The Haze Craze: 11 Breweries Outside of New England Making NE IPAs

Paste
June 8, 2017
I remember it like it was just yesterday. It was 2014 and I was just pulling up to Hill Farmstead, after crossing my fingers that my friend’s car would make it through the snow the last 15 miles of our trip. Among the growlers I walked away with that day was one of Society and Solitude #6, an Imperial Pale Ale brewed with Mosaic hops. When I got home, I remember pouring the growler with my friends into our glasses and being blown away by this juicy, yet restrained offering with light bitterness. It was something I hadn’t seen before in the hoppy beers I was accustomed to. Read More

Williamston brewery could break into Michigan’s top 10

Lansing State Journal
July 17, 2017
The tropical smell of Citra and Amarillo hops overpowers the back warehouse of Old Nation Brewing Co. It mixes with the smell of the porridge-like mash that will later become the Williamston brewery’s popular M-43 New England-style IPA, which is hazy and less bitter than most IPAs. Owner Travis Fritts has 560 barrels worth of the beer sitting in numerous large tanks each in different stages of the brewing process. Read More

This beer is so hot it’s selling out everywhere in Michigan

Mlive.com
August 3, 2017
Who knew? The hottest Michigan craft beer of the summer — and possibly the beer of the year — may surprise you. It’s not Bell’s Oberon or even Two Hearted. Or the latest release from Founders or Short’s Brewery. It’s from a little known brewery in Mid Michigan, and it’s a beer that happens to coincide with one the hottest beer styles of the year. Read More

Celebrate National IPA Day across Michigan

Mlive.com
August 3, 2017
National IPA Day is happening this Thursday, August 3, and is a chance to experience and celebrate a beer that honors the greatness of hops. Across Michigan, there are events, special releases, and great IPA’s to try all day. Read More

Old Nation Brewery was struggling. Then it made a beer called M-43

Lansing State Journal
March 5, 2018
It’s 10 a.m. on a Monday, and the phone is ringing in the brewpub attached to Old Nation Brewery. Travis Fritts answers. The person on the other end wants to know where she can buy Old Nation’s M-43 beer near Grand Rapids. Those calls come in all the time. Even on Monday morning. Read More

Pilot systems: what they are and why they’re used in brewing

City Pulse
March 15, 2018
If you’ve ever been into Old Nation Brewery’s pub, you know that it is a great environment to enjoy a brew in. But if you’re curious like me, it can be hard to keep your eyes from wandering through the small windows and doors at the back of the pub into the large production area behind them. Read More

MI’s Old Nation Brewery partnering with world breweries for Festival of Lagers

WXYZ-TV
May 24, 2018
Old Nation Brewing Company, based in Williamston, is bringing a world beer festival to mid Michigan early next month. Best known for it’s award-winning M-43 New England IPA, Old Nation is hosting the first annual Williamston International Festival of Lagers on Saturday, June 2 from 1-6 p.m. in downtown Williamston, which is being put on by Weekend Survival Kits. The group helps provide food on weekends to kids grades K-5 who could go hungry, helping in their academic success.

Beer lovers outside Michigan can now get their hands on Old Nation’s M-43

Lansing State Journal
June 8,  2018
A can of M-43 is no longer a Michigan-only delicacy. Old Nation Brewing Co. quietly started shipping outside Michigan in March, co-owner Travis Fritts said. For now, small amounts of Old Nation beer can be found in Atlanta, Denver, Vermont and Illinois. Read More

Michigan’s haze bombs

ISTHMUS
July 31  2018
Have you had enough of hazy IPAs yet? Are you one of those people who posts comments online about how craft brewing is nothing but a hopster’s game, and the real craft is in, I don’t know, harnessing the banana-esque esters of a Bavarian weissbier? Well, take your antacid because this week we’re talking beers so cloudy, they’re damn near meteorological. Read More

CBF Morning Run: Me and Frank (Part II), young emperors, and a hazy IPA from Old Nation Brewing

Columbus Business First
January 23,  2019
One of the more heralded brewers up around that way is Old Nation Brewing, out near East Lansing. Why is it heralded? Guess what they’re best known for making? I had both the M-43 New England IPA and the Boss Tweed Double NEIPA, which are among the best-liked and most-sought hazy IPAs coming out of the Midwest these days. Read More

Worth the Squeeze — NE IPA Sales Remain Sweet for Small, Regional Craft Breweries

Good Beer Hunting
January 23,  2019
“In March 2017 through June, we were making 200-300 cases a week, but it wasn’t anywhere near enough,” says Travis Fritts, co-owner of Williamston, Michigan’s Old Nation Brewing, speaking of his M-43 NE IPA. For the last 12 months they’ve been packaging an average of 1,800 cases, plus 190 half-barrel and 150 sixtel kegs. “We built this brewery five years ago to fill up, and now we’ve got nowhere to go.” It won’t be for long. With expansion plans at brewery HQ and with help from contract partner Brew Detroit, Fitts says total capacity will increase by 120% by mid-February. Read More

Here are the top 12 Michigan craft beers I tasted in 2021

Detroit Free Press
December 21,  2021
If you were to ask me what craft beer styles are trending these days, I couldn’t give you a straight answer.

There’s the emergence of low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beers for those watching their calorie intake, much of it in direct competition with hard seltzer. There’s a stronger penchant for fuller-flavored, but less hoppy brews such as fruit beers, Berliner Weisses and sours. There’s the introduction of the “cold IPA,” a crisper version of an IPA that uses pilsner malt and lager yeast. Even in the world of stouts, we’re seeing more experimentation with different adjuncts and aging. Oh, and did I mention lagers are making a comeback? (More on that later.) Read More