In August of 2001, "circumstances" brought us to the Auburn Hills area for a few days. Conveniently, we ended up in a hotel right next door to Big Buck Brewery. The first night we did our normal "sampler". We preferred the Redbird Ale and ordered a pint with dinner. Todd had the Ale Battered Fish & Chips and Cheryl had the Portabella Chicken. Good gourmet style food as always. We had a couple more pints - Todd had the Seasonal and Cheryl another Redbird. We got a growler to go of Redbird and enjoyed it in our hotel room. 

Appearance: 5 Stars We love the outdoor feeling here and the woodwork is beautiful. The antler chandeliers are cool too! 

Food: 5 Stars Everything we've had here has been very good - but, a little pricey at times 

Beer: 5 Stars Except for the berry beers, they always have something we like and good seasonals to boot 

...more Big Buck....     The following night we ate at Joe's Crab Shack and just "had to" return to Big Buck - when it's THAT close, who can resist? Plus they had some good happy hour prices. Be aware, that if you go into Big Buck for happy hour you HAVE to sit in the bar area. Todd got reamed on this dining there alone one night. Got himself a table, ordered a beer and was charged full price - during happy hour - just because he wasn't in the bar area. 

They had a tasty, yet potent, seasonal (we don't recall what it was, but, the alcohol content was around 8%, WOW!) After a couple beers we began conversing with some nice gentlemen from England. Very funny and friendly. They had purchased the Portabella Fraschetta and shared it with us. EXCELLENT! We're mushroom fans anyway. We were getting quite drunk after several beers and decided to walk back to the hotel. Our new English friends wouldn't let us leave and insisted on buying us a couple more drinks.  After a few more freebies we walked back to the hotel.

The following day brought us to Great Lakes Crossing Mall for dinner and to look around. Lo and behold, Alcatraz Brewing Company is right there by the theaters. We didn't even know it was there, remember, we didn't actually have the "plan" yet - we didn't realize this would become a craze for us. We immediately wondered if they had growlers - beginning to like these bottles as collector items (and a convenient way to bring home a 1/2 gallon of beer).

We were seated at a table and realized we should have sat at the bar.  They weren’t busy at the time so the waitress was able to talk to us, so that worked out. When you sit at the bar you can talk more. Time for us to order a sampler, we tried them all and liked most, especially the porter and Birdman Brown Ale.  We were bummed that the Boxcar Stout was out. The Brown ale was great so we decided on a growler of that.

While we looked over the menu we saw they had a lot of nice sandwiches including the Louisiana Louie’s Bon Ton chicken and the grilled portabella mushroom sandwich called the Boom Boom Shroom.  Todd had the chicken and Cheryl had the portabella.

On the inside it had the Golden Gate Bridge and pictures of well-known prisoners from Alcatraz.  There was also a cat walk which was above the bar area, this sure gave it that prison feel.  They had shot glasses so we purchased one of the Birdman.

December 2, 2001 update

A concert at The Palace brought us in the area so we had to stop at Alcatraz for a growler refill.  We were hoping that they would have the Boxcar Stout this time. This was the perfect location for us to meet our friend Fred and Fred’s friend Fred (we can’t remember Fred’s friend’s name so we’ll just call him Fred).

As luck would have it the Boxcar Stout was on tap and we filled our growler with that.  Fred and his friend ate dinner, this time we did not eat.

As of 12/9/2001 we now have 17 growlers.

  Home  

  Sanford Lake & Mountain Town (June, 2001)  

  Big Buck & Alcatraz (Aug, 2001)  

  Jamesport, Lighthouse, Mackinaw, Northpeak, Brewzone, Boyne River (Sep, 2001)  

  Wiltse's (Nov, 2001) & Tawas Point (May, 2004)  

  King, Big Rock, & WAB (July, 2001)  

  Hereford and Hops (starting Dec, 2001, several trips)  

  Harpers, Tuba, & MBC (Mar, 2002)  

  Tahquamenon, Lake Superior, Jasper Ridge, Library brewpub (Aug, 2002)  

  Quay Street, Dragonmead, Great Baraboo (Apr, 2003)  

  Hair of the Frog, Robert Thomas, Grand Rapids, B.O.B.'S, Founders (July, 2003)  

  Grizzly, Arbor, Leopolds (Aug 6, 2004)  

  Sports, Traffic, Stoney, Kuhnhenn (Aug 7, 2004)  

  Thunder Bay, Belle Isle (Aug 8, 2004)  

  Jamesport, Salmon fishing (Aug 29, 2004)  

  Rochester, Big Rock, King, Bo's, WAB, Bastone, Copper (Sep 11, 2004)  

  Black Forest, Frankenmuth (Oct 1, 2004)  

  Old Hat, Bilbos, Olde Peninsula, Bells, Kraftbrau (Oct 8, 2004)  

  Arcadia, Dark Horse, Harpers (Oct 9, 2004)  

  Midland St. Ale Tour, Bay City, 2004  

  Old Boys, New Holland, Via Maria, Grand Rapids Brewing (Nov 12, 2004)  

  The B.O.B., Founders (Nov 13, 2004)  

  Thunder Bay, Kings, Bo's, CJ's (Feb 5, 2005)  

  Great Baraboo, Dragonmead, Belle River (Feb 26, 2005)  

  Boyne River, Shorts (Apr 30, 2005)  

  2nd U.P. Trip - Part 1, Tahquamenon, Lake Superior, Vierling, Jasper (Aug 24,25, 2005)  

  2nd U.P. Trip - Part 2, Red Jacket, Keweenaw, Library, Hereford & Hops (Aug 26,27, 2005)  

  Mountain Town, Sanford - 2nd Trip (Sept 10, 2005)  

  Michigan Brewing, Jolly Pumpkin, Redwood Lodge, (Sept 24, 2005)  

  Livery, Saugatuck, New Holland, Via Maria (Sept 30, 2005)  

  Middle Villa, Schmohz, Hideout (Oct 1, 2005)  

  Redwood Lodge (Sep, 2004), Redwood Lodge (Oct 8, 2005)  

  Kuhnhenn, Bastone, Lilys (Oct. 21, 2005)  

  Bonfire, Etouffee (Oct. 22, 2005)  

  Cork 'N' Ale 11th Annual Fall Beer Tasting (Nov. 3, 2005)  

  Traverse City, North Peak (Dec. 2, 2005)  

  Mackinaw, Shorts (Dec. 3, 2005)  

  Lumber Barons' Charcoal Grill & Brewpub (Dec. 9 & 10, 2005)