s done. What beer mission wasn’t free in the UP, and they couldn’t guess it. And then when I told them, they’re like, oh, okay. That makes sense. But, yeah, that came up a lot in your book, how much the blueberry. But I wanna try I don’t know if Lori has this on her list, but I’m interested in trying that strawberry basil beer.
That was in one of the first breweries that you mentioned. That sounded good.
JON C STOTT: I think that that was, I think. And they use local strawberries and real basil. Yes. It wasn’t there when I was there, so I wasn’t able to try it. But, the fruit beers can be really good if you just hint at the fruit.
You know, you shouldn’t be drinking a blueberry milkshake. You should be up here with just a taste of blueberries. And the same with the other fruit beers. I’ve even had beer with dill pickle juice in it. And it may sound funny, but it really went well with a with a, grilled cheese sandwich, 1 sunny afternoon, sunny lunchtime.
Not the one there’s one you mentioned in the book that had sour cucumber. There was a sour cucumber beer.
Yes. And that would just give it if if you’ve ever had water with cucumber in it, they’ve had, you know, you the those the big tanks and you get water. It was like that. It just had a slight taste of cucumber. And then, of course, dill pickles coming from cucumbers.
It has this one that had the dill pickle taste. It was from New Mexico, not from up there. But, I mean, I was looking at the fruit beers here beside blueberry, and I counted, I counted, how many did I get? I got 17 different blueberry beers that I listed. But, there are orange-flavored beers with with a touch of orange in them.
There are a lot of maple syrup beers and so forth. So if you don’t like I have a friend who says it tastes like beer. So I give that friend one of these flavored beers. Now one thing that was new to me, and you mentioned this in the book, I think, 2 or 3 times, bubble gum? That some beers taste like bubble gum? Belgian beers use a candish sugar in the fermentation process. That sort of gives them a slightly bubble gummy taste. That’s what that is, but some 1,000 beers do that. Yeah. And, some beers, you know, yeast is the big thing that turns I mean, here’s these little animals.
They gobble down the fermentable sugars, and I won’t describe the digestive process, but the but it ends up as alcohol. And, you know, you buy certain kind of yeast for this, that, and the other from from the suppliers. But you can also make the ingredients for beer. You you can grab your hops and your your malt and your your liquid cold wort, and then you take it outside in a big trough called the cool ship. And the wild yeast that are in the air will do that barrel and beam in Marquette, is a place that makes wild fermented beers.
And it’s a bit of a dicey thing because, evidently, 10% of the time, the wrong yeast give the wrong flavor. but when you get it, it’s new and different. And that’s Marilyn Ving that does that. So so and that’s a that’s a kind of a that’s the way it used to be evidently. They didn’t know what yeast was, and they thought it was some divine power that was put into the beer.
They used to call yeast god is good because it is what god did to the beer. But even in Africa, when they used to make whatever it was, it was the wild yeasts that fermented it. So you can have wild yeast beer if you want too.
EVELYN GATHU: Neat. Shelley’s on tonight and from the Marquette area. Correct, Shelley? And this was talking about community. I’m so glad for our little UP Norwalk Book Club because the other day, I was listening to public radio, and then one of these sponsors was Shelley. And I was just shocked because I knew her. You know? Our world is a little bit smaller. Like, they said the name, and I immediately knew. You know, I had a name with a face, and I was like, wow.
Public radio is where I discovered about Vierling’s restaurant in the 1980s. They said this is brought to you by Desour by Vierling’s, and that’s where I had my first craft beer in the UP too. So, Shelly, have you, had a chance to read the book yet?
SHELLY: No. I did not. I I know from previous times that if I didn’t get to the book yet, sometimes I can get information to know whether, yep, I really wanna read that book. So I was kinda hoping to hear what other people had to say about it. And, I’m not a beer drinker at all, so, you know, this would be knowledge for me to share with other people, because, you know, the other people in my family might drink.
I don’t. But it’s interesting, and I’ve already made some notes about the blueberry thing.
Yeah. And John is a very readable author. You know, I you I’m not a a craft beer connoisseur by any means, but I felt your book was, you know, I just wanted to keep reading it. You have a nice style, you know.
Well, it’s a travel book. I think, you know, it’s a travel book in which bears the destination. But the journeys the journeys you know? Well, you’re you’re all except for the people from Alpena. But, anyway, you put your welcome up.
But it’s traveling. I mean, to get from 1 brewery to the other I mean, even if you walk from VIerling and then you go over along Spring Street and you go to Ordock, And then you pass the courthouse and you go up Third Street, all those funky little stores and interesting little boutique places. And then you end up at Black Rocks or Cognition, and you’ve had a lovely little journey.
Yeah.
EVELYN GATHU: Is anyone you know, s might have some questions for John because he did a lot of work to put this book together, and we should benefit from from his drinking. So anyone wanna ask him? Anybody got a question or a comment or something they wanna know more? Yeah. Go ahead, Sue.
SUE HARRISON: How long ago did you get the idea for this book?
Well, I got the idea for this book after I’d written one about the Oregon coast, about beer in the Oregon coast. I went around Washington Highway 101. In fact, if you look over my shoulder, but that’s that’s the one above the Oregon coast. And I’d I’d but it really started when I did a book about, Paul Bunyan. I started I’ve been coming up here for years, and I want and just going to the old logging places, just discovering a big stump in my backyard.
So I did the retelling of the Paul Bunyan stories, and then I went to the Oregon coast and and did one on my home, of Vancouver Island. And I said, I this by that time, there was an explosion of breweries and enough for a book. And I sent Victor a copy of a couple of my other books and said, there’s enough for a book here. And he said, go for it. And so thank you to Victor.
If it weren’t for Victor, I’d still be thinking of him. So, anyway, I had originally thought of doing that. I’d originally thought about it in, 2017, and then family things happened, and I couldn’t get out there regularly. And then COVID happened. And then Victor and I worked on summers at the lake.
And after that, I decided it’s time. There are enough breweries. It’s time to travel around and do trails. So it yeah. I guess it was, it started, and seriously about 6 years ago, 7 years ago, and the writing, it was 2,002, 2,022, when I I did my tour.
And Did you do your I did your Did you do your Sorry?
EVELYN GATHU: Did you do your tour all in one summer?
JON C STOTT: Yes. But I used my cabin as a, center place, and I the local ones, I went out to Tahquahmenon Falls and came back that day. But then when I went out to your part of the country, Sue, over to to to your part of the country, Evelyn, and I would go overnight and up to the copper Okay. But I do about 3 a day, not drinking, talking, writing, and listening. If I didn’t, that was 3 3 days of drinking, it would.
But I wanted to tell you 2 funny things that happened. 1 is that the fact I learned that the best selling beer in the upper peninsula is Busch Light. And the only two places in the UP that it isn’t the best-selling beer is in Marquette, which has Northern, and, Houghton, which has tech. And but the other thing I remember, I was going down to town down to to to Manistique, and I stopped at the little, gas station just on the way into town from coming up on 94. And I went in, and a guy came out.
He had a 24-pack of Busch light. He said, I got a lot of yard work to do today. So but, now so he got his Bush, and then I went to do an interview at, at Flat Iron Brewery. So just different different, different sips for different folks, I guess. Good. Other people wanna share some beer experiences?
Well, all of this is just from it’s reminding me of a story that I remember back in high school, one of my teachers told the story about that. I don’t know how well-known this is, but I guess in the 19 seventies, the United States government felt that the upper peninsula couldn’t possibly be drinking as much beer as that was being sold. And they did a 1 year undercover, you know, sting operation because they really felt that, you know, beer and alcohol was being, you know, transferred over to Canada. And they found out after 1 year that if anything, maybe some of the Canadians were bringing beer here that we were. No.
Yeah. I always think of that when I when we talk about this area and its love of alcohol. I think it’s it’s gone back a long way, and and your book adds to canon of it all.
Well, you know, one of the things about craft beer, and I think about, what I see when I go into the craft breweries here in is they say, please respect our 3 beer limit. There’s a sign up. So this is not somewhere where you go and then hope that the state troopers don’t catch you as you’re driving back home later this Saturday night. It’s it’s a place where you enjoy the beer, you enjoy the food, you enjoy the view out the window, and you enjoy the people. And that’s what I like about it.
And I was just because because we’re reading this book, I was in, well, it used to be Econo Foods in Iron Mountain. And I just yesterday, I was in there, and I thought, well, let me just kinda see how much beer is, you know, craft beers. And so many of the breweries you mentioned in this book, even Barrel and Beam, they all had beer to come up with. So much of it in different flavors, and it’s it was kinda surprising to me because it is pricey. That’s why I think it’d be good to go to the breweries to kinda taste them and see what you like.
Yes. Oh, yes.
Take a guess. If It’s At the back of the book, there’s a list of all the different, brewery of beers available in the different styles. And I realized that I’d have to spend 2 years, winter and summer there, having 1 beer a night to work through all those beers that you, Victor, had to put in your the index. But Wild names too. Oh, they’re wonderful names at the place. Yes. And, beer can art. If you get a can of beer, look at the artwork. There’s some really clever artwork going on on beer can labels.
Re and local artists I know by George in Munising. Whenever he comes out with a new beer that he’s going to can, he has one of the local artists design a can. So, I mean, so that’s another plus. You got artwork to look at while you sip your your beer.
I wrote that one down because it sounds really neat. Like, if you go to that By George and Munising, they have the posters, I guess, up all inside the brewery.
Yes.
Lines. Yeah. That would be I think it’d be kinda neat just even to see the posters.
Oh, yes. It is. And and you can get good food everywhere too. Not everywhere. I don’t mean it’s not bad food, but not all places have food.
But a beer link, for example, one of the classic old restaurants, a lot of great pizzas. In fact, 51st State Brewery in in in Kingsford, we know that’s the Italian center of the UP. Their pizza was voted the best pizza in the county. So you can get great food too. At, it it’s it since I first had some, craft beer, and this is about 35 years ago now, I remember I had a taste of it, and my I said, hey.
This tastes different. And my friend said, yeah. It has taste. And and I thought, so true and such different tastes too.
John, have you attended very many beer fest, or do you recommend any in the upper peninsula? We find out
Well, there’s the big ones and the little ones. I personally don’t like beer fest myself because I only have 2 or 3 little beers because I know I’m having to to drive. And but the big one is the fall UP beer fest in the lower harbor in Marquette, which is the weekend after, the weekend of the UPPAA, picnic, the week after Labor Day. It’s a huge one. They get 80 or so places.
And it’s really funny when you go the old pros at least, they have pepperoni stick lanyards around their necks so that they can ease along the way. And there’s a little one in Manistique every, every, middle of August, which is small, and you get to know the brewers and the people. And there’s a lot of others dotted around new ones coming up regularly. But if you want to see the big one, go to the lower harbor, the week after Labor Day, but get your tickets early. Just go to the Michigan Brewers Guild and get your tickets early.
But I’m not a big fan of that. I like to go to the Woo pubs, or I like to sit quietly with a friend and watch the the the clouds go by across the lake. So but I do love writing about craft beer, and I love writing about the UP too. So what what a wonderful combination.
EVELYN GATHU: Will there be a sequel?
We’ve discussed 99 bottles of beer. Yes. Victor, you can tell what’s happening to Yooper Ale Trails.
Oh, well, I just thought, we’ve been talking to John about, you know, you thought about maybe a Kalamazoo area book. Right? And then, you were thinking of maybe a New Mexico area book. Is that right?
Well, we’re pausing on that, but the the Yooper Ale trails, one of the great writers that UP History Hunter, Michael Klassen, is doing, updating the book regularly. So I just knew I I would be 85 in a few months, and I knew I just couldn’t go roaring around the countryside every summer. So he’s going to do that. And, but I am writing essays about the little cabin in the big woods, which is where I I I sit and pretend I’m thinking profound thoughts. So there is a there is a sequel.
It’ll still be you for Aletrails, but somebody else will be sipping the beer for me. And I may do something farther or abroad, but, poor Kalamazoo got hit that that that plate, the express, that place, was just a mile from where we used to live that got devastated the other day. So but, anyway, we’ll have to see.
Yeah. Good. Any other good questions, comments while we have the beer expert here? Well Well free. I wanna know what what else is on your list?
Where else were you guys gonna try to hit, or what interest you in the book?
JON C STOTT: Well, I’m going to go when I’m back next week, I’m gonna start writing more essays about, like, life at the lake. One of the things I noticed the other was thinking about the other day is that right outside my at the end of the dirt road, there’s an enormous stump, which was probably a white pine that was logged off 100 and 50 years ago, maybe. And it was probably 200 years old then. And then I walked down to the Stutz Creek, and, that was one of the places where the logs were floated down.
And so I’m wondering, Some of you may have read a book called Paddle to the Sea, a children’s book, about the travels of a little canoe. And there’s another one called tree and the trail by the same author. And I’m just going to read a lesson imagining what the tree saw and then where it went as it was chopped down, skinned to this Dutch Creek, went down to the mill at Manistique. And then is there an old, old house or barn somewhere in Iowa that has the lumber from that tree, the stump of which is behind my house? So that kind that’s what I’m working on right now.
Not a whole book about the tree making down the street, but just thinking about a place that has such a history, and and and I was saying to you, Victor, it’s it’s like a ripple effect. What the more you get to know a place, the the deeper it becomes. It’s it’s it’s like a three-dimensional spreading of ripples. And and I love finding out more things about that. Some of you know Deb Lebonc who did the pictures for for the summers at the lake.
That’s her picture on the cover there over my shoulder. She can take you for a walk along the boardwalk in man man monistique, and show you things that you never would have noticed before. What this little event meant about a bad winter or or why this is an invasive species and so on and so forth. So you just keep learning and learning and enjoying the learning and then getting to to think about it as you sip on the dock of the bay. It’s enjoying it.
So so you follow your Youper Ale Trail to the lake. I guess that’s what it is.
Well, that’s just what I was gonna say. Like, to Lori and her husband, I know they they might be heading out. If you do come to Alpha, you’re not far from the Crystal Falls Library. So, you know, let me know, and we could meet
I will. Certainly. Yes.
Yeah.
JON C STOTT: I’m I’m going to do not as much traveling this year, but a little bit more writing. Oh, and blueberry picky. That I mean, that makes that I I just read, the the Ojibwe people have a ceremony for the first blueberries they pick. They call it. And the July is minimum, which is the blueberry, harvest period.
And they used to start little fires, in little patches to make the blueberries grow. So I love bringing the blueberries back to New Mexico that I pick a mile from the cabin. And at Christmas morning, we have blueberry muffins from the UK.
EVELYN GATHU: With that beer? You drink that batter of beer too?
JON C STOTT: Unfortunately, it does not last till Christmas. But one last thing I would like to say, I want to thank the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association. They’ve created such a fertile, ground for writers. I mean, I’ve written textbooks and things, but, you know, things that the students have to buy that I don’t know whether they’ve read them or not. But, I am getting to write what I want, and I review some books for Victor. And people are writing, and I’m exploring through the words of the books so many parts, so many UPs.
I mean, so many different wonderful places. And I thank the UPPAA and the Crystal Falls Library and all the people that spread the good word. Mhmm. Thank you very much.
EVELYN GATHU: Nice. Brandy Thomas and Victor, how they get these you know, she cleans up these talks and she puts them on our, you know, on, so people can watch them on YouTube. Because a lot of times people will write me and say, oh, I can’t come tonight, but, you know, I’ll catch the recording. And so that’s really nice.
Oh, thank you. And do enjoy I know, Sue, you won’t, but enjoy the brewpub while your friend sips a good blueberry beer.
JON C STOTT: thank you. You all for coming. I’m I’m sorry. I can only see you as little pictures on the on the screen, but I will think of you as I sit there next 2 weeks from yesterday having my first UP beer of the season.
EVELYN GATHU: Good. Yes. And this is a a pleasant book to talk about because next month, we’re we’re on to murder. Right, Victor? Murder What? Murder at, Mackinac Island. So most followed. So we’re we’re totally switching gears next month.
Are they calling it murdered by fudge? Nope. Okay.
VICTOR VOLKMAN: Yeah. Grim Paradise. That’s all you need to remember.
EVELYN GATHU: Grim Paradise. Yes. From Okay. You trail trails to grim paradise. So we’re diverse. Take care. Well, thank you very much. And, Victor, we’ll see you in September.
You’ve been watching the UP Notable Books Club brought to you by the Upper Peninsula Publisher and Authors Association. To join or for more information, please visit us at www.UPPAA.org or www.upnotable.com.