First came Furniture City. Others call it River City. As far as nicknames go for Grand Rapids, none have struck gold more than Beer City, USA.
That title was first tapped on Grand Rapids back in 2012.
Three years before, in 2009, the Beer City USA poll was born, during a time when craft beer was booming.
Grand Rapids topped the poll in 2012, tying with Asheville, North Carolina. The next year, Grand Rapids won, and it wasn't even close. Then the poll was retired forever.
“I think if we were Beer City, USA, when they stopped giving it, that means we're Beer City forever," joked Alex Forist, the Chief Curator at the Grand Rapids Public Museum.
Despite this relatively newer recognition, beer has played a large part in the city for well over a century.
“According to Albert Baxter, who's one of the historians of Grand Rapids, the first person to brew beer here was a guy named John Pannell," said Forist. "He comes to Grand Rapids, at about 1836, and starts brewing a few barrels of beer. Everybody's really excited that he's here.”
"But he’s not really what we would call a professional," Forist continued. "That goes to a guy named Christoph Kusterer, who comes a little bit later in the 1840s. He's from Germany. He's been officially trained and has that title brewmaster — in German, Braumeister.”
Kusterer eventually bought Pannell's little operation, and started his own brewing company on Grand Rapids' westside, creating the city's first official brewery in 1844.
“As Grand Rapids is growing as a city, the demand for beer is increasing," said Forist. "So, these these breweries are opening up in different neighborhoods around town.”
Pretty soon though, a big change would shake up the industry. Around the 1880s, refrigerated train cars came into play. That allowed bigger brands like Anheuser-Busch to ship products to cities across, including Grand Rapids, pouring onto their territory.
“So what they decided to do was actually a pretty clever and effective tactic," said Forist. "Six of the local breweries here in Grand Rapids, in 1893, they all banded together. They closed down their individual little breweries and they built a huge brewery. They called their consolidated operation, the Grand Rapids Brewing Company.”
Forist said that the brewing company had a large enough scale at that point to keep up with Anheuser-Busch, and they were pretty effective at fighting off the big guys.
Then, Prohibition happens.
"So 1919, you know, Prohibition becomes the law of the land, and all of the breweries basically all over the country have to shut down," said Forist. “It puts an end to all brewing everywhere — legal brewing in the country."
Prohibition ended in 1933, but according to Forist, the beer scene never really refilled in Grand Rapids.
A couple places were close, like Fox Deluxe, which bought the old Grand Rapids Brewing Company in the '40s, and held onto it for 10 years.
Still though, Coors, Budweiser and other big-time breweries controlled the market. So, Fox Deluxe went out of business.
“That brewery gets torn down during urban renewal in the 1960s," said Forist, "and there's really no such thing as local beer here in Grand Rapids.”
That was the story for about 20 years. Local breweries were struggling to serve up a successful business — until the mid-1980s.
There was a craft beer comeback started by Larry Bell in Kalamazoo. That was soon followed by other places like Founders. The Grand Rapids Brewing Company name even got revived too.
“Lots of these little places are starting to have some success," said Forist. "Then, Founders is continuing to grow. It really, I think, started a culture here, where these guys, they had the mindset that a rising tide would raise all their boats. They helped each other out instead of thinking of each other as competitors. They really created something pretty special.”
The community clearly agrees.
In the last eight years, Grand Rapids has been voted 'Best Beer Town' (2014), 'Best Beer Scene' (2017) and 'Best Beer City' (2021) in USA Today reader polls.