Cedar Springs Brewing, Cedar Springs MI

Cedar Springs is known for Red Flannels – strange but true! – and for Cedar Springs Brewing.

Cedar Springs Brewing is proud of their focus on Bavarian beer and food and they come by it honestly as their founder worked in Germany for a number of years. Their Bavarian-style beers are under the Küsterer label – Christoph Küsterer arrived in western Michigan in 1844 and was the original German brewer in this part of the state and his family’s brewing heritage lasted well into the 20th century. Cedar Springs have revived that label to celebrate his legacy.

They have a large indoor space, as you can see, as well as an outdoor Biergarten (under that red awning). Regardless of where you decide to sit, all ordering – food and drinks – is at the bar.

I started with – surprise! – a flight:

You can read the full descriptions so I’ll just provide my quick takes on each beer:

Original Weissbier – There’s no question this is a German beer – it’s just perfect, and so much more delicate than most American attempts at reproducing this style which are more like getting hit by a sledgehammer with the heavy wheatiness.

Märzen – Again, a very delicate version of a Märzen (/Oktoberfest), and pure heaven. I’m not entirely sure whether I prefer this one or the Märzen from Gruner Brothers in Casper WY, but who cares? They’re both great!

Dunkelweizen – And again, delicate and just perfect.

1872 Urweisse – I encourage you to read the description of this one! It was perhaps the most basic of the flight, but still noticeably German in its origins.

So of this flight, how to choose? There’s no way I could do a half liter of each but I loved them all. So, on to food, and I chose the Mixed Grill Teller, essentially a “chef’s choice” of three different meats on offer for today.

That certainly made my mouth water when it appeared! There’s a bratwurst, a skewer with beef and vegetables, and two wings from a baked chicken. Everything was seasoned just perfectly and was accompanied by roasted potatoes and red cabbage with a side of mustard. This really struck me as Bavarian home cooking at its best.

At this point, I needed more beer and I decided to go with their Bohemian Pils. I have no idea why it’s served in a 0.3L size – it’s not high ABV – but it is. And it was wonderfully clean and tasty, so far from the unmentionable American mega-beers that claim to be this style.

Now I was faced with a real conundrum – I loved all FIVE of the beers so far and I wanted one more half-liter of something! The solution was surprisingly simple:

Another Pils and a Märzen, and to accompany them, a slice of Strawberry Cream Cake.

I really didn’t need the cake, but it turned out to be a perfect accompaniment to the beers. Like many German desserts, it’s not overly sweet and has a variety of interesting flavors that mesh together quite well.

With this visit, I’ve reached 158 unique beers on this trip. Two days to go!