Description
Brewing came to the Higher Peninsula within the 1600s, when French fur traders substituted pine needles for hops in batches of spruce beer. Promoted as a health drink, the evergreen suds remained in favor with the British army when it occupied the region. German immigrants drawn in by the mining boom introduced more variety to the realm’s fermented beverage variety, and the primary of many commercial breweries opened in Sault Ste. Marie in 1850. Nowadays, Keweenaw, Blackrocks and Ore Dock Brewing Companies are among the native craft brewers canning, bottling and shipping the malty flavor of the Peninsula right through Michigan, Wisconsin and beyond.