High End Trade Show Recap

This week went by in a whirlwind of great beer, amazing people and fun times!  West Side Beer celebrated our many craft beer and high-end beer brands with our customers in Grand Rapids, Lansing and Kalamazoo.

It was a great opportunity for everyone to join together and discuss a shared interest and one of my favorite topics: beer. A huge part of our trade shows includes a beer education component at the very beginning. This year, we lucked out and had John from New Belgium Brewing lead the beer education lecture with a beer sensory presentation. Watching people’s first retronasal experience made my day. Then, our sale representatives discussed a few topics that are growing and are trending pretty hot lately. Craft beer in a can and the growing rise of the hard cider category took main stage, which made sense since in Grand Rapids alone West Side brands include over 40 different craft beers in a can and the cider market grew over 70 percent in Michigan.

I also presented during the beer education class and talked about the importance of social media as a way to connect beer consumer to buy seller (be that a brewery, distributor or wholesaler) and the importance of recognizing women as a growing and important demographic for craft beer consumption. After beer school and during the beer tastings multiple people came over to say how excited they were that we were able to provide more information and discuss these trends in craft beer.

The beer tasting portion ended up being a ball, with a laid back setting with great musical entertainment and a ton of food. But beyond that, I appreciated being able to reconnect and acquaint myself with so many fellow beer lovers who comprise of our Michigan craft beer community. I, and everyone at West Side Beer, is so very thankful for the wonderful turnout we had at each event and the great experience the High End Trade Show provided us all. Exciting times are ahead and we’re very happy to have already shared so many with our community.

Cheers! 

P.S. Check out our photo albums on Facebook for some visuals of each tradeshow. 

Kalamazoo High End Trade Show

Grand Rapids High End Trade Show

Lansing High End Trade Show