We’ve been waiting on this news for a while.
Brewery Vivant officially arrives in Chicago today, November 12 (chalk up another good “get” for Windy City Distribution), and now you’ll all be able to find out exactly what those of us who have been sampling their Grand Rapids based wares for a little over a year now already knew – these guys know what they’re doing.
The first beers they’ll be offering are their three year-round staples, as well as collaboration beer. You’ll no doubt stumble across all of these soon, but if you need to immediately seek out a couple examples of Brewery Vivant beer, go get these:
Triomph: The first BV beer we had (green can), and still a favorite. Balance is the most notable thing about this beer, equal parts creamy Belgian and sharp hoppy ale. Not too complex but it doesn’t need to be, because it nails the two things it does quite well.
Farmhand: It took drinking nearly the full 4-pack (red can) to figure this one out, and it was well worth it. The first time tried this French farmhouse style beer, we thought there might be something wrong with it, to be honest – weirdly funky and rich with those hay/horseblanket scents people love to talk about.
After making our way through a good 32oz., we started to get it – this beer is a unique, delicious and kinda weird offering that is absolutely reminiscent (or at least what we like to think would be reminiscent) of what a spontaneously-fermenting barrel of homemade beer that sat in a barn for months awaiting the bucket and dipper to be served from. In a good way. If this doesn’t make sense, drink two and see if you can’t start envisioning a tiny farm in rural France.
The Abbey (purple can) is solid, and while the Escoffier collaboration with New Belgium sounds awesome – if its one thing New Belgium knows well it’s sours, and any collaboration with them that includes any kind of tartness has plenty of promise – we haven’t personally sampled that (yet) and therefore we can’t immediately recommend it…but we hope to amend that soon.
Welcome, Brewery Vivant. Happy to have you here.