Kalamazoo IS Michigan’s Craft Beer Capital

Grand Rapids wants to be "beer city," but Kalamazoo is where it's at when it comes to craft beer in Michigan.

The craft beer boom may have slowed a little, but the barrel is far from empty, especially in Kalamazoo. C + R Research analyzed data from more than 500 cities to find out which has the most breweries per 50,000 people. Kalamazoo, with 10, ranked 5th in the country, well above Grand Rapids' 7 breweries per capita and 13th rank.

Researchers also looked at search volume to determine the most popular brewery of each municipality and in Kalamazoo it was no surprise: Bell's.

Here are the Top 5 Cities with the Most Craft Breweries (per 50,000 residents):

1. Portland, ME (18)
2. Ashville, NC (17)
3. Bend, OR (16)
4. Boulder, CO (14)
5. Kalamazoo, MI (10)

Researchers (by the way, how do you get a job researching beer?) comment, "It's also interesting to note that large cities like Chicago, New York and Los Angeles don’t appear on this list. In fact, the only cities with a population of 250,000 or more on the list include Denver, Madison, Portland and Cincinnati." When it comes to craft beer, Kalamazoo is where it's at.

h/t WGRD