Beer for pothole victims coming soon from Detroit brewery

Robert Allen
Detroit Free Press

If gnarly potholes recently damaged your vehicle, a Detroit brewery plans to help ease the pain. 

Robert Orler, quality and brewery manager with Brew Detroit in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood, shows some hemp seeds he's about to grind up and drop into a "Pothole Season" pale ale being made at the brewery.

Pothole Season (about 5.8% alcohol by volume), a pale ale made with hemp seeds, was brewed Friday. It's expected to be ready April 20, with $1 pints for people over 21 who can show their vehicles were damaged by the notorious road hazards. Orler said the discount to Pothole Season will apply for people who bring in a receipt from pothole-related auto repairs or photos of the damage.

The beer includes a mix of Apollo, Columbus and Chinook hops.

"We're hoping to bring a lot of kind of piney, resinous and even, some people will call it 'dank' flavor to this beer," said Robert Orler, brewery manager with Brew Detroit. 

The release date coincides with the 4/20 holiday celebrated by the cannabis culture, and the special ingredient comes from a plant used to make cannabis, known colloquially as pot. And while pot offers a different set of pain-reducing properties from alcohol, Pothole Season includes none of its mind-altering ingredients, which for non-medical use remain illegal here. (Michigan voters could decide in November whether to legalize cannabis for recreational use.) 

"Everything in the mash right now is 100% legal," Orler said as the beer was made, including 4 pounds of ground-up hemp seeds in the two-barrel batch. 

Brew Detroit brewmaster Joe Thorner on March 16, 2018 examines hemp seeds ground up for Pothole Season, a pale ale to release April 20.

It will ferment for a little more than a week and then spend two weeks conditioning as it nears release. The beer was the idea of Brew Detroit brewmaster Joe Thorner's wife, Sharon, who was watching the news one night and said that with all the reports of potholes, "you guys ought to do a pot beer called pothole," Joe Thorner said.  

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Pothole Season is among several beers Brew Detroit makes on its small-scale system. Among its most popular are Cerveza Delray, a Mexican-style lager, and Abbott Street Wheat, made with sea salt and black peppercorn. They're offered on tap at the brewery as well as dozens of other locations across the region. 

Most of the beer Brew Detroit makes is for other breweries. In 2017, it brewed about 35,000 barrels (a barrel is 31 gallons), mainly through contract brewing for about 12 breweries, such as Atwater Brewery, Stroh's Brewery Company and Motor City Brewing Works. This is also where Kid Rock's American Badass Beer Co. lager is made. 

The Brew Detroit taproom offers about 25 taps, including about 20 carbonated beers, along with a few wines and a nitro draft. Located a few blocks south of Michigan Avenue in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood, the brewery also offers pinball, shuffleboard, darts and pool. 

Orler said the discount to Pothole Season beer will apply for people who bring in a receipt from pothole-related auto repairs or photos of the damage. More information on the brewery is available at BrewDetroit.com

Robert Orler, quality and brewery manager with Brew Detroit in the city's Corktown neighborhood, explains brewing operations on Friday, March 16, 2018.

Spirits of Detroit columnist Robert Allen covers craft alcohol for the Free Press. Contact him: rallen@freepress.com or on Untappd, raDetroit; Twitter @rallenMI, and Facebook robertallen.news.