All the Brews Fit to Pint: Recapping the first-ever Ann Arbor Beer Week

What’s Ann Arbor Beer Week? If you missed out on the past four days of downtown beer-related promotions and events, it’s understandable. Like many first-time annual events, AABW began modestly and managed to fly under the radar of even many dedicated local beer lovers.

The whole thing began when Jeff More, owner of Ashley’s, read about Philly Beer Week and figured Ann Arbor would be a great place to do something similar.

“Ann Arbor and Michigan in general are host to many great microbreweries, and at Ashley’s we've experienced an increasing number of people eager to expand their palates and their knowledge of beer,” said Carmen Fernando, general manager of Ashley’s. “I pretty much took Jeff’s idea and ran with it.”

In fact, she ran to Arbor Brewing, the Arena Sports Bar, and Bar Louie to see if they would be interested in participating, on short notice, in this marvelous endeavor.

“I tried to select a few places that had a number of drafts available so that switching one or two out for Beer Week wouldn't disrupt their normal business operations,” said Carmen. “I was fortunate with the enthusiasm I received from the first few locations I approached and had just enough events available to plan for all of them.”

So what were the events? Here’s your timeline:

Monday, July 20 Beer trivia contest at Ashley’s, as well as the tapping of a keg of Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout (eh?), which is a variation of the brewery’s much-sought-after Kentucky Breakfast Stout aged in Canadian maple syrup barrels. Beer: it’s not just for breakfast, but it sure can be.

Arcadia giveaway night at the Arena: Purchasers of Arcadia’s Sky High Rye received a shiny new Arcadia Ales glass.

Tuesday, July 21

At Ashley,’s, an ultra-rare keg of Cantillon St. Lamvinus (one of only a few kegs to come to the U.S. from Belgium) was tapped. If you ever wondered what would result if you married wine and beer, well, you’d get something very much like this, making it a great entrée to the world of beer for your wine snob friends—if you can find it! In the basement, Matt and Rene Greff of Arbor Brewing Co. hosted a survey-style class on different beer styles, featuring samples of 10 great Michigan beers.

It was Bar Louie’s turn to hand out goodies, this time pint glasses from Dark Horse Brewing Co., to anyone sensible enough to order one of the three fine Dark Horse beers on tap: Raspberry Ale, Sapient Trip Ale, or Crooked Tree IPA, which yours truly opted for. (Kudos, by the way, to Bar Louie, for featuring Michigan beers on more than half of their 40 taps!)

Wednesday, July 22 Arbor Brewing featured a “rolling beer dinner”—$25 got you a pre-dinner beer followed by an appetizer, entrée, and dessert each paired with an appropriate brew. (The smoked lager and BBQ chicken wings were excellent together.)

Bell’s representatives were on hand at the Arena to raffle off hats, shirts, glasses, and keychains to folks ordering their beers. Ashley’s tapped into five firkins (quarter-barrels) of Michigan cask-conditioned ales, including Arcadia Whitsun, New Holland Mad Hatter, Bell’s Two Hearted, Dark Horse Thirsty Trout, and Arbor Imperial Rat Porter.

And whether you were at Arbor, the Arena, Bar Louie, or Ashley’s, if you wore a Michigan brewery t-shirt you got a nice discount.

Thursday, July 23 “Meet the Brewer” pub crawl, featuring special-release beers at each of the four locations: At Arbor, their Velvet Hammer barrel-aged Belgian brown; the Arena, New Holland Existential Ale; Bar Louie, a firkin of dry-hopped Arcadia Angler’s Ale; and Ashley’s, Dark Horse Rod Amber Ale. Tickets were $25 and participants also received a commemorative Ann Arbor Beer Week Pub Crawl shirt.

(Pictures from all four days are on my Facebook page for the non-squeamish!)

Yes, the entire enterprise had a rushed, chaotic feel to it, with conflicting information, minimal publicity, and confused patrons and employees. But, as several participants observed, it was important just to get the concept started.

"We're looking at three to five years down the road," said Besnik (“Bez”) Aliko of Rave Associates, a beer distributor. "Each year it will get a little bigger and better.”

Rave also sponsored the “drinking challenge” between Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, with the city that drinks more Michigan beer July 13-24 being award the Michigan Beer Cup Saturday at the Summer Beer Festival. Bez sees more cities competing in the future as well.

So... will Ann Arbor take home the first Beer Cup? You'll have to go to the Summer Beer Fest Saturday to find out. And what better way to cap off the first-ever Ann Arbor Beer Week?

See you there!