The 25th Annual Summer Beer Festival featured a loving tribute, spotlights on giving, democracy in action, and, of course, an ocean of delicious Michigan beer.
Summer Beer Festival 2024
The 25th annual Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beer Festival was blessed with absolutely fabulous weather. Temps hovered around 80 with brilliant blue skies and shockingly low humidity. Everyone I talked with remarked on the weather. Even Mike “Brewguyver” O’Brien said this was the best summer beer fest weather he can remember, and he has been to all 25!
To celebrate a quarter century of the Summer Beer Festival, the event planning team at the Michigan Brewers Guild decided to spice things up. In addition to 109 breweries slinging 685 beers in any style that you wishes (83 at last count), this festival included new features such as a tribute beer, double the food options, spotlights on nonprofits and education, and the very first People’s Choice award!
Tribute to Brad Etheridge – Fuego de Brad
In November of 2023, Detroit area brewer (Dragonmead, Atwater, and the upcoming Six Spoke Brewing) passed away. I mentioned not long ago in our Life In Michigan newsletter that the beer community in Michigan is a family. As you’d expect, when tragedy strikes, your family responds. In this case, head brewers Jeremy Altier (Royal Oak Brewery) and Erik Harms (Dragonmead Brewery) rallied the family to create a tribute beer for Brad based on one of his recipes. The result is Fuego de Brad (Fire of Brad), an outstanding mango wheat.
Twenty-three breweries crafted a version of Fuego de Brad. The guild’s beer list noted each offering in their program with a orange heart symbol. Many breweries also used artwork of a summer wheat field with the wind rushing through Brad’s hair which tells me that Brad enjoyed a life well lived and full of love. While I didn’t try all twenty-three varieties, I did give the offerings from Batch Brewing and Fillmore 13 a try. Each beer was summer in a glass and a beautiful way to honor a friend and family member. For a full list of breweries that honored Brad, check out this story from our friends at Better On Draft.
No Excuse To Go Hungry
If you left the Summer Beer Festival hungry, you only have yourself to blame. The guild has been working to diversify the food offerings at their festivals and hit their stride this summer. Serving up a smorgasbord of fantastic foods were Kickstand Brewery, Tecumseh Brewery, Yellow Dog Craft BBQ, Señors, JJ Concessions, Sweet & Sticky BBQ, Konjo Me, and Taste of Marrakech.
If you wanted a taste of everything available, you could have started with a big ass burger from Kickstand. Then skip over to Tecumseh Brewing’s Truck D for chimichanga. Once you’d finished that, you could dig into a smoked chicken sandwich at Yellow Dog. For a killer snack, get a pierogi at JJ Concessions. Follow that up with nachos or tacos from Señors. Keep the good times rolling with smoked ribs and a heaping helping of mac and cheese from Sweet & Sticky. Give the stomach a couple minutes to rest then pop over to Konjo Me for wildly wonderful Ethiopian food. Then wrap it up with out-of-this-world Morrocan food courtesy of Taste of Marrakech.
My stomach wasn’t big enough for the full food tour at the Summer Beer Fest, but I did enjoy the smoked Chicago dog from Yellow Dog Craft BBQ and an incredible take on a coney dog by Taste of Marrakech. Both vendors used top-notch ingredients, and their food was superb. The coney dog was surprisingly spicy and damn delicious.
Nonprofits and Education Spotlight
The Michigan Brewers Guild added a new feature to the Summer Beer Festival by shining a light on charitable and educational partners. Up front in the festival was the Ypsilanti Fire department, raising funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Next door, funds were being raised by Habitat for Humanity under the banner of The House that Beer Built.
As you headed toward the beer tents, the Hop Growers of Michigan were on hand to provide samples of beers made with Michigan hops and answer all your hop questions. Being a connoisseur of Michigan hops, I tried Four Circles Brewery’s Gemini Dreams and Eternity Brewing’s Michigan Hopped Volume 51. Gemini Dreams is a red IPA made with Gemini hops. It sports a malty backbone with a mellow fruit vibe coming from the hops. Michigan Hopped is a pale ale series featuring a rotating cast of Michigan hops. For volume 51, Eternity went with Copper hops, which imparted a floral nose and bright finish.
Back in the “Back Forty,” just across from the Schoolcraft College Brewery, was the Beer Education Tent. I had a chance to talk with Taylor Heckaman, who is a brewer at Ypsi Alehouse and a lecturer in the Fermentation Science Program at Eastern Michigan University (EMU). He filled me in on what the students learn and some of the field trips, which include beer tastings. I had no idea there was such a program at my alma mater. I left wanting to drink beer and enroll in the program at EMU.
Best In Show – The People Have Spoken!
The people have spoken! The power of democracy was in full view at the Summer Beer Festival thanks to the new People’s Choice Award. Attendees could vote for their favorite beer using the QR code in the Michigan Brewers Guild program. The voting stopped at 3 pm on Saturday, and the winners were announced just before the celebratory keg tapping.
Drum roll, please…the winners are Kickstand Brewing Company with their Honey Hammer American Wheat. In second place was Bier Distillery getting funky with Ms. Pickles sour, and in third place was Downey Brewing Company’s Razz Kolsch.
I clearly missed the boat as I didn’t try any of these beers. In my defense, there were over 600 brews to try. As an honorable mention, let me give a shout-out to the following tasty beverages that I did enjoy.
- Arctic Circle Brewing’s Breakfast in Guatemala – a dandy stout made with Guatemalan coffee.
- Stiggs Brewery & Kitchen’s Daily Pils – Super refreshing German Pilsner
- Pond Hill Farms Pondhilsner – An American pilsner whose name is hard to say, but the beer is easy to drink
- Mothfire Brewing’s Resolve 20 – Decadently delicious barrel-aged beer.
- Kickstand Brewing’s KIck Ultra – definitely a smooth operator that you could drink all day, every day
- Ogma Brewing’s Voidbjorn – This session IPA collaboration with the rockstars at Kognisjon Bryggeri is dynamite
- Batch Brewing’s Cucumber Cabana – Talk about refreshing, this gose is beer removes the weight of the world from your shoulders and bathes you in refreshment and wonder.
Beer Community
There are so many beautiful faces at each beer festival, and the Summer Beer Festival was no exception. I want to give a round of applause to this group who were sporting snacklaces with a steak, pizza rolls, cookies, corn on the cob, waffles, and glazed donuts. Cheers to these Guardians of the Snack and all the other wonderful people I saw at the festival. Have no fear; if your photo isn’t here, it is in our gallery.
Keg Tappers
The tradition at each Michigan Brewers Guild festival is to tap a keg and sing the fight song to share our communal love for Michigan beer. On Friday night, long-time guild festival volunteer and overall swell dude Lewis Colon tapped Dragonmead’s Broken Paddle IPA.
On Saturday afternoon, keg tapping honors fell to Dragonmead’s head brewer Erik Harms, who sent the tapper home to unleash Wolverine State’s Mexican Amber Lager with mango.
Music
In my mind, it’s not a party without music. The guild agreed and treated us to a wide variety of music to enjoy. On Friday night, the Charlie Millard Band got things started. For me, this was the highlight of the weekend as Charlie’s music melds rock, roots, jazz, and blues. Hard to classify, but so easy to enjoy. Think of the music of Ryan Adams, Norah Jones, or Jason Isbell, and you’ll get the picture. Closing out Friday night was the boppin rockabilly of The Atomic Bombcatz. This band is pure fun. They played a feisty set of music that capped off a great evening of Michigan beer.
Saturday featured a full day of music, starting with The Stomp Rockets. Playing raw garage rock and punk in the tradition of the mighty MC5, these guys were on fire as the sun blazed down, and we all rocked out. Out in the back forty, Yorg was amping up the crowd with energetic power-pop with a splash of hip-hop for fun.
Great Lakes Brass poured on the mardi gras vibe as they wandered the grounds, leading us toward the main stage for the People’s Choice awards, fight song, and keg tapping ceremony. Closing out the festivities were the Reefermen. They are long-time fixtures at the Summer Beer Festival with their bluesy rock music that shimmers with a soulful groove.
Photos
We’ve got way more photos waiting for you in the gallery for Day 1 and Day 2 of Summer Beer Fest 2024.
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