GR, Asheville share Beer City USA title

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Grand Rapids and Asheville, NC will share the title of Beer City USA 2012.

The two cities beat out 29 others in a nationwide online poll held earlier this month, each receiving 32% of the votes.

==== Check out the poll results ====

This is Grand Rapids' first win and Asheville's fourth in the competition.

Beer City USA is about community pride and not just about beer, according to examiner.com. It's very different than other polls that rate beer on viral popularity, hops, brand presence, sales, size of brewery, number of breweries, volume produced, volume consumed, ingredients used or bottom line accounting.

Beer City USA is about the view on main street, grass roots and community support for craft brewing and craft beer; it's not about mainstream data, averages and statistics.

The American Homebrewers Association in reviewing the History of Homebrewing, estimates there are 1 million homebrewers in the United States.