Muenster Chamber of Commerce Cancels Germanfest Amid Controversy Over Beer Sales
The Muenster Chamber of Commerce has announced it will no longer host the city’s biggest festival.
“The Chamber felt it was in the best interest of all our vendors, volunteers, and most especially our guests at Germanfest, to let all know the Chamber has decided not to host Germanfest 2025,” a news release from the chamber said.
The chamber has hosted the event for the past 48 years.
In April, one of the festival’s primary sponsors, the Muenster Jaycees — who for years provided labor and beer — held a competing festival called “Party in the Park” on the dates — the last full weekend in April.
Jared Flusche, president of the Muenster Jaycees, said he was stunned and saddened to hear the news.
“This decision was made with considerable thought and much angst. For most of us, it has become a significant part of our lives that will be greatly missed,” the chamber’s statement said.
“Party in the park” was birthed out of a contract dispute between the Chamber and the Jaycees on how much of the beer sales the Jaycees and the Chamber would split.
The split caused a rift in the community of just under 1,700 and drew the attention of national and regional media.
“The Chamber would like to thank all who have in some way participated with us over the years. Especially, we would like to thank the founders who had the foresight to start this tradition and remind us of our heritage,” the statement said.
The statement concludes by saying, “The Chamber would also like to thank most essentially of all the guests, both local and those who have come from afar to celebrate with us. A huge THANK YOU too.”
Upcoming California Wine Festival: Discover the Summer Stops and Fall Finale
SUMMERTIME, with all of its dappled delights, is in full flower. We can see that in the powerful sunlight and the lovely later nights, for starters, as well as the variety of produce on the market shelves. Another sign of the dazzle-iest season may be found in the sorts of festivals that are on the sunny-spirited slate. One of those happenings, the California Wine Festival, isn’t a one-time-only kind of thing; the gathering, which spotlights a host of sublime vintages from around our state’s fantastic wine countries, has a tradition of passing through some of California’s most picturesque coastal communities over the course of several months. Spring has its festival, and fall, too, but summertime, it will not surprise you, gets two vino-taculars. And they’re nearly back-to-back, with Carlsbad up over the last weekend of June 2024 and Santa Barbara three weeks later on July 18 and 19.
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THE BEACHSIDE WINE FESTIVAL… is a major draw — that’s the Saturday event — while a Sunset Reserve & Rare Tasting is the sippable centerpiece on Friday evening. You’ll want to peruse either Carlsbad or Santa Barbara to find out which wineries and eateries will be stopping by, but the lists, for both locations, are lengthy. The California Wine Festival in Carlsbad will include Polemonium Wines, Hawk and Horse Vineyards, Mendocino Farms, and Inferno Woodfired Kitchen, as well as several other great choices; complimentary nibbles, like cheeses and such, are part of your ticket as well. If you’d like to attend both the Carlsbad and Santa Barbara dates, note that they are separately ticketed. And if you can’t make either? Look to November, when the California Wine Festival visits Huntington Beach. More information about the long-running festival, including the festival beneficiaries, is located on the site.
Grand Valley State Athletics Launches Exclusive Canned Vodka Lemonade
GVSU Athletics announced Monday that it has partnered with Grand Rapids-based Long Road Distillers to create Lake + Valley Lemonade. GVSU Athletics
ALLENDALE, MI – Grand Valley State now has its own cocktail.
GVSU Athletics announced Monday that it has partnered with Grand Rapids-based Long Road Distillers to create Lake + Valley Lemonade, a ready-to-drink cocktail. Long Road was founded by GVSU alumni Jon O’Connor and Kyle Van Strien in 2015.
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Whiskey of the Week: Savor the Excellence of Russell’s Reserve 15 Year Old Bourbon
It’s funny to think that Russell’s Reserve, master distiller Eddie Russell’s offshoot of Wild Turkey, started off to commemorate the retirement of his father, the even more legendary Jimmy Russell. The special batch of bourbon was laid down in 1998 to celebrate Jimmy’s 45th year at Wild Turkey, with the intention of bottling and releasing it when he decided to take his leave. 15 years later, Jimmy was still sharing the title of Master Distiller with Eddie, with no retirement in sight. The commemorative bourbon eventually came out in 2014, sans commemoration, as Russell’s Reserve 1998 — now one of the most acclaimed and sought-after of all Wild Turkey bottlings.
In 2024, Jimmy shows no signs of stopping, though his duties nowadays are mostly limited to greeting well-wishers and signing bottles at Wild Turkey’s visitors’ center. And Russell’s Reserve is back with another 15 year old bottling that’s already a sensation among bourbon fans and the secondary market. Officially, Russell’s is a collaboration between father and son, but in practice it’s really Eddie’s baby, especially the older expressions, which Jimmy largely eschews in favor of Wild Turkey classics like 101 and Rare Breed. Eddie tells a story that illustrates the differences in their approaches to bourbon: “When I first started tasting with Jimmy in the lab…. I’m like, ‘I get this super rich dark cocoa —’ ‘I didn’t put none-a that in my whiskey!’”
Eddie Russell has made a terrific bourbon, even if his father Jimmy doesn’t necessarily agree.
“Jimmy … he’d just taste it,” Eddie elaborates. “But I always talk about the journey, starting with the nose, because if you walk into a restaurant and it smells good, you’re already thinking it’s gonna taste good. With taste, I want something up front, something in the middle, and something to finish, but I also want the comeback taste. So for me I want creaminess right up front, whether it’s some kind of sweetness or it’s fruity — vanilla, butterscotch — anything like that. And the mid-palate, I want some of the traditional Wild Turkey spices. And then the finish, Jimmy’s big on the super-long finish. This one has that very long finish. You definitely get some of that oakiness in there. Aftertaste is a big part of it to me, too.”
Russell’s Reserve’s 15-Year-Old 2024 Limited Release Bourbon (actually a blend of 15 and 16 year old bourbons, but only the youngest drops in the bottle can be mentioned) ticks all of Eddie’s boxes — and mine, for that matter. And if you love bourbon, most likely yours as well. More than a dozen or so years in the barrel puts any bourbon at risk for excessive oakiness, characterized by a dry, tannic, often astringent flavor. But here, sweet cherry and vanilla notes dominate on the palate, with a smooth, velvety mouthfeel. At 117.2 proof (58.6% ABV), it’s no shrinking violet, and the oaky spice picks up midpalate, but it complements the sweeter flavors rather than overwhelming them. It finishes off with long, lingering toffee and oak notes. It even looks pretty spectacular, with a deep, dark, reddish amber color that resembles motor oil more than your typical bourbon.
The 15 year old is a replacement for the 13 year old expression that’s been released on a regular basis since 2021, but don’t expect a sequel of the 15 in the near future — there was only enough on hand for one bottling, the quantity of which hasn’t been made public by Wild Turkey or its parent company, Campari. At $250, this bottling isn’t cheap, and bourbon fans being as zealous as they are, it definitely won’t be easy to find once it hits shelves on July 1. But it’s more than a collector’s item, it’s a fantastic bourbon that’s worth the hunt and the dent in your wallet.
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Discover the Hidden Gems of ‘Beer City USA’: More Than Just a Drinking Town
A rust-colored tree stands in the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, its leafless arms contrasting with the surrounding sugar maples. Get closer, and you’ll see this is no real tree but rather Iron Tree, a sculpture by Ai Weiwei.
A short walk away stands Eve, a glossy bronze by Auguste Rodin tucked in a corridor of European hornbeam trees. Further still, Mark di Suvero’s 25-foot-tall industrial steel sculpture Scarlatti occupies a wildflower meadow.
Some 300 sculptures — most of them by superstars such as Weiwei, Rodin, Louise Bourgeois and Nina Akamu (who utilized Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches to create the gardens’ The American Horse) — spread across a 158-acre campus at Meijer Gardens.
“This place is special for its ability to intersect art, culture and nature,” says Charles Burke, the president and CEO of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.
“We love to generate curiosity around art for those who come to see the gardens,” he says. “And we love to generate curiosity around the gardens for those who come to see the art.”
Michigan’s second largest city (population 200,000), Grand Rapids lies in the heart of the Great Lakes state’s fruit belt, a region rich with orchards and gardens, lakes and fishing streams, all within an easy drive of Lake Michigan.
But at its core, this city is one of crafters, designers, innovators and artists. Grand Rapids exudes a creative energy that extends from the art and flower beds at the Meijer Gardens to downtown parks and from industrial design to breweries.
Grand Rapids may be best known as Beer City, USA. The city has won at least half a dozen nationwide people’s choice honors for its beer scene in the past decade. More than 100 breweries, distilleries and cideries lie scattered around Grand Rapids — so many that the city has created an app to help visitors navigate their options.
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Local mainstays include Founders, one of the city’s oldest post-Prohibition era breweries; Brewery Vivant, a Belgian-style brewer that operates the world’s first LEED certified microbrewery; and The Mitten, which pays homage both to baseball and to the shape of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.
Other Michigan brewing powerhouses have opened taprooms in Grand Rapids, too, including Holland-based New Holland, Dexter-based Jolly Pumpkin and Detroit-based Atwater.
The city’s robust craft beverage industry has naturally led to an inventive dining scene, too. Favorite restaurants include Bistro Bella Vita, with an inviting Mediterranean menu; Mertens, a brasserie serving up French classics; Maru Sushi; and MDRD (pronounced Madrid), with modern Spanish fare.
These dining hot spots, like most in Grand Rapids, rely heavily on the agricultural richness of western Michigan. The area’s natural beauty is visible even in the heart of the city, which features dozens of waterside parks and kayak launches. Plus, there’s a downhill ski/mountain bike resort 20 minutes outside the city.
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You can even go fly fishing in the middle of downtown, where a “fish ladder” provides spawning salmon with a place to “climb” upriver on their fall migration upstream (the Grand River’s natural rapids were removed in the late 1800s for the sake of river commerce). The fish ladder doubles as a sculptural piece.
Creativity has been a part of the fabric in Grand Rapids from the beginning. Long before becoming Beer City, Grand Rapids was Furniture City.
In 1837, the city’s first cabinet maker set up shop downtown, and by the 1880s, Grand Rapids had become the capital of fine American furniture design. Buyers from around the world traveled to the city for their premium goods. Office furniture giants Steelcase, Haworth and Herman Miller all trace their roots to greater Grand Rapids.
A passion for creativity was so integral to the city’s ethos that in 1967, Grand Rapids commissioned sculptor Alexander Calder to create La Grande Vitesse, a 43-foot, 42-ton sculpture that sits downtown.
French for The Grand Rapids, the cherry-red La Grande Vitesse has served as a backdrop for the city’s numerous cultural festivals: Festival of the Arts, the Hispanic Festival, Pride Festival, World of Winter and ArtPrize.
Grand Rapidians call the sculpture The Calder, and it has become so identified with the city that La Grande Vitesse is depicted on Grand Rapids’ letterhead, its street signs and even on its garbage trucks.
“Public art is such an important part of the landscape of Grand Rapids,” says Kayem Dunn, a long-time resident who has been involved with downtown development projects for more than two decades.
Dunn cites not only The Calder as worth seeing downtown, but pieces such as Ecliptic, a combination sculpture and outdoor gathering space designed by Maya Lin for the city’s Rosa Parks Circle, and Steel Water, a 33-foot (10-meter) blue artwork by Cyril Lixenberg, which overlooks the Grand River.
“There are 252 works of public art in downtown Grand Rapids alone,” says Dunn, who believes the works are telltale signs of the region’s creative roots. “I tell people ‘Just walk around a little bit. You’ll see some remarkable art.’”
Five art and history museums lie within Grand Rapids’ downtown, as do most of the city’s more than 100 live music venues. These cultural offerings represent not only a deep interest in the arts but a longstanding commitment among local business leaders to bankroll them.
Having all those entertainment options within such proximity makes life simple for travelers to the city. Visitors can easily make their way between museums and restaurants, theaters and breweries, nightclubs and hotels entirely on foot.
More than 1,500 pieces of furniture highlight Grand Rapids’ decades-long design creds at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, which focuses on historical, cultural and science exhibits. Hand-carved Victorian bedsteads, sleek Arts and Crafts-era dining tables and mid-century Eames chairs showcase the region’s noteworthy designers.
Other highlights include displays about the area’s indigenous Anishinabek; the history and culture of Grand Rapids’ immigrant peoples, beginning with French fur traders; and a look at Grand River wildlife.
“The Grand River is Michigan’s longest,” says Dale Robertson, president of the Grand Rapids Public Museum. “It runs through the center of downtown. Our city borrows the river’s name. So it only makes sense for this museum to offer a view of the world through that lens.”
The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) was founded during the height of the city’s furniture boom, in 1910, as part of a citywide movement to create a stellar art repository. The institution has accomplished that with its collection of works ranging from 17th-century etchings to photography, from 19th-century prints to modern neon sculpture and from 20th-century oils to still more exquisitely crafted furniture.
Also part of the downtown cultural landscape is the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum, which commemorates the life and service of America’s 38th president, who hailed from Grand Rapids.
Live music venues include the DeVos Performance Hall with Broadway-style shows and the Grand Rapids Symphony; the 300-seat Peter Martin Wege Theatre with the state’s only professional ballet company; and the 12,000-seat Van Andel Arena, all downtown.
Outdoor concerts take place all summer long on Rosa Parks Circle and live music acts perform at venues as varied as the Founders taproom and the Grand Rapids Public Library.
Whatever history Grand Rapids has in fostering community creativity, it’s clear that city planners strive to do still more.
All the buzz these days surrounds the recent groundbreaking of Acrisure Amphitheater, a 12,000-seat outdoor performance venue that will revitalize a 31-acre swath on the banks of the Grand River. The $184 million project is set to open in 2026.
At the same time, work is progressing on a new professional soccer stadium (also slated for 2026), improved public access to the Grand River, the restoration of the city’s namesake rapids and a redesign of the Grand Rapids Public Museum as a riverfront interpretive center.
All the projects will be located downtown. And all of them will incorporate public art.
“At the groundbreaking for the new amphitheater, there was already a place set aside for a sculpture,” says Kayem Dunn. “Every time something is built in Grand Rapids, it presents an opportunity for more art.”
It’s a safe bet the project will include a taproom, too.
This “scruffy little city” tastes and sounds great.
Writer Amy S. Eckert lives in Michigan, but she covers travel destinations around the globe for such publications as AFAR, Conde Nast Travel, The Saturday Evening Post, Hemispheres and Fodors.com.
Three Arrested After Discovery of 25 Vodka Bottles, Cash, and Gun in Vehicle
FORT DEFIANCE, Ariz. — A call about three people who were passed out in a car near a convenience store on the Navajo Nation led to their arrests after officers found 25 bottles of vodka and a loaded gun in the car, according to the Navajo Police Department.
The department said they received the call about the trio being passed out in a car near a Speedway convenience store in Fort Defiance on Saturday at about 9:20 a.m.
Officers approached the car, a red Pontiac Vibe, and saw a bottle of Importers vodka in the cupholder in the front seat.
The officers then took a 24-year-old man, a 34-year-old woman and a 31-year-old woman into custody and searched the car, where they found 24 more bottles of the vodka, a “large amount of cash” and a loaded gun.
The man was charged with delivery of alcohol and unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon, while the two women faced charges of public intoxication. They were taken to a nearby Navajo Department of Corrections facility.
The red Pontiac Vibe was towed.
The Navajo Police Department expressed gratitude to the individual who reported the incident to the NPD Window Rock District in a post on Facebook.
“Our communities are our eyes and ears,” the post stated. “If you see something, say something, and report it to your local NPD District.”
The three people who were arrested were not identified.
FORT DEFIANCE, Ariz. – On Saturday, June 22, at approximately 9:20 a.m., the Navajo Police Department Window Rock…
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New Wine Bar and Restaurant Set to Open at Birkdale Village
Nearly two years after detailing plans for a location in Huntersville’s Birkdale Village, Foxcroft Wine Co. is finally closing in on its debut there.
The restaurant and retail shop is set to open June 26 at 16915 Birkdale Commons Parkway, according to Foxcroft’s website.
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It’s in a 4,000-square-foot space next to Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar. Its patio overlooks the main lawn and event stage in Birkdale Village.
In addition to an expansive wine list — it boasts 40 wines available by the glass and a representation of more 400 grape varieties by the bottle — Foxcroft dishes up a menu of small plates, salads, and entrees.
Read more here.
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Taste Test Triumph: This Irish Whiskey’s Unique Aging Process Exceeds Expectations
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For decades, the Irish whiskey category was basically dominated by two distilleries: Midleton, where bands like Jameson and Redbreast are made, and Bushmills in Northern Ireland. Those days are long gone, and the country now has about 50 distilleries either making or sourcing whiskey. One of those is Teeling, which when it opened in 2015 was the first to operate in the city of Dublin in 125 years. Nearly a decade later, the distillery continues to release some very impressive whiskey, including this new single-pot-still expression aged entirely in virgin Swedish oak barrels.
Teeling, now owned by Bacardi, continues to source some of its whiskey from Great Northern, the distillery run by Teeling founders Jack and Stephen Teeling’s father, John. But the team in Dublin, led by master distiller Alex Chasko (an American), also produces its own whiskey, with a particular focus on single pot still. This intrinsically Irish style is made on a pot still at one distillery from a mashbill of malted and unmalted barley and sometimes another cereal grain, although at Teeling it’s a 50-50 blend of the two types of barley. The whiskey is triple distilled and matured in a combination of casks: virgin American Oak, bourbon, and sherry. The core single pot still whiskey, however, could not be more different from the new Wonders of Wood expression, the third in this series.
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The first Wonders of Wood release was aged in virgin chinkapin oak, the second in virgin Portuguese oak, and this new whiskey in virgin Swedish oak—not a finish, mind you, but full maturation. According to a Teeling rep, the idea to use this type of oak arose after a conversation with an employee at the distillery who was originally from Sweden. Chasko was interested in finding out how it might affect the whiskey’s flavor, which is the whole point of the Wonders of Wood series, and decided to source some barrels. Teeling is not the first distillery to use Swedish oak to mature a spirit, of course, as it has been used by Swedish brands (sparse as they are) for some time. But Swedish oak is certainly not as widely used as American, Japanese mizunara, or (I hesitate to even bring it up), Brazilian amburana wood.
Speaking of which, those of you who have read this column before might recall that I really don’t care for whiskey finished in amburana barrels. That’s being too nice—99 percent of the time, with a very rare exception, I think it’s terrible. But when I tasted this new Teeling whiskey, it kind of made me think of how I wish amburana-finished whiskey would taste, edging up to the brink of being overly spiced but pulling back just in time. Let me explain. There are notes of balsa wood, cinnamon, grape, apple, leather, and sweet tobacco on the palate. There’s a whiff of potpourri, some dry tannic notes, raisin, honey, brown sugar, and just a little barbecue smoke providing a welcome savory hint. All of this comes together to create an intriguing whiskey, with the fruity, spicy character of the pot still at its core utterly transformed but not lost in the mix.
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There’s no shortage of Irish whiskey to try these days, especially from the much better known brands I mentioned at the start of this review. Some of these are just fine, while others are truly excellent. But this new expression from Teeling stands out as being uniquely purposeful in its mission to highlight a specific type of wood, and most importantly it’s really tasty. Try this whiskey in an Old Fashioned (I did and it was great), but definitely sip it neat first to find out what it’s all about. And if you get a chance to sample it alongside the other expressions in the Wonders of Wood lineup, you’ll see just how impactful each barrel is on the whiskey’s flavor.
100 Worth trading your first born for
95 – 99 In the Pantheon: A trophy for the cabinet
90 – 94 Great: An excited nod from friends when you pour them a dram
85 – 89 Very Good: Delicious enough to buy, but not quite special enough to chase on the secondary market
80 – 84 Good: More of your everyday drinker, solid and reliable
Below 80 It’s alright: Honestly, we probably won’t waste your time and ours with this
Every week Jonah Flicker tastes the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check back each Friday for his latest review.
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Ingenious Beer-Pouring Hack Revealed: Perfect Pours Every Time, No Foam!
A TikTok user has revealed a potential beer hack for pouring the perfect pint as he tips the glass upside down instead of holding it at an angle, but comments were less than impressed.
A man has revealed a way to pour the perfect beer – and says it works every time with little to no froth.
User creativeexplained on TikTok warned users not to pour the carbonated drink directly into the cup and instead suggested an angle which removes the froth and fizz which can lead to spillages. Members of the public who were tilting their glass on an angle or slowing the pour of their drink were told to stop and follow this hack instead.
The TikTok has amassed thousands of likes since it was posted two days ago (June 15), as users are left stunned to see the simple yet effective hack works.
Creativeexplained said: “When you pour a beer or a soda into a glass, don’t do this… or this.” He then demonstrated pouring the beverage into a glass not on a tilt, followed by pouring a beer into a glass on a 45 degree angle. Neither worked, according to the TikTok creator who instead says putting the glass on top of the can is the best way to use it.
“Just put the glass over the can and flip it upside down. Then slowly pull up the can. Boom. Done.” The TikTok user later showcased the hack with two other beers and claimed there was “no spill” and “no loss of bubbles” with his method. But some TikTok users say the pouring technique is a germ nightmare and that the froth is part of the beer.
One wrote: “Uhm no. The germs from that can everyone put their fingers on… no.” Another wrote: “And with it all the dirt and bacteria from the outside of the can. HORRIBLE suggestion.” A third user was horrified, adding: “Let’s not even think about mentioning pesticides that may have been used around these products as well. that stick to surfaces very well.”
One comment suggested the foam was needed, otherwise it would cause bloating and add to a sickly feeling. It read: “Actually no, you WANT the beer to foam in the glass, otherwise it will foam inside your stomach and you’ll feel sick.”
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Kansas Mother Pleads Guilty After Drinking Vodka and Driving Before Fatal Crash That Killed Her 4-Year-Old Daughter
A south-central Kansas mother has pleaded guilty to one count each of involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol and aggravated battery in connection with a fiery rollover traffic crash that killed her 4-year-old daughter and injured her then 2-year-old son last year.
Britne Lee Costello, 33, of Wichita, “pled guilty as charged,” said Dan Dillon, a spokesman for the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office. She is scheduled for sentencing on July 25, court records show. Her lawyer did not immediately respond to a message Friday.
Emma Rae Lee Fox died on Feb. 19, 2023, two days before what would have been her fifth birthday, her obituary says.
Authorities have said the girl’s mother, Costello, tried to pass another vehicle as she was driving west on MacArthur when she overcorrected and left the roadway, causing her Ford Explorer to roll and catch fire. A probable cause affidavit released in the case says the Explorer traveled in a ditch for more than 300 feet and over three culverts before “going airborne” and rolling multiple times.
The crash occurred around 5:15 p.m. west of Schulte.
A Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office deputy, along with several citizens, rescued Costello and her children from the burning vehicle. However, Emma was unresponsive and succumbed to multiple blunt force injuries after the family was taken to Wesley Medical Center for treatment, the affidavit states. Her younger brother sustained a broken collarbone and other survivable injuries, while Costello had a cut on her neck and a possible broken ankle, according to the document.
The affidavit notes that a deputy who applied gauze to Costello’s neck at the crash site “could smell the odor of alcohol coming from” her and inside the ambulance that transported her to the hospital. Emma’s father later informed the deputy that he and Costello “had previously consumed vodka straight from the bottle while he was” at Costello’s home “dropping his children off and assisting with tasks around the house,” the affidavit reveals.
Blood tests showed Costello had a blood-alcohol content of .112 less than two hours after the crash, the affidavit indicates — exceeding the legal limit of .08 to drive in Kansas.
Prosecutors charged Costello in May. She previously pleaded not guilty. At the time of the crash, she lived in Douglass, authorities have said.
4-year-old died in fiery crash near Wichita last year. Now her mom faces charges
Kansas girl, 4, dies after fiery rollover crash west of Wichita