A hub for craft breweries, HopCat in East Lansing has 100 beers on tap at all times - that's more than twice as many taps as their Grand Rapids location.
"A lot of times HopCat is the place where people experience a brewery for the first time," said Chris Knape, Vice President of Marketing & Communications at BarFly Ventures. "It's a place where you can go to experience dozens of Michigan breweries and craft breweries from all around the country at once."
Although HopCat is known for having an abundance of brews on tap from other breweries, they do have some that are exclusive to the pub.
"We typically have collaboration beers. We will work with other breweries to create a small batch exclusive beer, only available at HopCat for a special event," said Knape.
All events, specials, and partnerships are geared towards promoting the Michigan brewery scene.
"Throughout the month, we have events like beer school, where we educate people on different styles of beer or different types of beer coming from different breweries," said Knape. "As well as tap takeovers highlighting 5, 10 or 20 beers from a single brewery."
HopCat tap takeovers can be the best way to promote some of Michigan's favorite craft breweries.
"When we opened HopCat in East Lansing, we had a world record tap takeover where they actually brewed a hundred different kinds of beer, so we had a hundred different kinds of Shorts Brews on tap that day," Knape said.
Although HopCat's main goal is to bring awareness of the craft beer scene, they still have fun with their own brand.
"We have a HopCat branded beer that we are working on. It's called, Beer Right Meow. We are working on it with a company called Brew Detroit," said Knape. "It was a fun side project, but we want customers to walk out of HopCat with a growler full of whatever Michigan craft brew they tried that day."
For more information on events, what's on tap and a HopCat menu, click here.
To enter for a chance to win HopCat prizes, click here.
To learn more about Mid-Michigan breweries, check out www.fox47news.com/yeslocalbeer.
