A weekly look at the draft selection in beer-friendly bars across the country.

If your definition of summertime doesn't include barbecue, beer and baseball it's time make some serious corrections to your agenda -- like, with a bright red pen.

In Detroit, those properly schooled in brews amble on over to Slows Bar BQ a joint that caters to fans of all three types of fanatic. Just a mile or so down the road from Comerica Park and in the shadow of the old Tiger Stadium, Slows is a popular pre- and post-game stop for Tigers fans. Manager Terry Perrone notes that its primary appeal is the food: "We're a barbecue restaurant first and foremost." Terry isn't stopping suds snobs with a nose for microbrews from slipping through the door, too, though.

With renowned Michigan names like Bell's, Founders and New Holland, Slows has no shortage of local breweries to draw from and stocks as many as possible: of 20 taps Perrone says they try to keep "no less than 14 from Michigan or the region." Some, such as Great Lakes Grass Roots Ale and Dragonmead Corktown Red, aren't readily available anywhere else. So though Slows puts eats first, Peronne admits, "We see more and more [beer lovers] as the notoriety gets out that we are a great destination to find these local beers."

Check out yesterday's complete draft list after the jump. (Got a fave on the list? Let us know what we should be sipping this summer).

While Oregon ponders a major increase in their beer excise tax, the state of Michigan has come up with a somewhat opposite plan to help their economy.

According to the Associated Press, the Michigan Economic Growth Authority has approved "a nearly $723,00 tax credit over seven years" for the Michigan Brewing Company to help with production of a proposed "Kid Rock beer." What exactly is a Kid Rock beer? A beer branded with Kid Rock's name, attitude and stamp of approval, of course.

The company behind the Kid Rock plan, Drinks Americas, claims that "Kid Rock is a reflection of great American rock and roll music and the American spirit, and we think we can create a beer in that same image." And with Kid Rock being a Michigan native, working with a local craft brewery seems like a positive PR move. So maybe this can work, though no other successful celebrity-branded beers come to mind. (There's probably some example out there... Was Samuel Adams a "celebrity"?)

However, Drinks Americas aren't the ones who'll be questioned: They're just doing what they do. (These are the same guys behind Trump Vodka and Newman's Own Sparkling Juices.) The real question: Do we really need to provide tax relief to make Kid Rock-branded beers in these troubled economic times? Actually, I have no idea: I'm not an economist. And thank god, because -- wow -- too much to wrap my head around this year. I'm grabbing a beer. Preferably one approved by my favorite rap-rock crossover artist...

[via mlive.com and mlive.com]

Ladies and gentlemen, shut down the Michigan borders. A 450 pound pumpkin has gone missing.

Bill Teer of Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, spent five months growing a great pumpkin of Charlie Brown proportions. It was stolen from his yard during the night last Thursday, as his wife discovered when she left for work at 5:30am. He's offering a $200 reward and hopes someone will find it.

"You can't miss the thing," says Teer. No joke!

We're still waiting for a series of ransom notes with a couple of seeds enclosed in each letter. Truly, we wish Mr. and Mrs. Teer luck and hope it's just someone playing a practical joke. Perhaps a giant jack-o-lantern will appear on their doorstep on Halloween!

With so many food recalls recently, wouldn't it be nice to have that information sent to you rather than just happening across it?

If you're a reader of food blogs, you probably don't have to look too hard for information on the latest out break of food borne illness. The Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) has got something better for you. You can sign up to receive email alerts for any new Class I food recall, which is one where food has been determined to be the cause of human illness and is therefore unfit for consumption. According to MDA, there was a 56% rise in Class I recalls from 2006 to 2007 that affected Michigan consumers.

You can sign up for the email alerts here. I'm pretty sure the alerts will be geared toward Michigan's citizens, but there doesn't seem to be any restrictions on the sign-up page. Something like this could definitely be worth it. Do you think this should be offered nationally?

Growing up in cities (Los Angeles and then Portland, OR), county fairs really weren't a part of my life. However, they've always fascinated me, particularly the competitions in which people enter their baked goods, cans of jam and garden veggies. If you have a similar fascination, you'll love this piece, which appeared today in the Dan Berry's This Land column in the New York Times, titled Where the Competition Is Stiff but Sweet.

Berry regularly delves into the less-visible aspects of American life and this week features the baking competition at the Marquette County Fair in Sands Township, MI. He introduces us to the judges, a convenience store owner and a retired social worker, who taste their way through every single pie, cake, bread and cookie entered into the competition. Additionally, he briefly hits on the ways in which the state of the economy is impacting the entries into the baking contest. It's a lovely piece and makes me want to plan a weekend to head to a less citified area of Pennsylvania and attend some fairs.

We all love Girl Scout cookies, right? I try to stay away from them or I'll a whole box at a time, but I love them all the same. Well so does one scout from Michigan, who actually broke sales records.

Jennifer Sharpe sold, I kid you not, 17, 328 boxes of cookies. That's a lot of Samoa's! I can't imagine selling even a fraction of that. Apparently, though, all that selling really helped Jennifer get over being shy. Not only that, the cookie sales (about $21,000) is paying for her troop to go to Europe this winter.

Just think about that next time you buy a box of Girl Scout cookies!

When I first saw this picture, my first impulse was to want to crawl straight into it. Check out that bowl of yellow and orange plums, with the sliver of water in the background. I want to be there.

There are a number of fantastic things to do with plums like that. Jam would make them last long past the summer season. A big crumble would be delicious dessert to serve to friends and family. You could also stew them down into a chunky sauce and serve it over pancakes, corn bread or scones. Oh the options!

Thanks to benderbending for the photo

Mario Batali will cook for you and 11 of your closest friends, if you are the highest bidder at a charity auction in Michigan next month. The "Sunday afternoon lunch in the true style of Rome", to be held on August 27th, includes a cooking lesson with as much participation as you want to have in preparing the food, wine tasting and (of course) a 10-course lunch. He auctioned a similar lunch for the group, The Conservancy, last year, which sold for $25,000. Batali says that he offers 6 to 10 such functions for charitable events every year and that most of them sell for around $50,000.

The silent auction closes on August 1st and bids can be placed online. The bidding starts at $5,000.

The researchers at the University of Michigan recently announced that they believe ginger may kill cancer cells. Before you rush out to the store, though, you should know how the experiment was done. Powdered ginger root was applied to test samples of ovarian cancer cells - a type of cancer that is notoriously difficult to treat. The ginger caused the cells both to die and to self-digest. The researchers are hopeful that there is a component, a chemical in ginger that may be able to form the base of new cancer-treating drugs in the future and believe that the cancerous cells would be unable to build up a resistance to it, due to they way the ginger effects them. If nothing else, the scientists seem to be confident that ginger might be able to help current chemotherapy treatments become more effective.

While more results are needed to fully corroborate this conclusion, ginger does have other health benefits, in addition to being a wonderful spice, including the abilities to quell nausea and reduce inflammation. Simply increasing your intake of ginger, however, is unlikely to result in significant health benefits, at least in terms of cancer treatment.

A woman in Michigan has created a line of flavored candy plates meant to be broken at wedding ceremonies, celebrations or if you're just pissed off. Judy Cerano, 57, debuted her Sweet Madness Plate to Break line this month at a candy store in White Lake, Michigan, according to an AP story in the Lansing State Journal. Flavors include banana cream, mint, root beer, piña colada, wintergreen and cherry. Each plate sells for around $10.