Beer has life in Michigan. Scratch that — real beer has a lot of life in Michigan.

Saturday’s Winter Beer Festival at Fifth Third Ballpark in Plainfield Township indicates the ever-increasing popularity of state-brewed craft beers. Stouts, porters, IPAs, ales, lagers — you name it, Michigan has a lot to brag about.

Organized by the Michigan Brewers Guild, the sixth annual event is an outdoor celebration for Michigan beer, featuring more than 250 different beers. All together, more than 45 breweries were represented.

Enthusiasm for Michigan beer was apparent with long linesf or nearly each of the represented breweries from all corners of the state, including the Upper Peninsula, at the sold-out event. In a lot of ways, it was difficult to choose which brews to taste. Still, we had to choose, and we made some interesting observations.

Ales are King, But that Doesn’t Mean Michigan Doesn’t Have Great Lagers

No doubt Founders Brewing Company is Grand Rapids’ staple brewing company. It leads the way in West Michigan beer, yet, like any other microbrewery, it shies away from lagers. Anyone who knows the process of brewing understands why, so we’re going to presume our audience here.

We tried many great ales from breweries all across the state. Perhaps even more impressive are the many excellent stouts and porters (we’ll get to that). So, the search for lagers, while a bit challenging, left us very satisfied.

Although it would be impossible to sample every one of the breweries on site, our sampling found the East Side of Michigan is leading the way in brewing lagers. And the “Lager King” is Wolverine State Brewing Co. of Ann Arbor. In fact, Wolverine claims to be the only brewery in Michigan that specializes in lagers.

As company marketing representative E.T. Crowe shared with us, Wolverine has taken on the difficult task of lager brewing with pride. It’s a lot easier to cover up inconsistencies in other types of beer, Crowe said, so not many brewmasters are jumping to make lagers.

With more than a dozen lagers in rotation, four of them were on tap during the day at the festival. We tried two of them — the Premium Lager and Dark Lager. Lagers have flavor too, and these two definitely had a lot going for them. The Premium is reminiscent of Stella Artois, only fresher and bolder. Full and crisp, the Dark Lager hit the spot. Both lagers were malty, but didn’t lack in hops. It’s clear Wolverine is on the cutting edge of the lager scene, and for this we are grateful.

A Little Farther East

Likewise, Woodward Avenue Brewers, with four beers on tap, was our choice as the top brewing company at the festival. The Ferndale-based brewers had four beers on tap — Ruby Lager, Vanilla Porter, Raspberry Blonde and Hefe-Weizen. We tried them all.

Ruby Lager is a full-bodied lager, but it doesn’t lack in the crisp, refreshing taste you’d expect. Like Wolverine’s lagers, WAB’s Ruby has plenty of hops. As a lighter ale, the Raspeberry Blonde mixes the sweetness of raspberries with the type of flavor and body you’d expect from a blonde. Exceptionally refreshing and crisp, it rivals Dark Horse’s Raspberry Ale.

The Hefe-Weizen has a distinct banana-nut taste with some spiciness. It wasn’t our favorite, but it is a good Hefe-Weizen.

Our favorite, actually, was a different Woodward Avenue Brewers beer — Vanilla Porter. This brew was our consensus No. 1 Pick of the entire festival. It was liquid gold — actually, it was more like liquid chocolate cake. Rich and robust, the vanilla and chocolate flavors settle nicely in the not-overly-bitter porter — a perfect concoction.

Woodward Avenue Brewers has a lot going for it. We were hoping they had distribution around the state, but the assistant brewmaster said they’re not interested in doing anything other than serving from their taproom and traveling to the state’s various beer festivals. Something tells me a road trip to Ferndale is in order.

In the coming week, we will continue to highlight the Winter Beer Festival. Please continue to visit Grand Rapids Grub for more coverage, including interviews with some of the brew-masters and assistant brew-masters and additional reviews of various brews.