Elkhart's gaining some restaurants for the jazz festival this weekend. Click here to read more about them.

Bus trips with a bunch of like-minded adults are usually a blast.

This one was no different.

Last weekend, 27 people got on a bus and headed to three local breweries. A number of them are Constant Spring employees, but not all. It was a good group that could talk about restaurants of old and our favorite brews.

Greenbush in Sawyer, Mich., Bare Hands in Granger and Iechyd Da in Elkhart all welcomed our group of people who love craft beer.

Greenbush had 12 beers on tap, including the amazing Barrel Aged LTD, an ale fashioned to taste like an old fashioned made with rye. My favorite was Mr. Hyde, cream stout made with locally roasted Sumatran coffee.

“Man they can make some beer,” said Jessica Whicker during our visit.

Bare Hands in Granger had a variety of things on tap, but the cream ale was a nice session beer.

We were the first bus trip to visit what I hope is Iechyd Da's long history. The new Elkhart brewpub stayed open late for us to have time for supper and samplers. Iechyd is already making great English-style ales.

Many brewpubs offer free tastes of something or samplers. If you want to get a sense for what all a brewery can do, order a sampler and share with friends.

Will we do another bus trip? I hope so. No immediate plans, but I hope we go again.

• I got a lot of responses to last week's question about where to eat in southwest Michigan. Look for those in next week's column.

• Last week's column in print referenced a recipe that didn't appear. That too will appear in next week's column.

• Two others e-mailed about where to find lunch specials for under $5, which was a topic in the column in May. Amy Schini, director of Greencroft Community Center said the new bistro there has some. Reader Bob Kronemyer pointed that Hacienda has a dedicated lunch menu with items under $5.

• Greater Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church served some great barbecue this past weekend. Readers David Glasgow, Brent Graber, Jackie Kern Hart, Lorie Lee and Jon LaRocque enjoyed some free after winning tickets via the Dining A La King Facebook page last week.

Marshall V. King is news/multimedia editor and food columnist for The Elkhart Truth/eTruth.com. You can reach him at 574-296-5805, mking@etruth.com, on Twitter @hungrymarshall or via [URL]www.facebook.com/diningalaking;http://www.facebook.com/DiningALaKing[URL].[/URL]