I have an awesome friend. She works for the Michigan Brewers Guild. She has a really funny husband who also enjoys beer. I have another friend who was willing to drive 2+ hours to go drink tasty craft beer. All of these people came together for a day of fun in the Grand Rapids area. Sometimes things come together and make life wonderful. 

Anyone who's been to any event based around beer drinking- be it a Superbowl party or  the opening of the latest brew pub- knows that having good salty snacks is helpful. A favorite of many a beer festival goer is the pretzel necklace. For many this DIY treat is created by stringing pretzel twists onto some twine. I took things a step further an made pretzels to use in my necklaces. I used Alton Brown's recipe for my savory sticks. I didn't even need to double the recipe - I needed 4 necklaces- since I was making "sticks" instead of twists.

After adding the dry ingredients let the dough rise for 2 hrs. I learned somewhere that the best place to let dough rise is in your oven with just the oven light on. It's a warm dry place where the yeast likes to party. I now do this every time I make a yeast dough and it hasn't failed me (yet). Once the dough has just about doubled in size take it out and knead it till smooth.






Pre-drilling holes into the pretzel rods made assembling the necklaces a breeze! Just cut some twine and hang them pretzels on down the line. [Ugh, I'd never make it as a rapper].

Here's some pictures of us Beer Festin' in action!