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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.

For the last few years, the Michigan Brewers Guild has watched their annual Winter Beerfest grow. Every year has seen the ticket count grow higher, the grounds pushed farther, and the response? Far exceeding the expectations of the Guild over and over again.

There are many different factors that influence this list, primarily of which is dependent on audience demand; who has the biggest lines and draws the biggest crowds. Another factor is beer offerings, what these breweries are bringing to the festival that create a huge demand among those attending.

In celebration of Beer City U.S.A.’s (GrandRapids’) 2nd Annual Beer Week, The BOB will be hosting a craft beer dinner featuring14 Michigan breweries and food from Gilly’s on Thursday, Feb. 21, at 6:00 p.m.

Kalamazoo Beer Week (Jan 12-19) started off with a bang. That is after a slight misfire. My original plans had been to take the Gallagher's party bus and do the kick off pub crawl in its entirety. The only issue was when I arrived at Gallagher's at about 5:30pm the bus was dead in the water, not the best place to be when you have so many people ready to go and explore the festivities of the start of beer week. I hung around till closer to 6 when the driver mentioned that they would need to get a wrecker out to jump start the bus. Minor setback but we soldier on. This is Kalamazoo Beer Week, anything can happen. They did finally get the bus working around 7pm but it took 4 wreckers to get it started. This is one I wish I had had the time to stick around and see.

Hopcat gathered up quite the collection of over 40 unique and unusual beers for the 2012 Wood and Wild Ale Festival. Many of the offerings included were aged at Hopcat’s own personal cellar for years prior to being made available for this event. Drafts were available in 5 oz or 10 oz pours, or sample-sized pours if you asked nicely, which I did so as to try the greatest variety of different beers. Kegs were being tapped and untapped regularly throughout the evening so I primarily relied on the staff’s expertise to bring me out the best available and they did a great job. In fact, towards the end of my visit my initial menu was replaced fresh with a new menu with old offerings removed and all of the latest including “on deck” offerings listed.

Hopcat is already the third best beer bar on planet Earth (per Beer Advocate magazine,) and they obviously have their sights set now on inter-planetary dominance based on this year’s Hoptoberfest festival. 40 Michigan breweries took over Ionia Street to celebrate. Standouts included Hudsonvile’s White Flame Brewing Co. which in addition to their astounding Bourbon Barrel aged Black Sheep IPA, also featured a beer drinking, cigarette smoking “G Man” super hero mascot making the rounds throughout the festival. Although there was no German beer tent this year, instead a booth of rotating taps featured such speciality pours as the Hopcat Rapture Wild Ale and Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout.

Located in Comstock Park near Alpine and 7-Mile, Perrin Brewing Co. opened Friday, September 14th in a truly grand scale, literally rolling out the red carpet for legions of thirsty Michigan beer drinkers anxious to try the new brews. We arrived at just the right time as the brewery was nearing capacity levels and were fortunate to grab a table just as one became available. Also full were Perrin’s outdoor deck and and upper level V.I.P. area which was closed to the public. Crowd levels were similar to Founders or Hopcat on a busy night.