It appears the golden age of craft beer in West Michigan continues. Five beers brewed in the region picked up medals in the most recent World Beer Cup.

The gold medal winner in the group is from The Mitten Brewing in Grand Rapids. Its a brown ale, Triple Crown Brown. It describes it as "a sessionable, malt-forward, English Brown Ale with light chocolate and roasted malt character."

But that wasn't the only medal awarded to The Mitten. Its "Rye Baby", which is an imperial red IPA, picked up a silver medal.

Staying in Grand Rapids, Brewery Vivant won a silver in the "historical" category for "Lange Wapper".

Moving over to Allegan, its Schaendorf Brewing Co. won a silver medal for "Ryetail". And finally, to Battle Creek, where Territorial Brewing's "Berry, Berry, Quite Contrary", a Brut Rosé Lager which clocks in at 7% ABV also won a silver medal.

After what seems like a decade of Covid, going to the websites of these brewers whets the appetite even more for doing some tasting, as they all seem to have many interesting choices which didn't necessarily win awards, but a very least a worthy of sampling.

The World Beer Cup, which bills itself as “the Olympics of beer,” claims to be the "most prestigious beer competition in the world". It's a trade group promoting small craft brewers, and for that, we should raise a glass, and it spotlights small but tasty beers that some of us wouldn't have known about.