Ken & I found ourselves with a free Saturday and also found out that the DIA had free Ann Arbor people day (they weren’t like giving us away…we got to go for free). It wasn’t a tough choice to decide to trek out to the DIA to see us some art. We spent a lot of time in the American art section and particularly enjoyed the modern art (Ken had a great query: what separates modern art from contemporary art? I don’t know but one of them involves me staring at three red blocks stacked on top of a yellow circle and going, “Come ON!”) section.

After we were done we moseyed up to Royal Oak. Naturally, my spidey sense started to tingle at the all of the brewpubs; but first, Boyfriend Ken wanted to check out the Salvation Army thrift shop as he needs some new shirts. He didn’t find any but I found some new pants (and WTF…I had size X jeans on and they are huge on me but the only pants that fit me were also size X so am I size X or size X minus 2? Fuck you women’s clothes makers) and a couple of shirts. I was having a “Fat Day” anyway so I decided to change clothes and see if that helped. It turned out that the Royal Oak Brewery was right across the street from the shop and so I suggested we go there and get a beer and I could change clothes.

It turned out that changing into new/old clothes was just the thing and I felt better. When I got back to the table, Boyfriend Ken had ordered a sampler for us. Bless his heart, he had memorized the order they were in and recited them back to me (I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I could tell by how they looked…he did such a nice job and it was so sweet). Anyway, I have to say that I really liked every single beer on the sampler. That is rare, by the way, as one usually blows. Here is what we had:

Saison (seasonal): This was an excellent saison…light and fruity with some hints of spices. I could definitely see drinking this as I worked on the farm.

4th Street Wheat: Okay recently I figured out that wheat beer triggers migraines so I could only have but a sip…but what a sip it was! Not too heavy on the banana, not too clovey…if you can only drink a sip of a beer, this was a good one.

Brewhouse ESB: I’ve been weary of ESBs in the past as some just taste like “beer” to me. This one was packed with flavor, oh yes! Sweet but not cloying with a hit of hops…yum!

Northern Light: This was the gateway beer and the beer that my dad would have drank without too much of a fuss. It wasn’t bad by any means but definitely mild in taste and aroma.

Pride IPA: Since Boyfriend Ken doesn’t like American hops, this was all mine 🙂 The beer packed in the citrusy hops but was still well balanced.

Royal Oak Red: Oh yummy malty goodness!

Cream Stout: This was Ken’s favorite and so I only got a little taste of it. Creamy, milky awesomeness.

Russian Imperial Stout: I keep forgetting how much I love this style of beer! This was my favorite beer of the bunch. Hugely flavorful and full of roasty, chocolately malt with a hit of hoppy bitterness. This was the beer that might have pushed me slightly over the edge and made me talk about how Ken should have a Daft Punk party where he puts out helmets and plants flowers in them. It was a very good idea at the time.

I’m really happy to have re-discovered this brewpub. (I went there once with Ex-Husband Jeff but can’t remember much about it). It helped banish my Fat Day away and gave me some delicious beers to drink!