GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Before they were competing brewery owners, Mike Stevens and Brett VanderKamp were brothers in the Omicron Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Hope College.

On Thursday, May 28, Stevens and VanderKamp took the stage together at the Start Garden venture capital firm in downtown Grand Rapids, where the two brewery heads interviewed each other for more than an hour.

VanderKamp, president of New Holland Brewing Co., and Stevens, CEO of Founders Brewing Co., talked candidly about the early days of their growing companies, which have become two of Michigan's largest craft breweries.

Much of the discussion focused on the changing American craft beer industry, which has grown into a major player in the international beverage market over the past decade. The rest was light-hearted talk between two brewers who may have started in the same place, but who have taken different paths to get where they are today.

Below are five bits of inside baseball on the beer business from their talk.

• Stevens: What aspect of the job has gotten tougher over the years? VanderKamp: "The hangovers are worse."

• Would you ever consider buying another brewery? Stevens: "Our compound annual growth rate for the last 6 years is averaging 72 percent. We're not even out west yet... why would we want to hit the reset button and have those complications when we've got some much in front of us?" VanderKamp: "It's definitely something we've talked about." Whether it happens would "depend on if it's a fit culturally."

• Stevens on consumer tastes and why Founders has put so much into All Day IPA: "People just want a better beer. They don't need to be hit over the head with double chocolate coffee stouts. Just give us a good, clean beer that tastes good."

• VanderKamp on the Budweiser Super Bowl ad: "We're totally winning."

• Stevens on the history of beer brewing: More breweries, not less, is the natural state of things. "The big domestic brewers are nothing but a blip on the radar."

Garret Ellison covers business, government and environment for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email him at gellison@mlive.com or follow on Twitter & Instagram