Greenbush Brewing Company

Microbrewery in Sawyer, Michigan, United States 🇺🇸
Associated Venue: Greenbush Brewing Company

Established in 2011

Contact
5885 Sawyer Rd, Sawyer, MI, 49125, United States
Description
Good ideas often start over beer. Always looking to take a good thing too far, we sat down over a beer (or two) and decided that beer itself was a good idea. Of course, not just some easy-drinking, institutional prole beer, but stuff like the beers we’d had at great bars. In short, we wanted beer with flavor. Complexity. Character. Intensity. Not words found in the mass-market lexicon.

So with a banjo burner, a bunch of industrial-sized kitchen pots and as many buckets as we could find, we jumped in feet first. Once a week, every week. Now, several years later and with a 15 barrel version of said banjo burner and kitchen pots for a brewhouse, we’re befuddling the beer judges and converting the masses. One pint at a time.

Our original brewing system has a long and sordid history befitting our line of beers. It centers on the second-to-last kettle ever built by noted coppersmith Fred Zaft, a handcrafted, solid copper 7-barrel brew kettle originally housed in a nineteenth century bar in San Francisco’s old Italian neighborhood. At one point, the bar had been totally restored to its past glory, replete with a “self-flushing spittoon” under the bar (yes, it was actually a urinal). Unfortunately, we were not able to get the self-flushing spittoon.

If you think our beers tend to cross various lineages, you’ll love tidbits like the fact that in 1951, our current building endured a freight train derailing and plowing into the building. We hope our beer can make that sort of impact on you.

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6.8
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7

Draught @ the brewery. Faintly cloudy amber-copper with a small frothy beige head, faint citrusy aroma, adequate carbonation, bitterish malt forwqard taste with light piney flavor, smooth body, long bitter finish. Decent American IPA.

Tried from Draft at Greenbush Brewing Company on 23 Mar 2026 at 01:02


7.9
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8

Thank you, Jim G.
Reviewed from notes.
Bottle to snifter.
Appearance: black in color with a two finger khaki foamy head which dissipated nicely to leave some mild messy lace
Aroma: sweet cream, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, coffee, whiskey and barrel/woody sweet & spiciness, vanilla, and a light sweet ash further underneath
Flavor: blends the prior noted aromas to a fine sweet to roasty character; finishes chocolatey, woody and vanilla-ish
Texture: medium bodied, great sipper; very smooth along the tongue with a delicate spice to hit the tongue slightly, also a sly dryness on the tongue as well
Overall: a very nicely impy stout well worthy of coming back to.

Tried from Bottle on 24 Feb 2026 at 17:46


4
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 16

An endearing light malt and fruity hop nose over a golden brown coloured beer with a fine, frothy white head. A really well blended, refreshing hoppy IPA. Taste profile features kiwi, lemon and other citrus elements in the hop presence. A light biscuity malt combines with the hops for a refreshing, clean mouth feel. Solid balances in this beer. Well done!

Tried on 23 Sep 2025 at 20:02


4.1
Appearance - 5 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 17

A full light tan head on a dense copper/orange body. Nose features citrus hops, alcohol and malt. This is a nice mix of hops and biscuity malt. The hops morph through a wide range of tastes, including citrus, citrus rind, floral, and a heavier earthier hops finish. The honey and sweet malts balance off the hops well. The medium to thick body and 10.1% abv make this DIPA a real east-coast style meal.

Tried on 23 Sep 2025 at 20:00


6

Draught. Clear gold pour from brewery. Pretty good stuff overall with the standard lager notes

Tried on 20 May 2025 at 01:58


7.8
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

Draught fromt he brewery. Poured a deep brown, smoky malty bitter notes. Really quite good for the not obscenely high abv.

Tried on 20 May 2025 at 01:39


7.8
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Bottle from Drankenhandel Leiden. Aroma is roasted malt with fruity and piney hops, chocolate, tropical notes, grapefruit, coffee, citrus. Flavour is moderate sweet with a firm bitterness in the finish. Body is medium. Quite tasty, nicely roasty and hoppy with chocolate, pine, fruits and a solid bitterness.

Tried from Bottle on 07 Feb 2025 at 12:15


6.9
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle from Drankenspeciaalzaak Jelle, Leeuwarden. Piney and citrussy hop aroma with sweetish orange, malt, and a touch of caramel. Resinous and bittersweet, medium body. Classic oldskool West Coast IPA, tasty. I don't understand the low average.

Tried from Bottle on 07 Feb 2025 at 12:15


5.4
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5

Bottle from Drankenspeciaalzaak Jelle, Leeuwarden. Unattractive chunky sediment upon pouring. Aroma is non-artificial strawberries with candied fruit and strawberry milkshake. Flavour is sweet and a bit sugary with solid but not overpowering habanero heat. Body is medium. Not as bad as I expected, but the combination of sweet strawberries and chili burn is another example of 'craft beer' taken too far off the main roads.

Tried from Bottle on 07 Feb 2025 at 12:15


7.4
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle from Drankenhandel Leiden. Aroma is strong resinous hop with pine resin, grapefruit, malt, caramel, touch of toffee, orange, marmalade. Flavour is fairly sweet with a long bittersweet finish and some alcohol. Body is medium to full. Highly resinous and piney with caramel malt, ripe-ish fruits, bit boozy. On its way to being a hoppy Barley Wine, rough around the edges but I really like this resin bomb.

Tried from Bottle on 07 Feb 2025 at 12:15