Spotted Cow is Mid
Michigan has award-winning craft breweries; the Cheeseheads have Miller Lite
Spotted Cow is mid. I’m sorry, Wisconsin, but it has to be said. It’s not bad, but it tastes like a generic light beer that someone spilled fruity coffee creamer into. It’s overhyped, but that’s par for the course when it comes to Wisconsin beer.
Wisconsin needs an ego check. Cheeseheads attempt to own being “the beer state.” It’s probably the state’s main personality trait. But frankly, it’s dubious whether the state that unleashed such obscenities as Pabst and Schlitz upon the world ever really deserved the reputation. What is clear is that, for many years now, Michigan’s beer has been better.
In the past few decades, Michigan’s craft beer industry has exploded. We now have over 400 craft breweries, dotting the map from coast to coast. Pick any exit on 94, 75, or 96 and you’ll probably find a town with a brewery. Munising, for example, the tiny U.P. town home to the Pictured Rocks has a population of less than 2,000 and still has two fully operational breweries catering mostly to summer visitors and outdoorsy winter tourists, many from Wisconsin.
“So what?” the over-proud Wisconsinite might say, “There are probably a dozen small towns in Wisconsin that can say the same, and you haven’t even mentioned Milwaukee.”
Well, Wisconsinites, the most recent available data indicates that Wisconsin has about 280 breweries total. The tasteless corporate brewers that dominate your state have crushed everyone else. And while Milwaukee’s massive commercial brewing industry is certainly impressive, size isn’t everything. When it comes to quality, creativity, and character, all of Wisconsin is outmatched by the large artisan breweries of western Michigan, specifically, Bell’s, New Holland, and Founders. There are many other excellent breweries in Michigan, but these are our champions. Any of these could go toe-to-toe with any Wisconsin company and come out on top, just name a time and place.
