Traverse City Beer Week to Return This Nov with Tastings, Dinners, Games, Workshops and More

Traverse City, MI - Every November, this laid-back Michigan resort town unwinds from its busy summer schedule by devoting a week to the contemplation of Nature's gifts. Beer, for instance.

Traverse City Beer Week is a week-long parade of tastings, dinners, games, workshops and lectures devoted to the area's celebrated craft beer industry -- particularly the many microbreweries, brewpubs and craft beer taprooms in the Traverse City Area. Now in its third season, it's scheduled for Nov. 13-20 this year

Organized by Traverse City Tourism and several area beer distributors -- Imperial Beverage, H. Cox & Son, Bayside Beverage and Griffin Beverage) Traverse City Beer Week takes place in the community's restaurants, bars, microbreweries and retail outlets. Its object is to educate consumers about craft beers and ales while helping local brewers, restaurants and retailers get used to working more closely together.

"Craft beer is local," said Andrea Day of Imperial Beverage, which helped kickstart the original TCBW in 2013. "It's exciting, innovative and easy to get behind."

A small Lake Michigan resort community with slightly more than 15,000 residents, TraverseCity is best known as a four-season outdoor adventure destination with a lively culinary and wine scene. More recently, however, it has emerged as a major center of craft brewing.

Ever since 2012, when Draft magazine named it one of Americas' three "emerging beer towns" and the Travel Channel listed it among the Top Seven Beer Destinations in North America, the town's beer scene has grown. Today it boasts nearly 20 craft breweries, brewpubs and taprooms, and Craftbeer.com calls it one of America's "Five Beeriest Beach Towns."

Last year, Traverse City Beer Week featured more than 60 events, each one developed jointly between brewers, restaurants and retailers to educate or offer insight into some aspect of the craft beer movement -- a special product or style of beer, a food-beer pairing experience or some other topic of interest. But that "educational" component doesn't obscure the fact that this is all intended to be fun.

Each TC Beer Week, for example, opens with an extensive Pub Crawl through the city's downtown sponsored by Short's Brewing, where participants carry "beer passports" that can be traded in when completed for an official Beer Week t-shirt. Recent years have featured such events as a beer-tasting/miniature-golf tournament and a 5K "Great Beerd Run" with on-course beer tastings and a post-race Best Beard Contest. Sandwiched in between are a multitude of beer dinners, first-time keg tappings, retail tastings, trivia contests, food pairings, panel discussions, tailgate parties, and even an after-dark scavenger-style "keg hunt."

Every event in Traverse City Beer Week must feature truly craft beer and include a presentation by the host brewery or brewery representative. That's one reason why TraverseCity Tourism, the area's destination marketing organization, is acting as a promotional partner, said TCT president Brad Van Dommelen.

"Traverse City Beer Week has become a wonderful opportunity for Traverse City to promote its growing craft beer culture, and that's what is really at the heart of this event," said Van Dommelen. "Our craft beer is natural, it's imaginative and it's surprising -- just likeTraverse City itself."

Even the town's most fiercely independent brewers are joining in the fun. Brewery Terra Firma, for instance, is a "farm to mug" microbrewery at the edge of town that grows most of its own ingredients and flavorings. But it has already scheduled three TCBW events: a tap takeover, a class on cooking with beer and a beer/cheese pairing.

For updates on the schedule of Traverse City Beer Week events, click www.traversecity.com/tcbw/ or check "Traverse City Beer Week" on Facebook. For information about other fall events and activities in the Traverse City area, and for help with lodging and dining selections, click www.traversecity.com.

Since 1917, the West Michigan Tourist Association (WMTA) has worked to market the very best of West Michigan to travelers. Covering the entire west side of Michigan from the Indiana border to Mackinac Island, WMTA presents information on the best attractions, lodging, events, and activities in West Michigan. For more information on this non-profit organization, visit WMTA.org.