Published: September 23, 2024
Sometimes, the routine can get the better of you, especially in the craft beer industry, where brewhouses continuously crank out a bunch of core beers. Those do well, but what else can you offer consumers, especially as trends shift? With all your focus on making quality beer, monitoring trends may slip through the cracks, and gathering the appropriate information may prove challenging.
It’s easier than you may think. Untappd Insights takes all the research out of your hands, providing precision data that shares customers’ behaviors and trends in your taproom and distribution channels—all with the click of a button.
A part of the Next Glass family of brands that includes Ollie, Untappd for Business, Hop Culture, and BeerAdvocate, among others, Untappd Insights compiles droves of distribution, trend, and sales data that you can narrow down to your nearby towns.
Use this data to drive your seasonals, plan your brew schedule, and manage events. With so much data at your fingertips, the options for improving your business are endless.
We’ve previously covered the most popular beers in Pennsylvania, New York, California, Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin.
In this piece, we’ll show you the power of Untappd Insights by breaking down the most checked-in beers over the past ninety days in another Midwest state, Michigan.
(Above photography courtesy of Bell’s Brewery)
What We’ll Cover in This Piece:
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Michigan: The Seventh Most Checked-In State Over the Last Three Months
Graphic courtesy of Untappd Insights
Michigan is home to 418 craft breweries—eighth in the nation—and 5.5 breweries per every 100,000 drinking-aged adults—fifteenth in the country. Over the past ninety days, those adults have checked in quite a bit—400,175 times to be exact. That figure, taken from over 16,000 venues, ranks seventh for check-ins nationwide, just ahead of states like Texas, Wisconsin, Florida, and Massachusetts, though quite a ways behind the sixth most checked-in state over that span, Illinois (470,953 check-ins).
Outside of the three-month outlook, however, Michigan ranks no higher than eleventh nationally. As far back as the data goes, dating back to the first day of 2019, Michigan adults have logged 12,648,889 check-ins at 90,777 venues.
In the past month, Michigan logged 116,166 check-ins at nearly 8,000 venues, ranking eleventh. That’s just behind Wisconsin (118,177) but a comfortable seven thousand or so check-ins ahead of New Jersey (109,540). In all of the datasets, the high majority of check-ins are happening in the Detroit area, accounting for more than twice as many check-ins than the next closest area, which was consistently Grand Rapids.
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The Top 10 Beers in Michigan – Last 90 Days
Photography courtesy of Bell’s Brewery
Based on the data, beer consumers in Michigan drink local brands. Breweries within the state brewed nine of the ten most popular beers over the past ninety days. The only out-of-state beer in the top ten is Miller Lite from Wisconsin-based Miller Brewing Company, at number nine.
Bell’s Brewery has the two most popular beers in the state over the past three months: Two Hearted IPA and Oberon Ale, a wheat beer. Founders’ lone beer on the list, Mortal Bloom hazy IPA, ranked number three. Old Nation’s hazy IPA M-43, and two iterations of it, are on the list at four, five, and six. New Holland, Atwater, and Cheboygan breweries are the other Michigan-based breweries with beers in the top ten.
Unsurprisingly, IPAs capture six of the ten spots on the list, which tracks with the style’s global popularity. Perhaps signaling seasonality, three wheat beers landed in the top ten most checked-in beers in Michigan.
- Two Hearted IPA (IPA-American) – Bell’s Brewery
- Oberon Ale (Wheat Beer-American Pale Wheat) – Bell’s Brewery
- Mortal Bloom (IPA-New England/Hazy) – Founders Brewing Co.
- Orange Creamsicle M-43 (IPA-New England/Hazy) – Old Nation Brewing Co.
- M-43 N.E. India Pale Ale (IPA-New England/Hazy) – Old Nation Brewing Co.
- Raspberry Creamsicle M-43 (IPA-New England/Hazy) – Old Nation Brewing Co.
- Tangerine Space Machine (IPA-Fruited) – New Holland Brewing
- Dirty Blonde (Wheat Beer-Witbier/Blanche) – Atwater Brewery
- Miller Lite (Lager-American Light) – Miller Brewing Company
- Blood Orange Honey (Wheat Beer-American Pale Wheat) – Cheboygan Brewing Company
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About The Author
Giovanni Albanese
Giovanni is a content writer for Next Glass, contributing to the Ollie blog. He is a writer by day and a brewer/business owner by night, owning and operating Settle Down Brewery & Taproom in Gilroy, California.
Giovanni is passionate about a number of things, including history, documentaries and sports, but none more than reporting/writing and brewing beer. After receiving a radio broadcasting degree then a journalism degree from Salem State College in his home state of Massachusetts, he relocated to California in 2008.
Then, his writing career kicked off – covering sports, business, politics and more along the way – while concurrently dabbling in home brewing. The home brewing turned pro in 2021 when he launched SDB Brewing Company. Settle Down Beer officially opened in February.
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