New breweries take advantage to showcase brews at Spring Fest

HUDSONVILLE — At a beer festival filled with new West Michigan breweries, Elk Brewing Company was as new as it gets.

The Grand Rapids-based brewery opened to the public on Friday and was serving three beers at the inaugural Beer City Spring Fest on Saturday.

Serving customers its Scotch Ale (9.8% ABV) beneath a giant Elk Brewing antler logo, head bartender Kris Oglesbe said he’d received positive feedback all day about their beers and the concept of the brewery. That made him feel even more confident about Elk Brewing’s future.

“It’s hard to open a brewery in Grand Rapids and be successful because there is so much competition,” Oglesbe said. “[The response] has been awesome.”

The response to the first beer festival in Hudsonville’s history was awesome as well. The city, which was dry up until 2007, now has two microbreweries to fuel its hunger for craft beer.

Special beers and ciders were everywhere — from the large party tent set up to inside the massive fairgrounds barn.

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