Ready to find your new favorite microbrew and hear some great music at Berrien County’s oldest Microbrewery? Join the crew at the Livery in Benton Harbor October 15th, 16th and 17th for their 6th annual Funk Fest, a weekend long celebration of the microbrewery’s wild, sour, and funky beers.
The Livery has been making sour beers for over 15 years, a tradition that is hundreds of years old in Belgium. While area microbreweries have embraced the style over the past few years, The Livery’s history in brewing sours when they opened 16 years ago enables them to experiment with unique flavors.
“We started this annual event as a way celebrate and highlight our sour wild ale program at the Livery,” says Livery Owner and Head Brewer, Simon Rusk. “We have been making sour beers for a long time. It started when we opened with Steve Berthel, (who formerly brewed at Kraftbrau Brewery in Kalamazoo in the 1990’s before coming to the Livery.) When he started brewing sours at The Livery it was cutting edge because most microbreweies were not making sour beers then so he was pushing the boundaries of what microbrews were known for. The genesis of this event came from us wanting to highlight that while reaching more people and tell them about our sour beers.”
During Funkfest The Livery will unveil a few new beers including ‘Mango Rouge’; a sour Biere De Garde aged in oak barrels, that is intensely sour, but mango forward and pleasantly finishes with a smooth raspberry flavor. It’s a 9% beer. Also on tap will be ‘I Ain’t Afraid of no Lemon Lime’, a salted sour beer with lemon and lime, the ‘Blackberry Rhubarb Spontaneous Combustion’, ‘Dry Hopped Golden Sour’ and more. On Saturday night they will tap a ‘Cherry Mango Rouge Pie’ firkin featuring the flavors of cherry and mango, plus graham cracker, lactose, cinnamon, and vanilla.
“This souring process is not new, it’s in the tradition of the Belgian sour beer makers. They use completely wild organisms, but we start ours with Saccharomyces, commonly known as brewer’s yeast, it is responsible for fermenting all clean beers but is also used in sour beer production. We utilize our aged oak barrels that we put the beer in and over time the wild microflora creates a sour beer,” says Rusk.
Simon has been glad to see area microbrews embrace the tradition of creating sour beers because the types of flavors that can be created in them are incredibly unique.
“The complexity of those sour flavors are incredible. Each microorganism ads in its own little twist and complexity. Also, sour beer lends itself very well to being fruited because of the way the fruits play with the sourness. It accentuates it while also working in tandem with the sour flavors to produce even more complexity to create very interesting beers,” he explains.
There will also be ‘funky’ menu items and food specials added for the weekend as well as a great line up of music. Headlining the event for a special two-night engagement on Saturday and Sunday is the founder, lead guitarist and primary vocalist for progressive rock band Umphrey’s McGee, Brendan Bayliss. Brendan will be playing a solo show of originals, covers, and some surprises.
“A friend of mine brought it up and asked me if I would consider playing a solo gig at The Livery, and the timing happened to be perfect. I was doing a lot of solo acoustic live streams during the lockdown, so I have a pile of charts and lyrics for a bunch of cover tunes and some songs I’ve written over the years,” says Brian. (Read more of his interview about playing the Livery here)
Local favorite St. Joe Jack plays Friday night out on the patio. His show features an eclectic range of music from Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, Beatles, new pop, old jazz, and original music. He is usually accompanied by his guitar, loop pedal, banjo, and sometimes friends will join in his set.
At press time the Saturday night show with Brenden was almost sold out, to find tickets to Saturday or Sunday’s performance visit The Livery’s event page http://liverybrew.com/monthly-events/. Space is limited for indoor shows and see website for COVID protocols.
There will be six to eight sour beers on tap for funk fest in addition to some Livery favorites, along with bottled sours and firkins. Come join a weekend of tradition while discovering something new at the Livery Microbrew.
By MOTM Contributor Julee Laurent
