A visit to Ugly Dog Distillery

This past Sunday, my husband Scott and I took a tour of Ugly Dog Distillery, located in Chelsea. I had bought a few tickets for the tour on the website Living Social, thinking it would be a fun way to spend an afternoon. The drive down to Chelsea was beautiful, as it was a gorgeous fall day, and we had a great time at the distillery itself (especially because we got to meet the "ugly dog" after whom the distillery was named).

That's Ruger, the "Ugly Dog," on this T-shirt.
He's really not ugly; he's a German wirehaired pointer,
and "ugly dog" is the breed's unofficial nickname.

Ugly Dog Distillery has been open about three years, and was built on a dare. One evening, founder Jon Dyer was sitting around a campfire with his friends, Ruger on his lap, when one of the group told Dyer that he should build a still and make whisky. Not one to back down from a challenge, Dyer got to work, and eventually created the business that is now Ugly Dog. The distillery is located in an unassuming storefront outside Chelsea, and produces an array of libations, including its signature product, Ugly Dog Vodka, which won a gold medal at the 2012 MicroLiquor Spirit Awards. The distillery also sells rum and gin, as well as flavored vodkas---black cherry, raspberry, whipped cream, and...bacon. Yes, you read that right. Bacon vodka. Scott and I bought a bottle to use in bloody marys, and though we haven't opened it yet, I'm pretty sure it's going to be awesome.

During our tour, director of manufacturing
Dewey Winkle described the process of making vodka.

Ugly Dog is truly a "made in Michigan" business. The company makes its vodka from Michigan grain, and Dyer himself built the stills that generate Ugly Dog's drinks. Ugly Dog staff members also fill each bottle and apply decals by hand. The results are sold in hundreds of locations around Michigan, including several Meijer and Kroger stores. Check the company's website to learn where you can find Ugly Dog, as well as for information about the spirits themselves.

And what about Ruger, the face of Ugly Dog? I LOVE dogs, so I couldn't wait to meet him. He was pretty excited about greeting all the new faces he saw in the distillery during our tour, so getting him to pose for a picture was a bit of a challenge, as evidenced by this photo:

"Let go of me, lady, I've got places to go,
people to see."

 

But later, during the tour, he stopped to admire my purse, so we got a better pic:

 

 

Apparently, Ruger likes Coach products---either that, or he's smelling my own dogs on it.



Ruger is a sweetheart, and everyone at the distillery was friendly and welcoming. Though the company doesn't regularly offer tours (as I mentioned, our tour was part of a Living Social deal), I highly recommend that, if you're ever in the area, you stop at Ugly Dog to purchase your poison of choice. And be sure to look for Ugly Dog products at your local store. Though I can't wait to try our bacon vodka, the whipped cream flavor was also calling my name, so I might need to hunt down that one.

Ugly Dog Distillery is located at 14495 N. Territorial Road in Chelsea. Its phone number is (734) 433-0433.

An homage to the pasty

As I'm typing, it's morning, and I haven't had my breakfast yet, so for some reason I'm torturing myself by devoting this post to that most tasty of Upper Peninsula foods, the pasty.

(I always have to stop and think before I pronounce the word "pasty" to make sure I'm referring to the Cornish meat pastry, and not to the OTHER pasty, which, in the interest of not getting too risque, I'll simply refer to as an article of clothing worn by certain women to cover certain body parts during certain activities involving certain types of clubs frequented by certain types of men. Clear as mud, eh?)

Let's just say that the UP pasty is pronounced "pass-tee" and leave it at that.

I had my first pasty a few years ago, which is a pretty dismal record for a Michigander, considering that three decades passed before I finally experienced its tastiness. The "traditional" pasty is basically a pie made from a round pastry shell folded over ground beef, potatoes, rutabagas, onions, peas, and carrots. The shell is crimped closed, baked, and thoroughly enjoyed by whoever eats it.



Photos do not do it justice. I'm serious. The pasty is DELICIOUS.

No one knows exactly where the pasty came from, but references to it appear in cookbooks from the 1300s. A few centuries later, it became a popular dish in Cornwall, England, where miners ate it on the job. The pasty was the perfect meal for a man stuck in the ground all day, as it was portable, required no utensils, and could be heated on a shovel or over a candle when mealtime arrived. In the 19th century, when Cornish miners immigrated to the Upper Peninsula's Copper Country, they brought the pasty with them, simultaneously introducing the dish to Finnish miners, who adopted it as an element of their own culture.

Today, pasty shops can be found all across the Upper Peninsula (and in a few Lower Peninsula locales as well). The village of Calumet, in Houghton County, even holds an annual PastyFest (which, unfortunately, is over for the year, as it took place on June 29). While the traditional pasty is a beef dish, modern diners can enjoy a variety of alternatives, including chicken and vegetarian versions. The popularity that pasties have enjoyed in Michigan for over 150 years is a testament to the fact that you don't have to be a miner to enjoy the delicious combination of meat, veggies, and lard-filled dough that has become the Upper Peninsula's iconic dish.

 

For more information:

 

Upper Peninsula pasty recipe

 

Link to Calumet's PastyFest website

Why is Vernors the best ginger ale ever? Here's why

It goes without saying that Vernors, which began in Detroit, is the best ginger ale in existence. I'm not even going to argue that point. I've had Schweppes, I've had Canada Dry, and...well, I guess those are the only other ginger ales I've had, but I stand by my original statement. Look at a Vernors can and right away you know what to expect: "bold taste." Other ginger ales taste like tonic water. Vernors charges into your mouth with a gingery sweetness and demands that your taste buds take notice.

And if you don't notice the taste, you WILL notice Woody the gnome winking at you from every can.

Okay, I'm not THAT obsessed with Vernors, but I do like it, so I decided to find out what makes it so much better than other ginger ales. Part of it is a function of where I live. As I mentioned, Vernors began in Detroit, so Michiganders have essentially grown up with the stuff. The story is that, in 1862, a Detroit drug store clerk named James Vernor started experimenting with a new ginger ale. He combined ingredients in an oaken cask, but left to serve in the Civil War before he could taste the results. Vernor returned four years later, remembered his cask, opened it, took a sip, and voila, Vernors ginger ale was born.

Years later, Vernor's son admitted that the Vernors formula was developed after the Civil War, so the story of Vernor's "eureka moment" should probably be taken with a grain of salt. However, from the 1880s on, Vernors became popular throughout Michigan and surrounding states, requiring a succession of bottling plants in Detroit to keep up with consumers' thirsts. (The Vernor family sold the company to outside interests in 1966, and the plants were ultimately abandoned or demolished.) Vernors' market eventually expanded to 33 states by the late 1990s, though 80 percent of its sales occur in Michigan. Vernors also remains popular among residents of other Midwestern states, and has become a sought-after drink in Florida, presumably because retired Michiganders can't bear to be without their hometown ginger ale.

So, that's the story on Vernors. Now here's what makes it different from other ginger ales.

Vernors is a golden ginger ale. It's darker in color, sweeter, and spicier than dry ginger ale, which has a "neutral" flavor. Golden ginger ale was popular before Prohibition, but once alcohol-starved Americans realized the attractiveness of using dry ginger ale as a mixer for drinks, the latter's popularity overtook that of golden ginger ale. Since then, dry ginger ales like Canada Dry and Schweppes have become the standard on supermarket shelves, with only a few golden ginger ales prominent in regional markets.

Luckily for Michiganders, one of those markets is their home state, and one of those ginger ales is Vernors. Although Vernors is no longer made in Detroit, it's a flavor we've all grown up with...and one that doesn't need to be diluted with alcohol to make it a great-tasting drink.

Try This:
Vernors is perfect all by itself, but the Boston Cooler is a variation that began in Detroit sometime around the 1880s. (No one seems to know why it's called a "Boston" cooler.) Here's the recipe. It sounds like a glorified ice cream float to me, but I'm sure it's tasty.
Boston Cooler recipe

Additional Reading:

The Vernor's Story: From Gnomes to Now, by Lawrence L. Rouch