DETROIT, MI – Highly anticipated craft beer bar and entertainment spot HopCat Detroit is opening with fanfare on Nov. 15, the bar’s owners, BarFly Ventures, announced Wednesday.

The opening, which officially begins at 11 a.m., will feature a free concert by Brooklyn-based Pitchblak Brass Band as well as a tap takeover by Bellaire-based Short’s Brewing Company. There will be at least 101 different varieties of Short’s brew for the tasting.

“HopCat Detroit’s opening will be our biggest yet, so we wanted to pull out all the stops and throw a party no one will soon forget,” Mark Sellers, founder of HopCat, said in a release. “Short’s Brewing Company’s ability to come up with more than 100 incredibly interesting beers, breaking its own record for most beers from one brewery ever available in one place, shows the genius of Joe Short and his entire team. Pitchblak’s performance will bring another level of genius to HopCat. When I saw them perform in Savannah, Georgia earlier this year, I knew they’d be the perfect band to christen what I hope will become one of Detroit’s most eclectic music and entertainment venues.”

Next month, BarFly will begin hiring the 150 workers needed to staff the 11,000-square-foot location – the largest of its kind for a HopCat bar so far.

Located at 4265 Woodward Ave., BarFly has said it plans to invest $3.3 million in the historic building that most recently housed the Agave Restaurant. HopCat Detroit will have 130 tap handles, giving it the largest draft beer selection in Michigan. A music venue upstairs will have the capacity for 400 people.

The first HopCat location opened in downtown Grand Rapids in 2008 and was followed by an East Lansing location last July. The bar concept has generated numerous craft beer industry accolades in its six-year history. Earlier this year, the Grand Rapids HopCat was named the No. 1 brewpub in the U.S. by RateBeer.com for a second time.

In announcing the Detroit location earlier this year, BarFly said it was thinking of expanding to up to 15 cities throughout the Midwest. A location is set to open in Indianapolis’ Broad Ripple area of downtown in August.

And an Ann Arbor location is scheduled to open in January 2015.

David Muller is the business reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. Email him at dmuller@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter