Homebrew Beer Blog

Downtown Grand Rapids has a new tap room called the HopCat. It opened earlier this year. We made a trip over there to check things out.

The place is pretty cool. Check out the . The owners obviously put a lot of work into the place. Even the bathrooms have tons detail. HopCat features 48 beers on tap, and 150 in bottles. And no, the selection isn’t dominated by light lagers. They have great selection of Michigan beers, with other domestics and international selections. I tried a bunch, and settled in on a Rodenbach. Gotta love Rodenbach on tap. I had an email that said they had also Aventinus on tap, but unfortunately they did not.

The Rodenbach was Rodenbach Klassiek, and I’ve been wondering what to do with my Flander’s Red. I think I like the Grand Cru Rodenbach much more, the Klassiek is blended with fresh beer, and it got pretty sweet half way through the pint. I like the tart refreshing Grand Cru better, so I think I’ll leave my Flanders unblended.

Anyway, they are also planning an in-house small batch brewing system for guest brewers. At the end of May they’re running a homebrew competition for a spot on their lineup. When I was there, I saw the glassed off room toward the back where I assume the brewing system will reside. This is a pretty cool feature/promotion.

They offer free tasters of beers on tap. Karl at the Red Salamander told me they offer small 4oz tasters for a fee, but only offered the free shots. The little shots are nice to pick out a pint, but I kind of like the flights of mini glasses to experience as much as I can without falling off the stool.
So yeah, HopCat is should be a stop for any beer lover.