St. Ambrose Meadery / Winery, StormCloud Brewing and the new Iron Fish Distillery beckon Visitors to Beautiful Benzie County in 2016

BENZONIA, Mich., April 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Three unique beverage producers in Benzie County will be open to Northern Michigan travelers this summer. The popular Stormcloud Brewing Company in Frankfort, offering award-winning Belgian-style craft beer, and St. Ambrose Cellars in Beulah, producers of award-winning wines and meads, will be joined by new spirits producer, Iron Fish Distillery, in July 2016.

Iron Fish Distillery in Thompsonville will be Michigan's first dedicated full line distillery on a working farm. Starting in July, visitors to Benzie County can experience Iron Fish's spirits made from locally produced grains – vodka, gin, barrel-aged gin, and sourced bourbon whiskey. In addition to tastings, a full menu of signature cocktails, non-alcoholic beverages and light snacks will be offered.  Farm and distillery tours showing how spirits are produced are among the highlights planned for visitors.

Stormcloud Brewing Company's brewing facility and popular pub restaurant in Downtown Frankfort features 16 taps of Belgian style beers. Three of their most popular brews are the award-winning Rainmaker Ale, Wiled Away IPA, and 228 Tripel. Locally produced cider and mead are also commonly on tap. Musical entertainment is featured on certain evenings.

St. Ambrose Cellars has been creating wine and mead for decades. In 2014 they opened their new tasting room with free tastings of several of their products daily. Their meads are made from honey produced at St. Ambrose Cellars' sister operation Sleeping Bear Farms. Favorite wines and meads are Crescendo, a double gold winning red wine, Secret Beach, a gold medal winning white table wine, and two draft meads - XR Cyser "apple pie in a bottle" and Black Madonna, a blackberry sour.

Spring, summer and fall activities in Benzie County include golfing, biking, hiking along the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, fishing over 50 inland lakes and Lake Michigan, and shopping at arts and craft galleries and antique shops. Restaurants, hotels, motels, inns, b&b's and top rated Crystal Mountain exist within beautiful natural areas.

For a list of lodging properties for vacation getaways in Benzie County and to learn about seasonal events, contact Benzie County Visitors Bureau at 1-800-882-5801 or see www.visitbenzie.com.

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SOURCE Benzie County Visitors Bureau