Craft @ the Quarry returns Friday to Centennial Terrace for its fourth annual beer festival.

There will be representatives 51 breweries on site from 7 to 11 p.m. with more than 170 beers available to sample. Tickets for the event located at 5773 Centennial Rd. in Sylvania are $25 — good for 20 samples and a souvenir cup — and can be purchased at the facility’s entrance Friday night. There is a $10 admission charge for nondrinkers and designated drivers.

“I like to think this is the premier event in northwest Ohio,” said Chris Moses of NWO Hopheads, the craft beer branch of NWO Distributing which organized the festival. “It’s probably not the biggest by volume — the Glass City Beer Fest is probably bigger — but we get 1,500 to 2,000 people for this event. We’re just trying to put out the best product that we can.

“Our focus is on local craft primarily and making sure we have representation from the breweries on top of that to make the experience that much better.”

Breweries from the Toledo area as well as Ohio and Michigan will be well represented at the festival. Plus, the total number of breweries exceeded Moses’ expectations.

“We’ve tried to grow local craft beer in the area,” Moses said. “We carry several local craft beers and we developed our own logo and so on. Locally, we do Great Black Swamp right here out of Toledo. Our hottest new local brewery is Catawba Island Brewing Co. out of Port Clinton. We also sell Rivertown out of Cincinnati, Cellar Rats out of the Cleveland area, and Rockmill out of Lancaster, Ohio. And then we have a couple really hot brands from Michigan. We have Arbor Brewing out of Ypsilanti and Mountain Town Brewing out of Mt. Pleasant.”

Other local breweries include Maumee Bay and Black Cloister, both of Toledo, and Flatrock of Napoleon. For a complete list, see NWO Hopheads’ Facebook page.

Moses said the event has developed a loyal crowd in its previous three years.

“We’ve got people that come every year so they probably want to know what’s new,” he said. “I know that Black Cloister is a high-profile one that everybody wants to try their stuff. So they’re going to bring everything they have available.”

For those who haven’t attended the event, Moses said the atmosphere meets the needs of casual craft beer fans and enthusiasts.

“It’s a really social atmosphere so everyone can congregate and chat,” he said. “It’s kind of the opposite of a concert where everybody flows to the front of the stage. This is kind of on the perimeter where all the beer is and everybody sits down with their samples. The music isn’t too loud where they can’t carry on a normal conversation.”

Food can be purchased at the venue, which also will provide live music.

A Columbus push

Great Black Swamp Brewing Co. recently has pushed its self-distribution into Columbus and beyond.

The reason actually is pretty simple.

“The idea is to sell more beer,” said Bob Morris, co-owner of the Toledo-based brewery.

Great Black Swamp doesn’t plan to open a taproom so wider distribution is another source of revenue.

“Everybody [in Columbus] seems to be excited about it,” Morris said. “Beer places are always getting new things, new beers to try. Clientele always wants new stuff, so they tend to rotate beers through. They put us on for a while and they try it.”

Another way GBSBC tries to be innovative is making unique beers for local restaurants such as Tony Packo’s and Degage Jazz Cafe.

“We make Packo’s Pale Ale and we make Degage Ale,” Morris said. “The stores seem to have a commitment to it when it has their names on it. In the retail end, places have 10 to 20 taps and they don’t really care what beer you buy as long as you buy a beer. If they have their name on it, it makes them a little more motivated to promote the product. So that’s why we kind of went in that direction.”

In addition to the Craft @ the Quarry on Friday, Great Black Swamp is scheduled to have a tap takeover Saturday night at the Mucky Duck, 26611 Dixie Hwy. in Perrysburg.

Lucas County winner

John Mulligan of Swanton took home best of show this month at the homebrewing competition at the Lucas County Fair. He entered his maibock in the pale lager competition, which ultimately was awarded the top prize at the fair.

Mulligan also recently won best of show at the annual Son of Brewzilla competition, which is put on by Fat Head’s Brewery & Saloon in North Olmstead, Ohio. His Swantuckey Saison was brewed by Fat Head’s and will be entered in Denver’s Great American Beer Festival's Pro-Am competition in September.

Lenawee festival

The Rockin’ the Hills Craft Beer Festival is 3 to 9 p.m. Saturday at Manitou Village at Devils Lake in Lenawee County. There will be more than 20 mostly Michigan breweries, including Cotton Brewing Co. of Adrian. The cost of admission is $25, which includes 10 taste tokens.

For more information, go to irishhills.com/​experience.

Raise a Glass is a craft beer column covering what's brewing in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. It appears in The Blade's Peach Weekender on the last Thursday of every month.

Contact Bob Cunningham at bcunningham@theblade.com or 419-724-6506.

First Published July 30, 2015, 4:00 a.m.