Cheers, Beers and Festive Gear!

Cheers everyone!  I figured with all the winter storms tearing through the country I would write a festive post.

Michigan beer – that is what this one is all about – that and the characters that enjoy our local beer to the extreme!  Actually – it’s really just about the characters….  

And if you are going to be a character in costume, you are looking for attention and if you are looking for attention, you are going to get your picture taken and if you happen to get your picture taken while looking for attention, then you are open blog fodder – so no faces have been obscured in the posting of this blog – except those who obscured their own faces while in costume and three guys who weren't in costume but were looking forward.  So yeah, that’s my disclaimer…. 

That and I wanted to find a way to write a post about a pair of shorts up in a tree.  We can thank Shorts Beer for that one  - Thanks Shorts Beer!

Pictured today are two different fests – one in the heart of Detroit in the cold late fall and the other in Ypsilanti in the warm late summer.  Either season, beer appreciation costumes seem to always be appropriate.

Let’s start with our Stroh’s distributor guy – now here’s to one of Michigan’s most successful early brewed beers– the mighty Stroh's!  The Stroh's Brewery started in Detroit in 1850.  We don’t make it here anymore, the company was bought out (by Pabst, pretty appropriate) and the famous plant in the heart of downtown was torn down in 1986 to make way for an office building – but that doesn’t mean we still don’t love and honor the beer – as shown by the happy “Stroh’s Bill” enjoying a sample sized cup….

On to my groupie shot with the Blatz distributor guy, just showing my appreciation for the beer of our fathers and grandfathers, and great grandfathers…. Blatz is also a beer started in 1850, which also was bought out by Pabst, but their old building is still standing and it is not a Detroit entity  – gotta give Milwaukee, Wisconsin credit for this beer!  

I’m going to circle in now on some Lederhosen – which I could assume that Mr. Stroh’s may have worn while brewing his beer in Detroit in 1850 – but I cannot assume any one in Detroit ever wears now – unless you are at the beer festival in the Eastern Market in October.

On to Ichabod Crane here, not sure what he has to do with beer – but he Is festive and he did plan – note the straw in his sample sized beer cup…. Maybe he is a school teacher like Ichabod and always has the proper tools necessary to complete a task.

Ok, here we have a beer bottle with a purse.  Everyone knows you don’t take your purse into a bar – well, the same holds true for a beerfest.  Who has ever bought a six pack of bottles with little purses hanging off the necks?  No one, that’s who!  She is most definitely NOT a school teacher…. She is clutching two glasses, must be a student...

Um, the Pillsbury dough boy is in attendance – I have two ideas why.  One – he is looking to see where all the yeast is going, there has been a shortage and he has heard that the craft brew industry is getting big and nowhere is it as big than it is in Michigan and Colorado.  Michigan must have been closer?  Two – he is passing out rolls, gotta have something to soak up all those sample sized beers…  Good man that dough boy!  

Oh, oh, oh wait, I have a third one  – Three – he himself is taking in a little yeast while enjoying a few beers – he seems to be rising quite nicely!

A man on an Ostrich in red Converse his cowboy hat has fallen off, but his beer is still firmly in hand.  Really – other than that  - I got nothing.

So that’s it folks, cheers to the characters we meet in everyday life - thanks for making the world a more interesting place!  A bit of a visual post today – enjoy – and if you are in the area, pick yourself up a local brew – Bell’s Hopslam is currently in season!  It’s my fav…. And they say Atwater Brewery is going to open up a joint in Grosse Point – yeah – go Eastside!!!