Watermark Brewing Company
5781 St. Joseph AvenueI’ve been to more Major League Baseball games this year than I have in several years. We took the kids to Milwaukee and Detroit, I did my yearly trip with my dad, brother, and friend from high school, then my dad and I went to the game this past weekend to see the White Sox retire Mark Buhrle’s number 56.
Normally, J would come with me and she and the kids would stay at her parents house while I went to the game with my dad. Her parents were out of town this weekend, so J stayed home. I waited until we put the kids to bed then I headed to my parents house in Illinois about an hour south of Chicago.
I left Kalamazoo around 7:30. I realized I had the opportunity to make a quick stop at one of the breweries that don’t serve food. If we’re going to eat dinner, J and I have no problem stopping at breweries with kids, but when no food is involved, it makes it harder for them to sit and makes it harder for us to justify going to a brewery with kids.
There’s a place in Bridgman I’ve heard a lot of good about, but they’re only open for four hours a day and close by eight. I knew there were a couple of more along the way, so it was just deciding which one I was going to stop at.
For no particular reason, I picked Watermark Brewing Company in downtown Stevensville.
Watermark Brewing is in downtown Stevensville on St. Joseph Road about a block south of John Beers Road. The building is much bigger than I expected. When I went looking for what this space could have possibly been before a brewery, I found a Google Streetview from 2009 that shows this….
The building is new construction built specifically to be Watermark Brewing Company. The trio that owns the operation purchased the property from the Village of Stevensville. After a Kickstarter campaign and getting some help from the Village Council, Watermarked opened their doors last July.
The property is massive for what I assumed would be a small operation in the downtown of a small village. There is a municipal parking lot about a block away and a lot of street parking in the area. The actual building sits quite a ways off the road, but there is a large beer garden with couches and a large open area that can be used for games or just generally hanging out.
Upon entering the building, you’re met with a giant Watermark Brewing logo on a wall of reclaimed wood from an old chicken coop. There’s also a small merchandise area with the typical t-shirts, hats, hoodies, and glassware.
The taproom is a metal building that’s pretty wide open. During nice weather, you can move senselessly between the bar area, the covered patio, and the outdoor beer garden.
The place was pretty packed, but it was also prime beer time on a Friday night. I made my way to the bar where I found a couple of open seats and a beer menu waiting for me.
It took a lot longer than I would have liked for a bartender to notice me sitting there. The entire taproom looked to be self service from the bar. They have a walk up area that got pretty busy about the same time I sat down and all three bartenders went to work there. It took about ten minutes for someone to notice me sitting there looking over the menu.
When a bartender did finally come over, I asked about a flight. She grabbed me a piece of paper and a pen to write down my selections. Flights are four six ounce pours of anything they have on tap.
I did something a little unlike me and started the flight off with two IPA’s and finished with two stouts.
The first IPA I dove in to was King Prawn. This is an American IPA with an abv just under 8%. It’s a pretty smooth, drinkable, tasty IPA, but doesn’t really have any distinctive characteristics. It’s a solid go-to beer that’s not too bitter.
IPA number two was Murky Depths. This one is listed as a New England IPA. Like King Prawn, it’s very tasty, but nothing extraordinary. I like IPA’s with a lot of bite and a little bit of a citrusy flavor. I didn’t get that from either of these. They had a Tropical IPA that was crossed off the list so they probably just blew it. I liked this one and would drink the heck out of it, it’s just not a craveable one to me.
Next I moved on to the two stouts and they were variants on Watermark’s standard Imperial Stout.
The first one I picked was Peanut Butter Vibes. This beer is listed as an oatmeal stout, but what makes it unique is the 30 lbs of peanut butter added to the brewing process. This stout is is super smooth and that peanut butter tastes sneaks just as you move the glass away from your mouth. It’s a super delicious beer and would have been my favorite from the lot if it weren’t for the next one.
The final beer of this quick flight in Stevensville was Barrel Aged Vibes. It looks like they’ve done a couple different versions of this beer in a couple of different types of barrels, but this particular batch was aged in Four Roses Bourbon barrels. This beer had a pretty solid smoothness from the stout that lead into that delicious bourbon taste that lingers in both your nose and on your tongue.
The total for the flight came in at $11. Watermark Brewing is kind of an awesome place. 
This place is the ultimate neighborhood bar. They have foosball games, they don’t serve food (there are food trucks parked out front occasionally), so dogs are allowed to hang out, and most importantly, there is a big selection of delicious beer. I was actually surprised by Watermark Brewing. I have to admit, I expected a small, hipster bar in an old building, but this place is really a gathering point for the community. A place to hang out with friends and relax on these gorgeous Michigan evenings near Lake Michigan.
SW Michigan Dining 