Detroit Beer Week

Celebrates Beer City-Wide

In 2009, flying low under the radar, a first-ever Detroit Beer Week (DBW) erupted throughout the city and, even with little-to-no media coverage, did above and beyond the expectations of the event's founders and coordinators.

Begun under the pretense that the city needed a positive light under which to grow and a desire to promote Michigan-made products (yes, most of which happen to be beer) as well as the state's burgeoning craft brew industry, the owner and operator of Michigan-based Liquid Table Beverage Solutions cultivated the week-long celebration of all things suds, ensuring the city herself would receive positive acclaim from the event and that the state's masses would have yet another event in which to celebrate their ever-growing love of beer.

Now, four years later, Detroit Beer Week still probably doesn't receive the media coverage it deserves, but it's doing just as well as, if not better than, its inaugural year.

With events happening all over the city in support of the celebration of Michigan-made beer, you'll find a host of dealings lauding local suds during the 11 days of Detroit Beer Week.

"There are plenty of events that just kind of come up during the week," says MIP president Kristy Smith. "It's really cool too because the events really tie in with the breweries. For instance, Founders always does something at Slow's. Founder's is really big in terms of local breweries and Slow's is going to be packed no matter what. For MIP, we're doing a beer can chicken dinner at Nancy Whiskey. We're a small, Royal Oak-based brewery and we're having our event at a small local bar."

In addition to MIP's dinner and drinking affair, they'll also be hosting a scavenger hunt-inspired bike tour that will begin and end at Nancy Whiskey.

"We'll be riding on some of the old brick roads in Detroit and hiding our Brik cans along the way. So, we want people to find as many cans as possible before they get back to Nancy Whiskey," says Smith.

Special Bike tours by Motor City Brew Tours are also planned in accordance with DBW, and there will also be a special Tashmoo Beirgarten pop-up event as well.

As the host of the opening party of Detroit Beer Week, Tashmoo is taking their act on the road for the first time ever and setting up shop at Atwater Brewery, both inside and out. In accordance with that celebration, there will – of course – be beer provided by the brewery, but Tashmoo will also be providing food from some of their favorite local purveyors.

Also hosting a closing ceremony of sorts, Tashmoo will be holding a Brewer's Brunch on 10/28, complete with special lunch menus provided by the same food vendors who're set to appear at their opening event.

With events popping up all over the city, there will be plenty more beer-related proceeding as well, according to the event's founder and director Jon Piepenbrok.

"There will be tap takeovers, beer dinners, bike rides and pub crawls all over the city," he says. "Plus, there will be signature events every night put together and planned out by my company, Liquid Table Solutions."

Though Tashmoo and Atwater hold the official rights to DBW's opening party, there will be a soft opening on Thursday and Friday as well, according to Piepenbrok, in the form of a pub crawl that will mainly be concentrated downtown.

As the week of beer comes to an end, it won't be the end of the state's celebration of suds. Kicking off on 10/16, the fourth annual Michigan Brewer's Guild Fall Beer Festival will be continuing the beer-related revelry at Eastern Market for those who haven't yet (and probably never will) get their fill of Michigan craft beer. | RDW

Visit detbeerweek.com for more info