Sister Lakes Brewing Company
92500 County Road 690Just the three of us. L is on vacation with J’s parents so it is just J, B, and I for the week.
We were all pretty lazy on Saturday after all having a pretty late night on Friday. J and I were in Grand Rapids for the Sugarland concert and B was up late with Grandma and Aunt V. We didn’t get a whole lot done on Saturday.
Late in the afternoon, I asked J if she wanted to take a road trip for dinner. We haven’t done that in a while and we all just kind of wanted to get out of the house. I had another brewery near Dowagiac on my ever growing list of places I need to eat at so we got in the car and headed west.
Sister Lakes Brewing Company is, well, near the Sister Lakes. It’s on County Road 690 south of M-152 in the unincorporated resort area of Sister Lakes in Keeler Township. The building actually used to be a hardware store before becoming a brewery in 2016.
We pulled in for dinner a little after 4:00 on a Saturday evening. There were a few other cars in the parking lot but it would get much busier by the time we were leaving.
The restaurant is a large, wide open space with a hodgepodge of furniture There are pub tables and long, communal tables with kitchen chairs surrounding them. The walls are covered in vintage signs and pictures of the nearby lakes.
The bar doesn’t take up much space in the back corner. It’s a simple, sleek bar with a chalkboard hanging behind it with the current tap list and a couple of TV’s that were turned to the Cubs game the day we were in.
Near the entrance is a small game area. There’s a foosball table we had to keep B away from and some board games on a shelf. Sister Lakes is another one of those breweries where you come to drink with family and friends and linger for a while.
We snagged the end of a table near the door when we walked in. A waitress grabbed some menus right away and came over to get us started.
She handed me a flight card which I quickly filled out.
They have quite a tap list and it was hard to narrow it down to just four options.
As usual, I started dark and finished hoppy. The first beer I picked was Magician’s Magic Milk. This is a chocolate milk stout that they claim can be drank as dessert. That claim isn’t too far off. Nice sweet stout with a subtle chocolate taste.
The second beer I picked up was Crooked Lake Cream. This wasn’t on my original flight but they were out of King of the Raft so I picked this one. This beer is pretty light and pretty easily drinkable as cream ales usually are.
12:00 was the next beer and it was just as easily drinkable as the last. This beer is Sister Lake’s Session IPA offering. Smooth, hoppy, delicious beer.
The final beer I picked was Dewey Lake Monster. This is their big Double IPA. Loved this one….as I usually do with DIPA’s. Would definitely order again.
There was one cider on the menu so that’s what J selected. Orchard Party Hard Cider is a dry cider made from a blend of four different apples. Dry’s aren’t usually her favorite but she had no complaints.
B even got in on a little bit of fun as well. We let him have a Cream Soda. They have bottles of Jones Soda. The waitress brought a plastic cup for us to pour it into so he could only have a little bit at a time but, like his daddy, he really seemed to like the pop.
We started off our meal with Soft Pretzels and Beer Cheese. The three large soft pretzel sticks came out piping hot. The beer cheese is made with their hefeweizen. The cheese ran into the same problem I run into at home where it isn’t quite smooth. It had a great flavor to it so I overlooked that and ate as much as J and B would let me.
There is no burger option on the menu so I ordered the Country Cuban. The delicious grilled ciabatta bread is filled with roasted pulled pork, capicola, Swiss cheese, a house made mustard and pickles. I love a good Cuban and this was a good Cuban. There was quite a bit of the tender pulled pork on the sandwich and stack of pickles that gave the sandwich that extra zing.
The sandwich came with kettle chips and a pickle spear on the side.
J ordered the Apple Berry Pecan Salad. The spring greens are topped with goat cheese, granny smith apples, berries, candied pecans, and an apple vinaigrette. The thing that J really liked about this salad was how it was served. The salad wasn’t spread out in a shallow bowl. It was more like you would make at home in a deeper bowl with everything piled on top. It’s not as “pretty” but it makes it more enjoyable to eat as you can stick your fork through several toppings easily.
We were happy to see that they did have a kids menu.
But B was being B and didn’t really eat anything. We ordered him the Grilled Cheese. It’s made more like a panini with that delicious ciabatta bread and American cheese. I don’t think he even took a bite of it. He ate half the pickle spear and a few chips and the sandwich came home with us. He did eat half before bed once he finally got hungry.
Our bill, before tip, was around $55. We never get out to the Sister Lakes area because our family has lakes houses in St. Joe County. The two times we’ve been to the area is to eat and both (The Strand was the other) were worth the drive out from Kalamazoo. Sister Lakes is great for this area. You can spend the day on the boat them come in for some great beer and a delicious dinner to go along with it.
SW Michigan Dining 