If you would like to taste the new national championship lager in America all you need to do is pay a visit to Silver Harbor Brewing Company in St. Joseph and order the Tourist Trap, a beer that has taken the national award for best lager at the 2021 US Open Beer Championship. Although they have placed in this competition before for their barley wines and Imperial Stout, winning the national award for a lager was a great feeling for owners Mike Gross, CJ Pawlowski and Christian Cook, who also serves at the head brewer.
“There are three big beer competitions is the United States and this is one of them. This year there were roughly 9000 beers entered and they have judges from the brewing industry that range from, Cicerones, which is someone with formal training on tasting beers, to brewery owners and people in the beer industry,” explains Christian. “To have won this category in a blind taste test, with so many great beers entered, was quite an honor.”
Tourist Trap Lager is a 5.1% beer that uses Michigan Magnum and Michigan Cascade hops. It is described as clean and crisp with a bit of malt sweetness and floral bitterness from the hops, but fully carbonated to keep it bright and refreshing.
“When we first opened people were asking us to brew a lager, but I wasn’t focusing on that, or even thinking about brewing a lager. I just wasn’t interested in it. Now that I am getting older and have kids, that is the style of beer I want to drink so brewing a lager became something I wanted to try,” says Christian. “But I knew that if we were going to do one, it had to be premium.”
Tourist Trap Lager has been on tap at Silver Harbor for three year now and just this year they have started distributing it regionally. Currently Silver Harbor has eight of their beers in distribution.
Open since 2016 the owners chose St. Joseph as their base of operations after looking in Kalamazoo and other cities in Southwest Michigan.
“We looked everywhere and after realizing there wasn’t a St. Joseph based microbrewery, and finding the perfect piece of real estate, it seemed to fall right into place. The city seemed prime for one,” says Christian. “We all agreed this would be a good home base.”
Since then Silver Harbor Brewing Company has expanded the property to include a beer garden and is currently building a large-group event venue adjac
ent to the building for weddings, graduation parties, reunions, or any event that needs a space for up to 250 people.
“We want to create an experience where everyone can enjoy Silver Harbor and feel welcome, this space was the next evolution,” explains Christian. “We do a bit of everything at Silver Harbor. Our food menu tries to hit all different levels from burgers, and gourmet items, to vegetarian options. If you are not a beer drinker we have wine, cider, spirits, non-alcoholic options, and are working on creating a hard seltzer,” says Christian. “But we also cater to families. Which may not appeal to some people but this is a family town and we want to be a place everyone can come and enjoy spending time together.”
Silver Harbor Brewing Company is located at 721 Pleasant Street in St Joseph, MI. To see their beer and food menu, and their hours of operation visit silverharborbrewing.com or call (269) 281-7100.
