The craft beer industry's taken a big leap forward around here the last couple years. 

Now, a lot of the familiar faces behind that movement are trying to help it grow, even more, forming a group called the State Line Brewers Guild.

Once a month, a big group gets together for beers. They just so happen to be the ones making the beers around here; 14 different breweries working together.

"Pretty cool business where your competitors are your friends," said Cody Greene from Crooked Tongue Brewing, who hosted the group's meeting for April.

"The willingness to give, what would otherwise in other industries be, top secret information is pretty incredible," said Adam Keck from Modern Methods. "That's the culture here. It's about us collaborating and creating more customers as craft beer drinkers rather than really competing with each other and out there to cut each other's throats."

There are a couple concepts driving this. Ideally, they'd love to work together and buy in bulk, saving everyone a little money.

Then there's the idea of beer tourism. With 14 different breweries involved in six different counties from two different states, it's an opportunity to really spread the love for craft beer around here.

"Everybody's got their own little niche. That helps with the attractiveness of, 'Hey I want to go out and hit up four different breweries and I'm going to have a different experience at everyone'," said Greg Snyder from Birdfish. 

The latest big project they've been working on is called "Ales and Trails." You walk into any one of these 14 breweries and you'll get a map showing you not only where all the breweries are, but also bike trails and there's a reason for that.

"Fundamental to us is a healthy and active lifestyle," said Keck. 

"We were all scattered about. Now we have people coming in with maps and they're like, 'Oh I didn't even know you guys were here. We just stopped at Crooked Tongue.' They're right up the road, so they'll go here and hit like two or three places in a day and just check it out," said Ira Gerhart from Noble Creature. 

"You got 14 breweries on a map that somebody, they go down to Columbiana. Now they've got Main Street of shops and coffee shops and restaurants that they're being brought to that they would have probably had never maybe came down to the area," said Snyder.

It all started as just a simple love for beer. What it's turning into is an opportunity for something much larger; brewing up something special right along the state line.

You can get a map at any of the 14 breweries involved. They're working on the trails part of the idea alongside the Rust Belt Revival Trail Coalition, a non-profit that promotes mountain biking.

To learn more about the State Line Brewers Guild or the Ales and Trails project, you can check out www.statelinebrewersguild.com.