Last weekend, I went to the MBG's winter beer festival in Grand Rapids. As at least an amatuer beer snob, I have to say, this was heaven for me. Dispite it taking place in the cold parking lot of the Whitecap's stadium, and my lack of appropriate clothing (I forgot to bring my jacket and shoes without holes in them), I have to say I had an absolute blast.
In the parking lot, they had 3 tents set up, with booths for each brewery. Each of the over 35 breweries brought anywere from 3 to 12 of their beers with them. When you arrive you are given 10 tokens to exchange for about half of a small cup of beer (~4-6 oz). Additional tokens could be purchased 20 for $10. However, often you could simply not give the people serving you a token and they wouldn't care. Tickets for entry were $35 if purchased beforehand and $40 if purchased at the gate, but the event sold out several days beforehand anyway.
Grizzly Peak and Arbor Brewing company showed up to offer up some of their beers, but Blue Tractor did not (not a huge loss, in my opinion). Both seemed fairly busy from the look of it, which I suppose is good for motivating people to come to AA and stimulate our alcohol driven economy...
But actually relating this to the Ann Arbor area is as follows: The MBG Summer Festival will be in Ypsilanti July 24-25, which is, as most of you know, just a hop, skip, and dodging-of-gunfire away. Tickets go on sale May 1st. I'm guessing this will be a bigger event so I'd make an effort to get tickets early. Get out there and support Michigan breweries!
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