The weather is still bitter cold but we decided it was time to go and visit Fred plus go to a couple of breweries in his area.  There are three not too far away from him in Capac (40 minutes), although, we decided not to travel to Quay Street in Port Huron this time. 

We were all pretty hungry for some lunch and thought it would be best to make our first stop at the Great Baraboo, since they have food, we didn’t have a picture for our website and because we didn’t have any notes from our last visit. 

This is a nice open place with a big U shaped bar.  A lot of TV’s – all of the walls are lined with them. 

We started off with an appetizer of calamari steak this was rated 5+ stars by all and it was the bomb.  Cheryl had the fish n chips with clam chowder, both rated 5 stars and very good.  Todd had the Philly steak sandwich, which he rated at 4.5 stars.  Fred had the Perch dinner and French onion soup he rated the perch 4 stars and the soup 5 stars (it’s great). 

We ordered a sampler and tried the Shark Tooth Bay Golden Ale, Snake Eye Canyon Red Ale, King’s Pearls Caribou Wheat, Boston Blackstone Porter, Raspberry Wheat, Huckleberry Double Wheat, and Happy Heartland Pale Ale.  Overall the average was rated at 3.75 stars, Fred gave the Raspberry Wheat 4 stars. 

Ratings based on our personal preferences - yours may vary.

Nice and full from the food at Great Baraboo we were off to Dragonmead.  They don’t serve food here, although you can order for delivery or bring your own.  We really like this place, as it is small but very nice inside, lots of board games to play and darts.  This is also a non-smoking building so you have to step outside if you’re a smoker. 

They currently had 35 beers on tap (and some sodas) and we were told they would like to up this to 45 (we had heard 50 from the owners last year on the Ale Street Tour in Bay City, MI) – there is always a nice selection when you come here. 

All three of us ordered a variety sampler so we could sample as many as possible.  We like the way you order a sampler by writing your choices on a chart – which gets placed behind your samples so there is never any confusion on what you are trying.  We saved our charts as a reference, but forgot to grab Fred’s chart. 

Todd’s sampler had the London Brown Ale, Erik the Red, Lancelot’s Cream Ale, Squire Pilsner, and the Imperial Stout and rated an average of 4 stars.  Cheryl’s sampler had the Oompa-Loompa Stout, Mariann’s Honeybrown, Honey Porter, Woody’s Perfect Porter, and Earl Spit Stout and rated most of these 5 stars.  We didn’t get Fred’s sampler chart, but, afterward he ordered a Bishop Bob’s Holy Smoke, which is one of his favorites. 

Ratings based on our personal preferences - yours may vary.

Fred has a nice brewing setup in his basement in Capac.  He’s been brewing for many years and has come a long way from starting out brewing in an apartment closet.  With the house he had the room to expand.  He was using turkey fryers to make his brews and then bottling it. 

Now he has kegs that he cooks the beer in which gives him much more room since now all of his beers are all grain. And they now make 20 gallon batches.  To make things much easier the bottling has become a thing of the past, and the beer is put into soda kegs once it is ready.  

We would like to see Fred, who has always wanted to be a master brewer, have a real brewery or be a master brewer someday - he is very good at it.  Now he even grows his own hops and recycles the used grain to the neighbor for their horses. 

  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)