Saugatuck is a lovely town so how is the beer?

Pin It Now! I have fond memories of Saugatuck in Michigan. As a town it is pretty as a picture and a wonderful place to be in the summer. As near as I remember I had my first craft beer in Saugatuck so it will always hold fond memories. I don't think I ever had any beers from the Saugatuck brewery however as it only started in 2004 as a small brewery allowing people to brew their own beer. It was not until 2008 that they started brewing at a new larger brewery. Technically it is not even in Saugatuck, it's in Douglas but let's not get pedantic here.


The first beer was Pier Cove Porter which as you can see from the image has a lot of foam. The aroma had a lot of what I would expect coffee, toffee, liquorice but there is also a sour note... hmmm
The taste confirms it. I am thinking something has gone wrong here. Either it is infected or they do some sort of sour mash. I did not enjoy it though I did finish it.


OK an American IPA is much harder to ruin due to the obscene amount of hops usually used. Singapore IPA was far more to my liking with plenty of lemon, pine and grapefruit.
In the mouth the initial hit was lemons then grapefruit and pine resin. It was a very nice IPA with a bitter and somewhat fishy finish. What (apart from Oysters in a stout) causes a fishy taste in a beer? It was not unpleasant, just unexpected?

The ESB Amber not a bad beer despite what beeradvocate users seem to think. It does not look very exciting when poured but take a sniff and you are met with juicy oranges, biscuity toffee malt and some fizzy sherbet. So a pleasant aroma then... but how does it taste? Well similar to the aroma of course, it starts out bitter and then moves in to the crisp and refreshing direction making it very easy to drink. A spicy herbal finish leaves you wanting more.

Considering the very different reviews of the ESB Amber and what I thought of Pier Cove Porter, I would say that Saugatuck have some quality issues. Their beers do not appear to be consistent. Next time I am in Michigan I will be sure to visit them, along with Bells of course.