Traverse City Breweries: Short’s Brewing Company
Short’s Brewing Company: This is Our Brewery
The last four words written above could be contested by fans of smaller, more local Traverse City breweries. In all actuality, they have a great reason to refute this claim, as Short’s isn’t even in Traverse City. But every region has its recognized craft brewing industry leader. Grand Rapids has Founders and Northern Michigan has Short’s. In each example, the brewery encapsulates the taste, the vibe, and the lifestyle of the area’s inhabitants perfectly, and Short’s certainly represents Traverse City and Northern Michigan as a whole just as much as Northern Michigan has taken to representing Short’s when we travel outside of our incredibly beautiful bubble known as Northern Michigan.
It’s for this reason that a trip to Short’s is a must for folks visiting the area. It’s a craft brewing Mecca that was built by and for Northern Michigan.
A Brewery for Us
A huge reason why Short’s is the pride of Northern Michigan begins with their refusal for common conventions. This equally describes most Northern Michiganders; as most of us work in the service industry, we refuse to work for a living in the traditional sense. Rather, we work for a lifestyle that gives us the freedom to ride, run, swim, paddle and enjoy our surroundings to the fullest.
This perfectly describes the vibes put out by the entire Short’s crew, as well as their enthusiastic leader, Joe Short. Joe chose the hamlet of Bellaire as the base of operations for the Short’s pub, and later expanded operations by building a brewing plant in Elk Rapids. Common wisdom suggested a brew pub thirty minutes away from the area’s largest city would end in an abysmal failure. But when the beer is as unique, and the people are as genuine as the staff at Short’s, people look forward to making the short drive to Bellaire to soak it all in, or perhaps more accurately put, drink it all in.
An Ideal Brew Tour
Start off with a quick brew downtown Traverse City. With your bikes or kayaks loaded, take a beer or two for the road and arrive in Bellaire for a paddle on the river, or rip the mountain bike trails at Glacial Hills before ending your day with a beer and dinner at the Short’s brewpub. It wouldn’t be a Traverse City brew tour without stopping on the way home for a picture of an amazing sunset. Can you imagine a more Northern Michigan day than that?
Short’s also knows how to throw one heck of a party. Their Anniversary Party, held each spring, routinely fills Bellaire with beer enthusiasts, and their Summer Kick-Off Party is just as fun. Held on June 18th this year, we’re happy to get you and your crew to the party and back safely and grinning from ear to ear.
To learn more about booking your ride to the party or arranging your perfect Northern Michigan Beer tour, be sure to hit the Book Tours tab at the top of the page.
We’re always up to something here at Traverse City Wine and Beer Tours, so be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.We’ll keep you up to date on beer and wine events in Traverse City, as well as post plenty of pictures of Traverse City sunsets and smiling adult beverage enthusiasts on our tours.