Much like yeast and sugar come together to make delicious brews, mead, cider, and beer makers in Michigan pair with other local businesses to offer a complete culinary experience.
Brewing can be expressed in so many distinct styles, from malty porters to bone-dry ciders, that it’s easy to find a perfect pairing with a range of foods. When asked, brewers suggest aiming for rich foods with a high fat content, like cheese or pizza, with the carbonation and acidity in brewed beverages cutting through creamy or heavy foods. Beyond that, spicy foods are great with ciders and beer, which help dial down the heat.
But when it comes to offering these rich or spicy foods, some breweries stick to their lanes and let the chefs cook (pun intended). At Bløm Mead + Cider in Ann Arbor, the owners behind the meads, ciders, and taproom, Lauren Bloom and Matt Ritchey, choose to showcase local options due to space and bandwidth. In a small kitchen, offering their signature cheese plate makes more sense than running a sandwich line, and allows them the opportunity to work with values-aligned food business partners. Jake’s Country Meats, Idyll Farms, Mindo Chocolate, Zingerman’s Creamery, KC Bakery, and The Brinery have all been featured on the menu. Ellen’s Fine Goods fills out the rest of the menu with warm prepared foods, like potato cheddar spinach hand pies.
At Earthen Ales in Traverse City, co-owners Jamie and Andrew Kidwell-Brix also choose to focus on the beer side, in part because of their proximity to beloved local restaurants such as Spanglish, all located in the Grand Traverse Commons. Beyond what is already established in this shopping and dining district, the brewery features food trucks that have become restaurant staples in the community, like Archie’s or Heart and Seoul, which will soon open Three Pigs Korean BBQ in the downtown Warehouse District.
Earthen Ales also partners with the Cheese Lady for guided pairings, such as an IPA and bleu cheese tasting, which helps eaters experience the joy in previously undiscovered preferences. “Beer tastes so different with food, and sometimes you can build a bridge for a person to a beer or a food that they maybe wouldn’t have tried otherwise,” explains Kidwell-Brix. In fact, beer drinkers have the opportunity to pair their beverage with chocolate from Grocer’s Daughter, coffee from Higher Grounds Trading Company, music from local NPR station IPR (Interlochen Public Radio), and even nature soundscapes with the Grand Traverse Conservation District.
The duo behind Earthen Ales is passionate about using their brewery to launch other delicious ventures in this Northern Michigan culinary hub. They’re in the beginning stages of creating an incubator truck, where specialty food makers, budding restaurateurs, and well-established chefs can hone in on culinary concepts, find new customers, and learn valuable lessons about the day-to-day operations of a truck. Thanks to grant funding from 20Fathoms, they will also be able to streamline food orders for these pop-ups through their point-of-sale system, making the incubator as plug-and-play as possible.
Partnerships shine in breweries and meaderies in Michigan – from sourcing raw ingredients for fresh flavors to creating space on the table to work with folks making memorable food experiences. Want to try for yourself? Head over to Bløm for a late winter cheesecake with apple cardamom crumble, paired perfectly with their Pear Ginger Cider. That superstar cheese plate? Order yours with a Black Currant Mead, which has an acidity that will cleanse the palate with every sip.