This Week's Beer News: Beer City Stays Midwestern
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Grand Rapids Retains its “Beer City” title for another trip around the sun.
At least according to readers of USAToday’s 10Best.com, which voted to give them the title for the fifth consecutive year. Elsewhere nearby, GR’s City Built Brewing was voted as having the 2nd-best beer label in the nation while two of the nation’s three best beer gardens are also based in Michigan: Hop Lot in Suttons Bay and Watermark in Stevensville.
The winning beer garden, at Henmick Farm & Brewery in Delaware, Ohio, looks pretty nice too. The midwest is a great place to drink a beer outdoors, it seems.
Elsewhere around the Midwest, Lua Brewing Co. in Des Moines is the nation’s best brewpub, STL is the nation’s 2nd-best beer city and has one of the best beer bars (in the form of the Side Project taproom). It does seem like they mixed htings up a bit this year in some categories - the nation’s second best beer bar this year per these awards? The Ohio Taproom in Columbus. No Hopleaf, no El Bait Shop, no Holy Grale, no Map Room, but a number of places I was unfamiliar with - and would definitely be happy to pay a visit to.
All the winners can be found here. It’s fun to poke through just to find a few other beer-y things you might not know about - I didn’t see the #1 beer festival coming, for example.
Since we’re extremely light on Chicago beer news this week, we’ll also note that Forbidden Root was named the nation’s 6th-best brewpub in the 10Best awards.
In Silvis (just outside the Quad Cities), Punk Rock Pizza & Brewery is now closed as of Saturday.
Happy 2nd birthday to Mississippi Culture Brewing in Staunton.
Marketing and events company Indiana On Tap was sold to a new owner for a multi-million dollar price tag so the founder could run his baseball team.
Big Grove Brewing has introduced a new Neighborhood Beer which will help fund its micro-grant program. Love the green and gold on this label.
Huxley’s Fenceline Beer Lab is up for sale.
In non-10Best news, Bell’s announced the release of Oberon Light as part of their Oberon Day celebrations later this month.
WOOD-TV reported on the closing of Creston Brewery, as the neighborhood wonders, “What’s next?”.
Meanwhile, MLive reported on today’s auction at 3 Gatos Brewery, which closed last month.
Traverse City was also named the fourth-best small town brewery scene by USAToday, and the Lansing State Journal has a short list of things you should try if/when you visit.
Also in northern Michigan, the Northern Express asks: Why aren’t any breweries up here doing NA beers? (Answer: They’re hard to make! And expensive!)
In Troy, Loaded Dice Brewery closed on Friday.
The Star-Tribune previewed Saturday’s Bockfest at Schells. (Paywalled.)
The latest regional brewery to introduce a light beer is Boulevard.
The new food partner for 4 Hands Brewing in STL is the Hi-Pointe Drive-In.
The Brew Kettle’s eyes were bigger than their stomach, which is why they are no longer planning to open a new location in Canton and have sold the former Canton Brewing building to another local business.
Originally brewed just for Brewers games, Leinie’s Barrelman Ale will be released outside the stadium this year in 12-packs and stovepipes.
In Milwaukee, the legendary Kegel’s Inn is hosting 100 events for their 100 years in business, and Thursday, that event is a European-focused beer tasting with Belgian, German, Czech, Irish and other beers available.
The city of La Crosse is booting trucks from City Brewing off their property because the place stinks too much. Really. Apparently their water treatment facility smells like rotten eggs.
City Brewing’s bad week got worse when it was announced that lenders may be taking over the company.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has a story about how the Leinie’s pilot brewery in Chippewa Falls is still operating and creating new beers, despite the recent closure of the main facility. This reads like MolsonCoors doing a bit of damage control on their in-state reputation, to me.
In “story your non-beer-fan friends are most likely to send you this week” news, we feel obligated to pass along the story about Moosehead selling a pallet of 1400+ beers to get Canadians through the Trump presidency. At just one beer a day, I would consider doubling, if not tripling, that number. Please note: I am not a doctor and this does not constitute medical advice.
Forbes published this story about 10 Female-Owned Breweries that are Changing Beer, including Eris Brewery and Cider House.
If you’ve been following the drama around Armed Forces Brewing Company over at
’s page, guess what - they closed, blaming the “local woke mob,” but per this story from the Virginia Mercury, it seems a lot more like poor management.
Last week’s most-clicked link: The link to the Drink Beer Girl site. What drove y’all to check that out?
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