This Week In Beer

(KALAMAZOO, Mich) – The Michigan Brewers Guild presented esteemed awards to industry trailblazers at its annual conference Thursday night, January 9, 2025, at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Kalamazoo.

The Tom Burns Award was presented to Ted Badgerow of Ypsi Alehouse. This award is presented to a person who embodies the pioneering spirit of the Michigan brewing industry. This is an individual whose hard work, passion, and perseverance has been a guiding force in contributing to the Great Beer State while being supportive of the entire beer industry in Michigan.

Ted began his brewing career as a homebrewer in 1979, later opening The Real Ale Company in Chelsea in 1982 – becoming the first microbrewery in the Midwest and gaining attention from media around the country. While they could produce and sell bottled beer, they weren’t able to sell draft pints of beer onsite and in less than two years the groundbreaking brewery closed.

Early in his career, Ted co-operated Fermentations – a homebrew supply story in Ann Arbor, while also teaching “Homebrewing and World Beer Styles” for the University of Michigan. In the mid-1980s, he won his first award from the American Homebrewing Association – a silver medal for his porter – and helped form the Ann Arbor Brewers’s Guild. Taking a hiatus from brewing to raise a family, Ted worked for 25 years as a ceramic tile and marble installer.

Ted returned to brewing in January 2016 when he and David Roberts opened Ypsi Alehouse in downtown Ypsilanti. Here, they craft mostly tap brews using Michigan malt, hops and yeast. He’s also a musician, a classical guitar player and singer, always ready to belt out a lively rendition of the Michigan Beer Fight Song!

Hear more from Ted in this interview from the Michigan’s Great Beer State Podcast.

Past winners of the Tom Burns Award include:

The Michigan Beer Champion Award – given to a person who or organization/business that is a partner of the industry and who continually strives to promote or protect the craft beer industry in Michigan – was presented to Annette May, a full-time as a beer and saké educator.

Annette is an Advanced Cicerone®, BJCP judge, Certified Saké Professional is a 30-year veteran of the craft beer industry. She was the first women to attain the Certified Cicerone® certification, in 2008, and has aspired to mentor women since that time, focusing on women in Michigan. Since 2015 she has been faculty in Schoolcraft College’s Brewing Program, where she teaches aspiring brewers sensory evaluation, beer service and draught management, and pairing beer and saké with food. She is a regional instructor, exam proctor and exam grader for the Cicerone® Certification Program, and an educator in WSET’s Levels One & Two Beer Awards.

She is an original Board Member and the current Scholarship Director of Fermenta: A Michigan Women’s Craft Beverage Collective, a 501c3 that educates and gives scholarship to women in the fermented beverage industries. Annette serves on the Brewers Association’s Draught Quality Subcommittee, and is actively involved in promoting Draught Quality, both in Michigan, and nationally, through this work. Her work with the Brewers Association’s DEI Committee involves both selection of mentees, and mentoring in their Mentorship Program. In 2022 she was awarded the BA’s Mentor of the Year award. Her work with both Fermenta and Pink Boots Society also involves mentoring women in Michigan.

Annette & her husband Mike’s brewery, Full Measure Brewing Co, located in Eastern Market Detroit, will open in early 2025. The brewery will feature traditional beer styles, served superbly, and locally sourced foods with an emphasis on fermented foods.

Past winners of the Michigan Beer Champion Award include:

The Michigan Brewers Guild was formed in 1997 and held its first festival in July 1998. Today, the Guild hosts four festivals dedicated exclusively to Michigan beer produced by its nearly 300 member breweries.

The Michigan Brewers Guild is the network of innovative and passionate brewers that serves as the recognized advocate for the Michigan craft beer industry. The mission of the Michigan Brewers Guild is to promote and protect the Michigan craft beer industry with an overarching goal to help craft beer acquire 20% of the market by 2025.

Michigan’s thriving brewing industry contributes more than 17,000 full-time jobs and $700 million in labor income / wages, with a total economic impact of over $2.4 billion. In terms of overall number of breweries, microbreweries and brewpubs, Michigan ranks #6 in the nation—supporting its title as “The Great Beer State.”