My long time friend’s birthday celebration provided me the perfect excuse and opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone and mingle with many thirsty Michigan extroverts.
The oldest of the Michigan Brewers Guild’s four annual festivals, the Summer Beer Festival takes place rain or shine in the lovely outdoor setting of Ypsilanti’s Riverside Park in historic Depot Town.
This Annual Festival hosts approximately 150 Michigan breweries sampling over 1,000 different craft beers with approximately 15,000 thirsty craft brew fans in attendance over the course of the two day event.
Craft beer tourism is on the rise in Michigan and many other States due to the growing popularity successes of many local microbreweries. After visiting one of these festivals, it is pretty obvious how easy it is to become a fan for these independently owned breweries. The brewers do an excellent job with their research and marketing strategies. It is pretty common at these events for the brewers to release experimental sample beers never released to the public and get immediate feedback from the festival participants. It’s a simple yet very effective strategy which helps the brewers grow and nurture their targeted audience.
Sources:
BrewersAssociation.org
Pandemedium 
We are very fortunate here to be in reach of some creative craft brewers.
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