If you love craft beer, your celebratory month is on the doorstep. The Michigan Brewers Guild has once again designated the month of July as Michigan Craft Beer Month as the mark their 20th anniversary year as a non-profit organization dedicated to representing the more than 220 member breweries, microbreweries and brewpubs scattered throughout the state.
Michigan’s Great Southwest is the perfect gateway for hundreds of thousands of people who head for the Great Beer State with an increasingly larger craft beer presence along The Makers Trail, adding new craft breweries all the time.
The Michigan Brewers Guild was formed in 1997 and held its first festival in July 1998. Today, the Guild hosts four festivals dedicated exclusively to Michigan craft beer produced by its members breweries, which attracts more than 35,000 people collectively each year.
This year’s Michigan Summer Beer Festival will take place July 21st and 22nd at Riverside Park in Ypsilanti’s Historic Depot Town. Tickets are still available for both days and can be found online at MiBeer.com.
Other festivals coming up this year include:
- UP Fall Beer Festival in Marquette on Saturday, September 9th
- Detroit Fall Beer Festival at Eastern Market on Friday, October 27th and Saturday, October 28th
Proclamations were also recently introduced in Lansing, with State Representatives Farrington, Crawford, Elder, Ellison, Hughes, Rabhi, Rendon, Sabo, Schor and Sneller offering House Resolution No. 127, while State Senators MacGregor, Zorn, O’Brien, Hertel, Jones, Schuitmaker, Proos, Robertson, Ananich and Hune offered Senate Resolution No. 76. Each of the state resolutions recognize a host of key facts, including these:
- Michigan craft brewers are a vibrant affirmation and expression of Michigan’s entrepreneurial traditions, operating as community-based small businesses and providing employment for more than 5,000 workers;
- Michigan has craft brewers in every region of the state and more than 220 craft brewers statewide;
- Michigan ranks sixth in the nation for overall number of breweries, microbreweries, and brewpubs;
- Craft brewers in Michigan support state agriculture by purchasing hops, malted barley, wheat, beet sugar, cherries, apples, and numerous other fruits, herbs, and vegetables grown in Michigan;
- Michigan craft brewers promote Michigan’s spirit of independence through a renaissance in handcrafted beers like those first brought to Michigan by European settlers and produced here by our forefathers, including Bernhard Stroh, for the enjoyment of the citizenry;
- Striving to educate legal drinking-age residents, Michigan craft brewers convey awareness about the differences in beer flavor, aroma, color, alcohol content, body, and other complex variables, beer history, and gastronomic qualities of beer;
- Michigan craft brewers champion the message of responsible enjoyment to their customers and work within their communities to prevent alcohol abuse and underage drinking;
- Craft brewers in Michigan produce more than 100 distinct styles of flavorful beers, the quality and diversity of which have made Michigan the envy of many states, contributing to balanced trade with increased Michigan exports and promoting Michigan tourism;
- Michigan craft brewers have been a successful business model by contributing more than $144 million in wages with a total economic contribution of more than $600 million, thriving and expanding in furthering their economic importance to the state;
- Michigan craft brewers are vested in the future, health, and welfare of their communities as employers providing a diverse array of quality local jobs, as contributors to the local tax base, and as committed sponsors of a broad range of vital community institutions and philanthropic causes, including not-for-profit housing development associations, chambers of commerce, humane societies, athletic teams, and medical research.
The Michigan Brewers Guild is the network of innovative and passionate brewers that serves as the recognized advocate for the Michigan craft beer industry. The mission of the Michigan Brewers Guild is to promote and protect the Michigan craft beer industry with an overarching goal to help craft beer acquire 20-percent of the market by 2025.
Michigan’s thriving brewing industry conservatively contributes more than $144 million in wages with a total economic contribution of more than $600 million. In terms of overall number of breweries, microbreweries and brewpubs, Michigan ranks #6 in the nation – thus supporting its claim as “The Great Beer State.”
