Brewery Vivant, Grand Rapids MI

I almost didn’t go here because they seemed to be heavy into Belgian styles, which I like but not THAT much. In the end, this seemed like the right choice and I’ve very happy I took a chance on it!

To begin, Brewery Vivant is in an old funeral home and I was fortunate enough – arriving in the mid-afternoon, as I did, between crowds – to get to eat at a two-person booth in the old Chapel space. The current “altar” here is the backdrop to the bar with shelves and shelves of beer glasses.

Flight #1 (because I had to do two in order to taste all the beers that interested me) was this:

From left to right:

Farm Hand Farmhouse Ale, 5.5% – this is billed as “Michigan’s #1 Farmhouse Beer” and I can see why. It was very tasty, both easy-to-drink and interesting enough to go back to again and again.

Dark Saison (Rye Saison w/Tellicherry Peppercorns), 5.7% – OK, this was hands-down my favorite of the eight beers I tasted here! I liked all of them, but this one was a great blend of dark and light with an interesting taste that I think would never grow tiresome.

It’s Park Saison!, 5% – I mean, with a name like that, how could I not try it?!? There’s lemon peel in the brew, but I’d expected something more in the Shandy line – instead, this was a refined summer beer that would bear repeating.

Patersbier, 4.6% – from the description, “A brew traditionally made by the Trappist monks as a low ABV beer to quench their thirst as they go about their monkey duties through the day, our version hits a little higher at 4.6% and is sure to help beat the heat on those 90 degree days.” I would have loved to sample it on a hot day, but it was plenty good on this low-70s day as well.

Dinner was one of their daily specials, Fish and Chips, which came highly recommended by one of my servers:

The fish was perfectly done and the seasoning on the fries was one of the best I’ve had, not overdone. As to the “one of my servers” comment, BV has a similar system to Guardian Brewing except that instead of an LED light, you have a laminated strip of paper (containing the QR code that gets you to the menus) and a small glass. If you stick the paper in the glass, one of the servers drops by to see what you’d like. And like Guardian, this system works very well!

Flight #2 was this:

Again, from left to right:

Vivant Porter, 6% – an English Brown Porter, but without a lot of the flavor I usually associate with that style. I didn’t dislike this one, but it did taste somewhat “empty” to me.

Vivant Hefeweizen, 5% – they brew this in the German style with a red wheat base malt, and it has a lovely, pleasant taste without the overwhelming HEFEWEIZEN flavor you sometimes get from some versions of this beer.

JBZ, 4.5% – this is a dry-hopped lager and it wasn’t at all bitter. I liked it, but was left wondering what it was really all about – it was almost a beer without an identity.

Tourist in Bruges, 6% – a Belgian pale ale, this was quite lovely and not at all the strong Belgian style taste that I was afraid it might be.

I was enjoying myself too much, so moved on to dessert. First up, their Blueberry Pie with Chantilly Cream, every bit as tasty as the server promised it would be:

And finally, proof that The Future has arrived It Is Good – their very own Gin and Tonic ON DRAFT!! It’s made with Broad Leaf Gin, a lemon cordial, and tonic syrup that has lemon and lemongrass. It was absolutely delightful, and if I hadn’t had all those taster-sized beers, I would have gladly had a couple more of these. As it was, this was the end of this pleasant visit to Brewery Vivant and Grand Rapids.

Tomorrow, I’ll be headed to Columbus OH for three nights where I think I’ll be visiting North High Brewing, 1487 Brewery, and of course, Schmidt’s Sausage Haus with their German beers 🙂