Merry Christmas Everyone! I would like to take this time to say that I am very thankful for everyone that follows this page. I had no idea that this would catch on as fast and as effectively as it has. I have no words to express the amount of gratitude that I have for all of you that enjoy reading about my experiences over the years traveling and drinking beer.
I started this page in July just to talk about beer and my travels to anyone who wanted to read about them. In the 5 months since starting this page, the amount of attention that it has received has been incredible. It has also opened up opportunities for me that I never could have imagined when I decided to create the page. From July 15th until today, the page now has 470 followers. I would have been happy with about 100 at this point, but we have almost 5 times that amount.
In early August, I decided to do an article about Heights Brewing Company, and based upon them reposting my article, I was contacted by Better On Draft to come on their podcast and talk about my page and my experiences. A little over a month after appearing on the podcast, Better On Draft contacted me about being a contributor to their website. Almost every article that I publish is also published on the Better On Draft website. Having a very recognizable name in the Michigan Brewing Industry behind me has helped the page immensely.
Going into a brewery is a different experience for me in the last 5 months than it has been in the previous 17 years. I am no longer just a guy visiting a brewery drinking his way across the state of Michigan. People recognize me and know who I am at almost every brewery that I go to. Some of the people that recognize me and know my name are owners, brewers, and even some of you who follow the page on a regular basis. This has led to people wanting to give me tours of breweries, talk about beer, discounting or buying me beers, and a more immersive experience anytime I walk into a brewery. It has been so much fun and I appreciate each and every person that wants to talk to me about beer when I visit any brewery.
Even bartending at Bearded Lamb Brewing Company has been a little bit of a different experience over the last 5 months than the previous 6 years of bartending. I used to just be Steve the bartender, somewhat of a local legend because of my travels and beer knowledge. Now that I have this page, people come in and want to chat about beer and the Hold MI Beer page. People are constantly asking for me when I have a day off, or if I am there, a lot of you are asking me to help plan your beer trips, what my favorite beers and breweries are, what the page will bring in the future, and giving me suggestions on covering your favorite breweries and brewers on the page. I am always willing to chat about beer and the page, just as long as we are not in the middle of a packed house and I am running around like a chicken with his head cut off.
I am just very happy to be able to give back in any way possible to the Michigan Brewing community. Over the last 17 years, the community has given me so much that it feels great to be able to share my experiences and knowledge with the community. I have made so many memories that will last a lifetime traveling across our great state and sitting down at 465 different brewing licenses to enjoy a beer or twelve over the years.
My girlfriend of 8 years, Crystal Haggart, and I had our first date at the now defunct Fort Street Brewery in Lincoln Park. We continued our dating phase at breweries such as Dearborn Brewing Company, Liberty Street Brewing Company, Eternity Brewing Company, and Four Leaf Brewing Company. Since we have been living together for the last 7 years, we have continued visiting breweries. I may have been to all the breweries that were open in Michigan as of July 1st of 2024 (I also had a 10 year head start on her visiting breweries), but Crystal is no slouch either, she has been to well over 300 brewing licenses with me over the last 7 years.
We have also had quite a few memorable brewery trips over the last 7 years. In 2018, we hit 22 breweries in a day and a half in Grand Rapids. On that trip, the first brewery we went to at 4 in the afternoon, Jaden James Brewing Company, introduced us to the Grand Rapids Brewsader Trail. By 10pm that night, we had hit 8 breweries and had acquired enough stamps to have earned our Brewsader t-shirts, which we picked up the next afternoon. That day, we ended up hitting 14 more breweries to finish up our day and a half in Grand Rapids.
Once the world opened back up from COVID restrictions, I decided we should celebrate my birthday by hitting a bunch of breweries. We went up to Frankfort, Michigan and hit Stormcloud Brewing Company, and over the next 4 days, we worked our way down the coast of Lake Michigan all the way to South Haven, and we hit every brewery in between. This ended up being a total of 18 breweries in 4 days. A month or so later we hit all the breweries in the Upper Peninsula that were in Munising and Escanaba and everything East of those cities.
Our biggest trip took place last year (which I covered on this page), this included finishing the breweries of the Upper Peninsula that were West of Escanaba and Munising, and quite a few in the Lower Peninsula. We hit 36 breweries and the Upper Peninsula Beer Festival in 6 days during the waning days of Summer in 2023.
I have experienced plenty of festivals and beer gatherings over the years including but not limited to Michigan Brewers Guild Beer Festivals (Grand Rapids Winter Festival is still on the bucket list), The Great American Beer Festival, All Stouts Day (multiple times) and Eccentric Day at Bell’s. 10 straight years of attending the World Expo of Beer in Frankenmuth (2010-2019), The Mount Pleasant Beer Festival and various Oktoberfest celebrations over the years.
To thank all of you that follow the page, I will talk a little bit about what the future will bring for the page. I am currently working on new reviews of your favorite and local breweries all over the state. With the popularity of the 12 Brewers of Christmas segment, I am working on scheduling more interviews with people inside and outside the industry. New descriptions of various beer styles are being worked on, and a few general interest articles. One of these articles, which will be coming up shortly, will be a state of the industry article. Everyone keeps asking me why breweries are closing and what the future of the industry will look like. I will do my best to cover the issues that are seeing breweries close on what seems like a weekly basis.
So the point of this post was just to say thank you and Merry Christmas to all that follow the page. I hope that your day is filled with tons of great memories with the people that you love and maybe a couple of beverages that you enjoy. Again, thank you to everyone out there, I truly appreciate everyone that has made this community as special as it has become. As always, if you keep reading them, I will keep writing them. Cheers!
#merrychristmas #happyholidays #craftbeer #michiganbeer #drinklocal #cheers #beer #brewery
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