LANSING, Mich. — If beer is on the menu at your Super Bowl watch party, you're probably wondering what food are you going to serve with it. In this week's Things to Do, senior reporter Tianna Jenkins got a chance to hang out at the Lansing Brewing Company. She saw how some of their beers are canned and found out what suggestions they had for you to pair with your Super Bowl snacks.
Inside, the Lansing machines are moving, cans are clicking and the beer is flowing as they get ready to stock up.
"It's controlled chaos and a lot of laughter and eclectic music usually," Head Brewer Chris Ward said.
That's the vibe during the process of canning and putting your favorite six-pack together. Ward says they have four different stations, and the whole team works together to make everything flow smoothly.
"Forty cans a minute is typically our fastest one runs, so one pallet of our cans. About 80 cases are probably 40 to 45 minutes for a full pallet," Ward said.
But as you watch the cans get snapped into place, you can't help but wonder what beers might go well with your favorite Super Bowl foods.
General Manager Jeremy McKowen made sure to lay out a map of choices for us. First, if you are making beer cheese, McKowen says it pairs well with their Backstop Bock.
“We've paired it again, as I alluded with a traditional bock German lager," McKowen said. "And this really helps box lagers. They really help with the heaviness of the cheese, so this pairs really, really well. It's a crisp, German lager goes great with cheese."
The beer had a very strong smell, but it's not strong at all.
"No, it's only 5.5% ABV," McKowen said. "It's got some really great caramel notes to it. It's very malty. It's just a really crisp, clean drinking beer."
If spinach artichoke dip is something you'll have with your spread, he says to pair it with their Velvet Villain.
“It's our Imperial Porter comes in at 8.2% ABV, but it drinks a lot lighter than that. Again, really great presence of some coffee, some chocolate, a little bit of molasses on that beer," McKowen said.
Wings and nachos are a Super Bowl must.
“We took it another little step farther with these being our cauliflower wings, so they're vegetarian. And again, these can be done in a fryer in a restaurant, obviously, but you can make these in an air fryer as well. And those go really great. I like to crack an IPA, nice crisp IPA, whenever I'm having anything with some heat to it just really helps balance it out," McKowen said.
He says their flagship Amber Cream would go great with Nachos.
"This is the beer that we like to say built Lansing Brewing Company, it was their first beer," McKowen said. “This beer is just very malt forward. It's got some nice caramel coloring to it. It goes really, really well with a hearty nacho would pair really great with any any variety nacho that you throw on your Super Bowl table.”
Well, that wraps up our little beer tour. But, the Lansing Brewing Company has a wide variety you can choose from.
“We've got a ton available right now. We've got 21 different beers on tap," McKowen said. "We've got a bunch of six packs at the door as well, or stop into your local retailer and pick up look for Lansing Brewing Company beer."
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