Michigan is starting craft beer out with a bang with competition among Michigan cities inciting some of the highest vote getters in last week’s Beer City USA polling. Grand Rapids, which tied for 1st place last year alongside Asheville, North Carolina, this year took exclusive rights to the title getting over twice as many votes as any other nominated city. Kalamazoo took 2nd place, with Asheville slipping to 3rd, cementing Michigan’s reputation as The Great Beer State. The only other Michigan city to be nominated, Ann Arbor, rounded off the top 4.

“Weed day” might not be a national holiday (at least not yet, anyway,) but 4/20 has been associated traditionally with the controversial herb for decades dating back to the use of 420 as a police code. A couple of Grand Rapids-area breweries thought they would have fun with using the date to promote a related weed - hops, and have enough IPAs on tap too keep any hophead high throughout the day!

Last spring, Brewery Vivant debuted their Zaison Imperial Saison Ale, and like many I made the very easy to make mistake of underestimating the strength based on the drinkability and having one or two too many. Fortunately this year I went in knowing, as my friends and I all believe this year’s release to be even a smoother more quenchable brew than the 2012 release. For those not familiar with Zaison, the beer is modeled after a seasonal Belgian style Saison with a Brewery Vivant twist. For a summer beer, be very careful, as the ABV comes in 9% and I wouldn’t recommend this as a lawn mower beer!

There is no question 2012 was great year for Grand Rapids and beer. A record number of brewery openings included Eastown’s Harmony, Mitten Brewing, and Grand Rapids Brewing Company as well as both Pike 51 and White Flame in Hudsonville, Perrin in Comstock Park and Rockford Brewing Company. Additionally Grand Rapid’s most successful brewery Founders celebrated their 15-year anniversary in style which included the release of their 15% Bolt Cutter Barleywine. But perhaps the defining moment in 2012 was the nomination and securing of the title Beer City USA in a tied vote along with previous year victors Asheville, North Carolina.

The Peoples Cider Co. very recently has started previewing their European-style dry cider at local Grand Rapids bars and restaurants, and I took advantage of the opportunity to meet up with owner Jason Lummen at the near-downtown cider making facility and talk about the new and exciting venture. For those looking for something a little different from the many sweeter tasting hard ciders that seem most abundant in the American market, Jason has been working on and developing his own brand of dry cider since his very first batch back in 2002. Recently obtaining a small winemaker’s license has allowed him the luxury and freedom to begin distributing at a much earlier stage than what it would take a small brewery to reach the same levels.

Pigeon Hill Brewing Company is the second brewery to announce plans to open in downtown Muskegon location this year. Locating within a half mile down the road from the previously announced Unruly Brewing, the brewery will occupy space in the Noble Building adjacent to the L. C. Walker Arena on Western Avenue. For those not familiar, the name “Pigeon Hill” is a reference to a magnificent sand dune that was once quite an attraction in Muskegon almost a century ago prior to the dune’s eventual removal and later development into residential condos.

For this year’s Oberon release, I decided to make the rounds in Muskegon and attend as many different release parties as possible. First stop for the die-hards are the midnight releases, of course, which for this year meant staying up late on a Sunday. Being a work night I was surprised to find familiar faces at my local Buffalo Wild Wings who were happy to join me for some Oberon and some wings. Other Michigan beers currently on tap at the Muskegon location include Bell’s Two-Hearted, Founders Dirty Bastard, and Perrin Black Lager. Area Applebee’s were also featuring midnight Oberon releases.

Put on by the Gilmore Collection, the Grand Haven Blues Festival has been going strong for two decades. This year a new “East”event Chilly, Blues, & Brews has been added and hosted by Grand Rapid’s The B.O.B. The chili cook-off is unique as each recipe in the competition features a Michigan beer, and a variety of breweries were on hand featuring their own entries. The B.O.B.’s own beers were featured in many of the recipes and other breweries on hand included New Holland, Rockford, White Flame and Schmohz.

In 2010, Grand Haven’s first and only brewery, Odd Side Ales, opened in the old downtown piano factory complex. This past St. Patrick’s Day weekend marked their 3-year anniversary, and quite an eventful past year it has been. In recent months, the brewery has seen the selection of brews grow from 16 taps to 22; the days of struggling to keep up with pub demand are now in the past. This has been achieved by moving the production offsite to new facility which also allows for increased distribution outside the pub. In past years, OSA has featured limited run bottles like their famous Morning Wood and Lucid Dream, now a new bottling line is allowing more regular releases including Citra Pale Ale in both the barrel-aged and non barrel-aged varieties.

When the Grand Rapids Society of Beers announced their latest collaborative beer among local breweries would be a series of Imperial-strength brews to debut during Grand Rapids Beer Week, I knew I was due for another brewery tour. Dubbed the Beer City Grand Series, this collaboration was similar to last Grand Pumpkin release last fall, with each participating brewery offering up their own recipe with a common theme, and this time the theme was to brew some of the biggest and strongest beers the breweries have to offer.