Frankenmuth — Nearly 8,000 people from around the world united this weekend to celebrate the frothy tie that binds them together - beer.

Outside the blue-and-white striped aluminum barn that is Heritage Park in Frankenmuth, people patiently stood in a line the length of a football field, eager to get into Michigan's largest international beer sampling event.

The 12th annual World Expo of Beer hosted 43 breweries, including 18 from Michigan, offering more than 150 different beers to sample.

While major breweries were present, smaller-scale "craft brews" dominated the number of vendors at the expo.

"There's more than just a Bud Light, more than just a Miller - there's something out there for everyone if they're willing to try it," said Skip Pappas, who runs the home brew section of Kuhnhenn Brewing Company located in Warren.

Craft brewing taps into the creative minds of brewers who take a chef-like approach to making their beer. They brew what they want to drink themselves, which piques the interests of flavor-conscious beer drinkers.

"We're in the flavor business," said Steven German, of the Victory Brewing Company in Downingtown, Pa. "We're all part of trying to bring flavor to the American drinker. Our beers are about matching with food and bringing something a little bit different to the palette."

The craft brewing industry has steadily grown for the past three years, sparking more interest and appreciation for beer that is an experience to drink - not just a means to an end, German said.

"The craft brewing industry has definitely got the eye of the American consumer," he said. "When I can stand out here and talk to folks and they say, 'You know, I really love a Belgian Tripel with Thai food, it's a perfect match,' I'm like, 'Wow, they're getting it.'"

Though craft brewing is becoming more popular, it still can be hard to find in many bars, a problem German said has an easy solution.

"Ask them," he said. "That's the best way for people to get beers they like in their bars. By asking, you're showing them that there's other people drinking in the bar than just people that want to fire down $1.50 Bud Lights."

If people are asking, then Crunchy's, 254 W. Grand River Ave., is listening. They offer a number of products from some of the Michigan craft breweries featured at this year's expo, including Arcadia, Bell's Brewing, Michigan Brewing Company, Dragonmead and Founders.

"We like to cater to the whole community," bartender Alison Cox said. "It makes us more interesting."

At the expo Saturday, Chicago natives Randy Etman and Bobby Camp were six deep in four-ounce samples of various craft brews and had yet to find one they didn't like.

"The Big Three are kid beers. These are adult beverages," Camp said, referring to craft brews.

"You've got Johnny Alpha Beta Gamma doing keg stands with Bud Light, you know what I mean," he joked, dismissing the notion of drinking beer made by the "Big Three" - Anheuser-Busch, Miller Brewing Company and Coors.

While the Big Three had booths at the expo, no representatives from the companies were present.

But for people like Etman and Camp, the craft brews were the big draw.

This event means more than just tasting great beer for Etman - as a home-brewing veteran, he gets inspired.

Having brewed for more than a decade, he has concocted more than 10 different beers, usually falling back on his house favorite, a pale ale. Etman has his creations on tap in his garage to offer guests and to enjoy for himself whenever he wants to have a cold one.

Accidents can yield some of the best products, such as Etman's accidental masterpiece, "Dog Spit Stout."

"My dog dropped his ball in (the beer), so it would have been infected," he said. "So I re-boiled it and that made it a thicker, stronger stout - and it was real good."

At least one of the other men at the expo had a start similar to that of Etman's home-brewing experiments.

Eric Kuhnhenn, the founder of Kuhnhenn Brewing Company in Warren, started making beer in his basement, and after years of experimenting with different recipes, he took over his father's hardware store, converting it into a small brewery.

After officially being in business for six years, Kuhnhenn still holds on to the creativity that used to drive him as a home brewer.

"When we first started, it was great to do a lot of wacky beers and satisfy every crowd that came into the place," he said, while wearing a brewery T-shirt with a gold medal draped around his neck. "The problem we've got now is a little bit of growing pains. We're at about 500 barrels a year, which is not that much."

While Kuhnhenn Brewing Company is on the small end of brewery production, it has not stopped it from gaining recognition for its work. At this year's tasting competition, it tied with the Boston Beer Company, which produces Sam Adams, earning six medals a piece.

A larger-scale craft brewer, Summit Brewing Company from St. Paul, Minn., produced about 72,500 barrels last year, a similar amount to that of Kalamazoo-based Bell's Brewing, said Jennifer Harden, regional sales manager for Summit.

"It's all about the quality and consistency," she said, adding that their production ability allows them to distribute to 14 states. "Consistency is key. We have a food scientist and biologist on staff, and we check … all throughout the brewing process so that each bottle and each brew is the same no matter where you buy it or what time of year it is. It will always be consistent."

Harden said the environment at the expo embodied the values shared by many craft brewers and enthusiasts.

"It's crazy," she said. "Everybody is having a good time. We like to spread the good word of the craft, and we have a lot of other great craft breweries here."

This feeling echoed among most of the craft brewers that were present at the expo, including Pappas.

"We have a lot of fun in the craft brew industry," Pappas said. "It's great to have all the different competitions and everything, but it's like a brotherhood. We know all the brewers and different owners. No one is ever at each others throats in this industry - we all help each other out."

Ryan Beene can be reached at beenerya@msu.edu. Jon Schultz can be reached at schul320@msu.edu.