Beer buried in Lake Charlevoix is smooth sailing

Brewer Evan Keller of Lake Charlevoix Brewing Company has some deep ideas.

25 feet deep, to be exact.

That's how deep a firkin of their Shot to the Dome Belgian quad was buried in Lake Charlevoix before they hauled it out and brought it to the Detroit Fall Beer Festival last weekend.

After brewing the Belgian quad double mash with bourbon-soaked oat chips, Keller and some of his cohorts at Lake Charlevoix Brewing got their scuba gear and sank it at the bottom of Lake Charlevoix for three weeks to condition it and "give it a little extra juice, extra power," Keller said.

"It's a little sneaky, though," Keller said of the brew, which clocks in at 11 percent but drinks much more easily than that number would seem to indicate.

"It was about 52 degrees down at the bottom of the lake so it just kind of sat there and conditioned, just let the flavors kind of mellow out and make it nice and smooth," he said.

The firkin was drained at the festival, but if you go to the brewhouse it will be on tap shortly. "Of course, it wasn't sank at the bottom of the lake, but you can still come and taste the sneakiness of it," he said.

Keller and the team kick around some crazy ideas all the time; the next thing spinning around in his head is to get certified for ice diving so they can get an ice bock in the water to make it more concentrated.

"We always have some crazy ideas brewing around," he said.

If you're in the Lake Charlevoix area, check out their brewhouse on Round Lake at 111 Bridge Park Drive in Charlevoix; there's a Bridge Street taproom in Charlevoix, 202 Bridge Street, as well as one in Boyne City, 220 S Lake Street.