Summit Brewing asks, ‘What makes a Midwest beer?’

Last year, when I interviewed Market Garden Brewery/Nano Brew Cleveland Brewmaster Andy Tveekrem (former head brewer at Dogfish Head Brewery), he talked about what he considered a Midwest, Cleveland beer.

“I think one of the things Cleveland breweries tend to do, I don’t want to say all of them do, but there’s a strong tendency to make great craft lager beers in addition to IPAs and porters and stouts and those things,” said Tveekrem in this Fall/Winter issue of Cleveland’s official visitors guide. “In many parts of the country, the making of lager beer really hasn’t taken hold. It probably has a lot to do with our Midwest heritage and a lot of central European heritage. That’s kind of cool. It sets us apart, and actually makes us better brewers because lager beers are not easy to make.”

During the Great American Beer Fest last year, Summit Brewing Co.’s social media nerd Chip Walton talked with brewers and breweries from the Midwest about what makes their region’s beer special and unique. Here’s what they came up with.