Craft Beer in Northern Michigan, USA

On this, the opening of the Great American Beer Festival, I want to tell you about something really exciting that is happening in my hometown area. Transforming itself from a sleepy region where hearty Michiganders partake in hunting, water sports, and shoveling snow for six months out of the year, Northern Michigan is helping solidify Michigan's position as a Top-5 beer state.

On this, the opening of the Great American Beer Festival, I want to tell you about something really exciting that is happening in my hometown area. Transforming itself from a sleepy region where hearty Michiganders partake in hunting, water sports, and shoveling snow for six months out of the year, Northern Michigan is helping solidify Michigan's position as a Top-5 beer state.

I'm currently in the midst of a two-week holiday in my hometown of Manistee, Michigan to visit family and am finding--*ahem*--ample opportunity to "research" the area's beer scene. While Founders, Bell's and Short's is abound in every grocery store and convenience market from Ludington to Traverse City (and beyond) the true reach of Michigan's craft beer industry is found in the most surprising places.

Northern Michigan's largest city is Traverse City: population 15,000. Brewery population: 14. Admittedly some of these breweries serve the local population by means of their brewpub and restaurant, yet a great many more are making interstate and international inroads. While Jolly Pumpkin, North Peak Brewing, Right Brain Brewery, and Bellaire's (a T.C. "suburb," if you will) Short's have been the area's main players for years, the newcomers of Bravo Zulu Brewing, Brewery Terra Firma, and Brewery Ferment are proof that the Michigan beer industry is working. And putting people to work.

Continuing further south along Lake Michigan, the tiny town of Frankfort, Michigan boasts the fantastic Stormcloud Brewing Co. This Belgian-inspired brewery is producing great ales ranging from saisons to tequila-barrel-aged beauties to a Harvest Pale Ale (my favorite) using 24-hour-old hops sourced from the Empire Hops Farm--a farm that is located less than 30 miles away in Empire, Michigan. 14-month-old Stormcloud Brewing Co. is spearheading the Frankfort Beer Week and already has plans in the works to expand its brewing capacity to meet demand and to work their way into bottling their beers.

With all of that said, none of the breweries in the world would succeed without the support of the surrounding communities. And that is no more evident than it is in Northern Michigan. Everywhere I go businesses proudly promote Michigan beer. Small convenience stores in the middle of nowhere have entire cases devoted to the state's great product while the camouflage-bedecked clerk can wax-lyrical about the newest single-hop pale ale. Coffee houses, like Brew pictured above, have a draft and bottle list of Michigan beers a country-mile long. The Lake Michigan beach town of Ludington gives us The Mitten Bar--voted one of the country's best beer bars--exclusively serving Michigan beers.

Michigan has been rife with unemployment for years and Detroit's famed auto industry is struggling. Craft beer, therefore, has not only been a welcome industry but a necessary one. The Michigan Brewers Guild has been the driving force behind that. A cohesive organization with an active presence in the state government, the Michigan Brewers Guild can proudly claim that it assisted in the creation of over 7,000 jobs with an economic impact of over $600,000,000 (£370,000,000) in the state.

Craft beer in Michigan extends far beyond bottles and draft; many sister industries are enjoying extensive growth. Indeed, the geographic location of the state along the 45?parallel allows for an exploding hop-growing industry while Michigan-grown barley is making a comeback. With a new Fermentation Science certification program beginning at Central Michigan University, scores of undergraduates are sure to make certain that Michigan's craft beer industry is here to stay.

I am astounded and amazed at how quickly and deeply the industry has supported my fellow Michiganians. The images of a crumbling Detroit are replaced by a light similar to a Lake Michigan lighthouse guiding those to the relative safety of a craft beer harbor. So, it is with a sense of duty that I pack my suitcase full of t-shirts and stickers. And as I make my return back to the UK my suitcase clinks with the better part of 20 Michigan beers. Because I too, was brewed in Michigan.

--Maggie