Greenbush goes beyond the usual suspects

Leave it to Sawyer-based Greenbush Brewing Co. to unleash its creativity at the Detroit Fall Beer Festival.

Greenbush, which wowed crowds at the Summer Beer Festival with its lineup of ice cream-inspired brews, didn't disappoint at Friday's festival at Eastern Market. On the list of the 40 beers Greenbush brought were 15 "usual suspects" -- mainstays -- with corresponding "unusual suspects" that offered twists on those mainstays.

So you could get their traditional Closure Pale Ale ... or its twist, Close Talker: Garlic Pale Ale. And yes, it did taste like garlic beer -- with lots of garlic.

You could get Anger, their Black IPA ... or Passive Aggression, a White IPA.

Brewer Jake Demski said the Greenbush crew thought this was a way to bring a little fun to the festival.

"For our Dr. Jekyll -- a variation on our Mr. Hyde coffee stout -- we too the coffee out and put in tea," he said. "For Uncle Benjamin, we added rice to our Brother Benjamin."

Don't miss the Uncle Ben's reference there with the Rice Imperial IPA version of Brother Benjamin, their traditional Imperial IPA. And their Owls in the Waffle House adds maple to their Owls in the Roadhouse, a raspberry porter.

Their twist on the popular Unicorn Killer pumpkin ale is Pumpkin Ain't Easy, a sweet potato ale, with its own back story.

Not ones to run out of creativity, Greenbush also brought a Return of the Wiener brew, a hot dog brew, and its twisted version, the Veggie Dog Ale. Both are brewed with the named dogs and yes, they taste like hot dogs, said one of the staff pouring Friday night. I didn't have the strength to taste that, after braving the Garlic Pale Ale.