These photos were taken Thursday, October 6, day two of my Craft Beer Tour 2022. We started off the day looking for trees with leaves changing colors, then worked our way to Newaygo Brewing Company and hit up Coopersville Brewing Company on the way home.

So yeah, while the end goal was to visit new breweries, we did want to check out some of the fall beauty this part of the country offers this time of year, so my sister suggested we take back roads to the town of Newaygo. Unfortunately(?), the weather has been in the 70’s around here and that is not exactly conducive to causing leaves to change colors. Luckily, it got very cold Thursday night, so things should be popping soon. That being said, the first few photos are from Hardy Dam Pond and the Croton Dam.

After getting our steps in, we made our way to the town of Newaygo, and Newaygo Brewing Company. Newaygo Brewing is a brewpub that offered 17 beers and ciders on tap and cask, as well as a fairly extensive food menu which offers pizza, sandwiches, and various appetizers; but as usual, I was there for the beer.

While there I had the opportunity to meet co-founder and brewer, Nick Looman. Nick has a very small brewing system, 2.5bbl, so he does two brews for each batch. While he has lots of homebrewing experience, he said this was his first professional brewing gig, and he accomplished that by opening Newaygo Brewing.

They did not have any wet hop brews available, so I started my adventure there with a 10oz pour of their River Country Pale Ale, which to be honest, was not exactly my thing. I followed that up with their Spruce Tip Ale, which was brewed with fresh spruce tips and those definitely came through; quite herbal, bordering on perfumey without being overpowering.

Newaygo Brewing Company is located at 19 State Road In Newaygo. They open at noon, Thursday through Monday, and they offer crowlers to-go.

After leaving Newaygo, we headed towards Coopersville, which was kind of on the way home, but more importantly, is the home of Coopersville Brewing Company.

Coopersville Brewing is a microbrewery that opened in 2021. They are definitely a family and community-oriented business which was pretty obvious when I met the staff and their customers, which included the father of Jeremy Grossenbacher, a co-founder and brewer at Coopersville.

On the day of our visit they had more than 20 brews on tap, from their C.R.E.A.M. ale, to ciders, seltzers and stouts. Personally. I went for their Dank Face DIPA followed by their Ties the Room Together, a very tasty blonde porter. For those interested in food, there is an adjoining restaurant, One Eyed Pete’s, that will bring food over to the brewery for you.

Coopersville Brewing Company is located at 1275 W. Randall Street in Coopersville. They open at 11:00 AM, Tuesday through Sunday. Cheers!

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