Our History & Community

District Detroit was one of the founding districts of the MBAA. When the MBAA was founded in 1887 as the Master Brewers Association of the United States, there was already an active brewers association in Michigan, called the Brewmasters Association of Detroit, which was founded in 1886. About 90 brewers attended the first MBAA meeting in Chicago and elected its first board. Elected as Treasurer to the initial board was Konrad Koppitz of Koppitz-Melchers brewery, Detroit, Michigan.

The district enjoyed a long and active history, but gradually lost members as more and more breweries closed. The net result of this attrition was that District Detroit's membership grew to become mostly employees of the Stroh Brewery and its vendors. Unlike most of the brewing giants who survived well into the Twentieth Century, Stroh remained a two-brand beer company until 1964 when it acquired Goebel Brewing Company. It was 1979 before Stroh introduced their first new beer since their founding, Stroh Light. Subsequent acquisitions made Stroh a household word all over America. But with this growth came increased pressures to compete on the national market—a fact that ultimately led to the Stroh brands being swallowed by its competitors.

After Stroh quit producing beer in Michigan, membership in the district began to decline. By the late 1990s, it became evident that something had to be done. A motion was passed to pursue combining District Detroit with District Cincinnati. District Cincinnati was strong with active participants from AB, Miller, Boston Beer, and major suppliers plus some microbrewers. In 1998, joint meetings were held in Cincinnati, where participation by District Detroit was weak. In the October 1998 meeting, District Cincinnati declined to pursue combining the districts as it was not in their best interest.

The next meeting of District Detroit, February 18, 1999, was at Local Color Brewing Company in Novi, a western suburb of Detroit. The meeting was well attended by Michigan's craft brewers, who came out of curiosity but ended up joining. This infusion of membership set the stage for a "passing of the baton." The new entry-level craft brewers accepted the reins from the old master brewers to carry on the century-old tradition of sharing knowledge and camaraderie in a technical forum.

Today, district membership is, for the most part, members and vendors to the new and growing microbrewery and brewpub industry. With members now hailing from all over the state instead of being concentrated in Detroit, the district name was changed from District Detroit to District Michigan.

With the new blood comes new needs, and District Michigan focuses their meetings and technical presentations toward the small brewer. It is the present goal of the District's board to encourage greater participation by Michigan brewers and regain the active membership it once enjoyed for so many years.

District Officers

Scholarships

In Spring 2024, we streamlined our process to encourage more members to take advantage of the MBAA scholarships. The scholarship window is open from April through September 30th.

We strongly encourage you to complete the simple two-page application for an MBAA course. These courses are a great tool to continue to build your skills as a technical brewer. The winner(s) of this year's scholarship will be announced at our Fall meeting.

More information about the courses can be found here.

You can find the two-page application form here. Please send all applications to [email protected].

2014 Recipient Paul Popa, Tri-City Brewing (Brewing & Malting Course) 2015 Recipients Brewery Engineering & Utilities Course John Stewart, Perrin Brewery Marty Rapnicki, Griffin Claw Brewery Chas Thompson, Schmohz Brewery Dave Turner, New Holland Brewery Paul Popa, Tri-City Brewing

2016 Recipients Greg Burke, Country Malt Group (Brewing & Malting Course 2017) Brian Roeters, Rockford Brewing Company (Brewing & Malting Course 2016) Karl Glarner, Sanctuary Spirits (Travel stipend to attend National MBAA Mtg.)

District Gallery

MBAA Holiday Social with the Detroit Barons 2015	John Stewart, Marty Rapnicki, Chas Thompson, Dave Turner & Paul Popa. Scholarship winners (Brewery Engineering and Utilities Course).
Dark Horse Brewery Quarterly Meeting (March 2015)	2015 Board Members, Boyne Highlands Winter Conference - John Stewart, John Mallett, Paul Popa, Debbie Smith, Ken Belau, and Eric Kuhnhenn.
Winter Conference 2015, Boyne Highlands	Founders Brewery, March 2014 Meeting
Paul Popa (Tri-City Brewery & District President 2015) delivering a lecture on Chemical Handling. March 2014 Meeting.	Winter Conference 2014 (Adam Beratta, Martin Rapnicki, Tom Buchanan, and Paul Popa)
Griffin Claw Brewery Meeting, 2013

Meeting Archive

District Businesses