Let it never be said that you, the people of the greater Grand Rapids area, don’t have a song in your heart. We learned beyond a shadow of a doubt this past weekend that we’re all a musical lot indeed, what with the turnout to Open Mic with Ditty Wish and the subsequent Klockow Bar Sing!
Btw, we appreciate that no one actually told any dirty jokes on stage for Open Mic, though we’re always thankful for a decent dad joke or two (which we did get). But yeah, gotta love open mic, what with our faithful monthly regulars who always put on a hell of a show, as well as all the new folks. Especially when they perform original folk songs about poop and mortality (let’s just say you had to be there). So we knew full well that the first part of Sunday would be good for a fun crowd, but we were happy to see the amount of people who stuck around for the pseudo-debut of the Klockow Bar Sing! We technically started it last month with a group sing of Christmas carols, but that just kind of feels like something different, you know. Getting together to sing around the holidays is still something people often do. But the rest of the year? Woefully silent, we are. Which is why we’re trying to change that. Lead by Ditty Wish, with the Beer Choir Hymnal as our guide, the bar sing went great! We even got a nice compliment on our taproom vibe. I mean, let’s face it, belting out a song leads to some good feelings.
Be sure to check out the Klockow Bar sing on the last Sunday of February, starting at 4 p.m.!
Though we admit, maybe not every person wants to come to a bar to sing. Maybe you just wanna work out. And we get that. Which is why we’re so pumped to have Kelly Erickson back for Brewery Yoga with Kelly this Saturday, Feb. 1, at 10 a.m. Even if you’ve slacked on your New Years resolution, that’s no reason to give up entirely, so we’ll make sure to have a space ready for you!
Or maybe, just maybe, you only want to come here to have a drink. Perfect, because we have drinks a-plenty! Not only that, but we’re excited to be partnering with the Grand Rapids Players for their Orient Express Passport: A Spirited Itinerary. With their newest production, Murder on the Orient Express opening on Feb. 21, the play has reached out to area bars and breweries and challenged them to make a custom drink for the play, as well as to have a passport available for anyone who wants to try to hit all six locations for a chance to win a $100 gift card to Wildflower Bookshop! For here at Klockow, come and enjoy The Poirot, a Belgian Tripel with a mystery. That’s right, our drink is named after the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, so to add to the intrigue, in addition to a Billy Bumbler Belgian Tripel, you’ll be given a 5 oz pour of a beer, bartender’s choice, which you will be challenged to name. If you solve the mystery, you’ll win another 5 oz beer, this time of your choice.
This could be a good thing to order this Sunday for the next installment of Beer & BS! This month, John Schroeder, director of Murder on the Orient Express, will be giving a talk on the different aspects of directing a play, from casting, to set building, to marketing, etc. There’s no business like show business, and we’ll have a seasoned veteran of the stage to come talk about what it’s like to put on a show. For the beer special, John has named Supply Line Hazy IPA as his favorite, so come get a pint that for only $5 all that day. Talk starts at 2 p.m. on Sunday, February 2.
We Barley Know You, But We Hop to Change That. It’s the Yeast We Can Do: Kelly Erickson
Question: How long have you been a regular here, and/or done yoga here?
Kelly Erickson: I’ve been a regular here at least three and a half years, since I moved here. I’m a transplant. But I knew about Klockow before I moved because Joel, my partner, lived here already. So we’d come to Klockow several times before then. So I don’t want to claim that I was a regular before I moved.
And then we started doing yoga… I dunno. I moved here in May and I want to say I started in October, so within five months. It was that first winter that I was here. So it was pretty quickly.
Q: But it’s been off and on?
KE: Yep, it’s more seasonal, I would say. In the summer, everyone’s busy, so we tend to take the summer off. So we’ll start in the fall and go through maybe May.
Q: How long have you been teaching yoga?
KE: Since 2016, so about eight years. I started when I was living down in the cities, at Core Power. It’s a chain studio. There’s quite a few of them. But they have a very specific type of deal; it’s a little more intense, it’s in the heat. But I’ve done my own studies through other teachers. Like I’ve studied yin yoga, which is much more passive. If power yoga is on one end of the spectrum, then yin yoga would be on the other because you just lay in one position. But it’s difficult in it’s own right because you have to hold a position for like five minutes. So anyway, I like to try and combine the two to have some more time on your mat but also working into these more intense postures, more flow, where you’re moving a lot more.
Q: What is your favorite Klockow beer?
KE: I’m a seasonal person. I definitely like to rotate through the beers. I know that Beatrice (Irish Red) is an upcoming one, so I’ll definitely be on the Beatrice train. Spawn (Pilsner) in the spring and summer. So I don’t have one true favorite.
Q: When you’re not drinking Klockow beer, what do you like to drink? Doesn’t have to be alcohol.
KE: Joel has gotten me more into whiskey, on the alcohol front. Otherwise I’m more of a pure water kind of person. Just hydrate. I don’t do it enough in general.
Q: Don’t we all! Ok, so whether it’s whiskey or Klockow beer or water, what’s your favorite food that all this stuff could wash down?
KE: Ooh, great question. Um, I predominantly eat plant-based, so I love a good taco bowl or bean burrito. Those are really easy to just throw together. Joel and I have gotten really into curries. We like to try to make things that we can’t get in town. That’s really what we’re after.
Q: That’s always a good way to go about it.
KE: Yeah, so right now, I’d say a curry with a lot of veggies it. It’s also soup season, so…
Kelly Erickson
Q: What do you do for work?
KE: Also great question. I… it’s gonna be a long answer. I work for Warner Music Group in tech. I design products and tools that people working in the music industry use to do their job.
Q: What would be a brief example of what that means?
KE: One of the main tools I work on is this dashboard, essentially, where people who work in the music industry — they’re managing releases and different songs for people — it helps them move that song and the data to different streaming services: Spotify, Apple Music. So getting the music out in the world, essentially, and making sure the data is flowing in the right direction, so that in return, the data flows back and people get paid!
So I helped build that tool and refine it so that it’s easier to use and works as intended.
Q: We’ve talked about a lot of things you do, but they’re all work. What do you like to do for fun?
KE: Believe it or not, I do like to do yoga for fun.
Q: That’s a perfectly believable thing!
KE: I have a dog, Ginger, and I’ll take her on walks all the time. So getting outside, get in the woods. Now that we have snow, we finally went skiing yesterday. Looking forward to that. And I like to curl. Big in the curling community here. That’s super fun. Started doing pottery recently in the last year!
Q: Just at the MacRostie?
KE: Yep, they have a studio there, so I took a class there last April and have been hooked ever since.
Q: I’ve heard it’s a gateway art.
KE: It is, for sure! It’s so mindful! I see a lot of parallels between pottery and yoga, because you get into this flow state where you’re not really thinking about anything else. You’re not thinking about work. You’re not thinking about your to-do list. You’re just like, I’m here. Just doing this thing, with my body or with my hands.
Q: What would be a fun/interesting fact about yourself that people might not know?
KE: I don’t know if I have an answer. I feel like I’m a pretty open book. I mean, I did say that I’m in the curling community; I am the vice president of the curling club. I’m only in my third year, and I’m already vice president.
Q: You’re a climber!
KE: It wasn’t intentional. I said no several times. Then they asked again and it turned into a yes.
Q: Last question: would you rather fight 50 chicken-sized donkeys or one donkey-sized chicken? And why?
KE: You know, chickens are related to dinosaurs, so I feel like a donkey-sized chicken is essentially a dinosaur that I’m now fighting. And those have wings. So I feel like I might have more success against the 50 chicken-sized donkeys. Yeah, I think that’s my answer.
Q: And this doesn’t necessarily have to be with your bare hands. I’m assuming there’s a farm setting, so there’s whatever you might find in the barn too. If that changes anything.
KE: No, I’d keep it the same, because even if I have, like, a pitchfork or — I was going to say something gruesome like a chainsaw — I think I still fair better against the donkeys. Once again, the chicken, they have wings, and they can be pretty ferocious. So I feel like the donkeys… I might be able to manipulate them. I feel like I could manipulate the donkeys easier, like with a treat, than the chicken.
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Thanks for checking out our humble little brewery! As long as you keep coming by, we’ll do our part by making the best damn beer possible and serving it in our always inviting atmosphere.
The Klockow Staff
Beer drops this past week:
Local, etc -
Timberlake Lodge - Grand Rapids
Smoke on the Water - Coleraine
Raven Stone - Coleraine
SuperOne Liquor - Grand Rapids
Sammy’s - Grand Rapids
Pokegama Plaza Liquor - Grand Rapids
Pokegama Lake Store - Grand Rapids
Itasca Curling Association - Grand Rapids
Ron’s Korner Market - Bovey
Balsam Store - Bovey
Iron Range, etc. -
MJ’s Resort - Pengilly
Marge’s Liquor - Eveleth
SuperOne Liquor - Hibbing
Sawmill Saloon - Virginia
SuperOne Foods North - Virginia
Silver Creek Liquor - Virginia
Crossroads Convenience Store - Iron
Ely, etc. -
Ely Liquor - Ely
Boathouse Brewery - Ely