LOCALLY BUZZED-A story of a group of people... over 80 breweries... 8 days... and a camera crew. The journey starts March 1st and ends March 8th. Every brewery in Michigan will be visited and none will be left out. If you want to help with housing people on this trip or any tips please contact us.
I moved to Michigan about 4 years ago. At first I hated this state and I hated the fact that I lived in it. I was completely out of my element. I hadn't drank beer for nearly my entire 20's but as some of you may be aware of people in this state drink a lot. Well about one year into my Michigan move I took part in the drinking of beer. I started with the stuff that I knew about from growing up. You know Mickeys/Pabst/Old Style all the cheap hip shit beer they sell at every corner store. Well shortly into this a friend of mine got me a growler which is a bottle of beer around 64 oz like a large 40 oz. This is something a lot of local breweries have so you can take it back and refill it when you want. It's a great way to get beer that breweries don't bottle. The first growler I got was filled with a local beer called Dirty Bastard from Founders brewery right here in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This beer knocked me on my ass for sure. This was the first step towards real beer, but not the last. I still went forward with what was cheap and the largest quantity. As time went on i looked at my beer in a different way. I started looking at my local economy and how we in Michigan don't have it so great. I started looking into buying local beers and what was out there for me. Slowly but surely i started noticing that the local beer i was drinking was the freshest and the strongest I could drink. I also noticed I drank less of it than when I drank shitty corporate beer. Last year for new years my partner and I decided to do our best and drink only local good beers as our resolution. We understood this would be way more costly but we wanted to make this step. So we did and this opened up an entire world of new beers and local products. I then started thinking about going to every Michigan brewery because i started noticing how many we had. Michigan... the state that has a lot to offer but is often forgotten about because of its economic situation. At first it was planned as a fun trip that was going to take place last summer. This never happened so I just kinda put it on the back burner. Until I realized how important it was that this trip happen. Michigan is a at a tough place right now, and needs something to make it stick out. This idea is about promoting the art of beer making to make people realize how great our beer really is. We have some of the best beers being brewed in this state right now. Living in Michigan made me realize that i knew nothing about beer. Being able to live in this state means I can enjoy a great beer made with real ingredients and made by people who care. This trip will begin on March 1st and end at founders brewery on march 8th in Grand Rapids. This is just into the planning stages and the first meeting will take place at Founders on Jan. 10th. I am excited about this and look forward to updates through this blog. We will start contacting breweries this week and have big plans for this project. Until then look forward to this epic journey.
