If you’re not from Michigan, then you may not be aware that Grand Rapids is known for its beer. In fact, Grand Rapids has been celebrated as “Beer City USA” for 10 years. It also has received a number of accolades from
In other words, there is a LOT of great beer in Grand Rapids – which can make it hard to pick a place to have a drink. We have rounded up some of our favorite bars and breweries in Grand Rapids to make it easier for you to try the best brews in town. Our list includes a wide range of options so that you can choose a place that has both the beer AND the vibes that you want.
Budget Branders knows how challenging it can be to get a business off the ground, especially when you’re starting your own brewery or bar. We offer high quality custom printed disposable products, including stadium cups, plastic cups, and more. When you buy from our company, you can rest assured that you are getting the best products at the optimal prices to meet your marketing needs and your budget.
The 13 Breweries and Bars You Have to Try in Grand Rapids, MI
When it comes to craft beer, you have a wealth of options in Grand Rapids. Our city is nationally known for its locally-made beer, with many small brewers offering unique beers that you can’t get anywhere else. If you want to take a tour of some of these amazing places, this list of our 13 favorite bars and breweries are a great place to start.
Of course, many of these breweries don’t just offer beers. Many have ciders, meads, seltzers, and even kombucha on tap. Most have a food menu as well – and the ones that don’t typically schedule food trucks or coordinate with local restaurants for delivery. Check out our list below – and let us know if we are missing anything!
Brewery Vivant
Housed in a former funeral home, Brewery Vivant is all about sustainability. The brewery and taproom produces a “Beer the Change” sustainability report, and takes a number of steps to reduce its carbon footprint – like the solar panels installed on its roof. It has both indoor and outdoor dining, weather-permitting, and you can even reserve a table in its “chapel.”
Brewery Vivant offers three categories of beers: mainstays, like its farmhouse ale, lager, and IPA; tier 2 beers like its hoppy red ale, rye & spelt saison, and summer wheat ale; and tier 3 beers such as a golden ale, hazy pale ale, and a strawberry rhubarb sour ale. It also offers a Czech-style pilsner, cocktails, ciders, wine, and non-alcoholic beverages. Its kitchen offers up a range of more unusual eats, such as escargot, duck nachos, schnitzel, and poutine.
The Mitten Brewing Company
The Mitten Brewing Company is a baseball-themed microbrewery with a delicious brew made from real roasted peanuts and peanut butter: the Peanuts & Crackerjack robust porter. Housed in a former firehouse in Grand Rapids, there are options for both indoor and outdoor dining on its bi-level deck.
Beyond the Peanuts & Crackerjack stout, The Mitten Brewing Company offers American IPAs, English brown ales, double IPAs, wheat ales, and even a house-made non-alcoholic root beer. Its food offerings include classic bar fare, including pizza, sandwiches, and appetizers like wings and cheesy breadsticks.
Thornapple Brewing
Based in Cascade Township, Thornapple Brewing was founded in 2017. The brewery carries a varied menu of beer, cider, mead, wine, seltzers, hand-made spirits, and cocktails. Its beer selection includes everything from IPAs to American pale ales to saisons to sour ales.
Thornapple Brewing stands out from other breweries because it doesn’t just make its own beers, ciders, and meads – it also makes vodka, gin, rum, and agave spirits. You can also order food when visiting Thornapple, with options such as appetizers, specialty pizzas, sandwiches, wraps, burgers, and salads.
Arvon Brewing Co.
Arvon Brewing Co. is known for its New England-style IPAs, such as the Mainistee, Harbor Beach, and Double Jurassic Haze. In addition, it offers lagers, West Coast IPAs, kettle sours, and even a seltzer. You can also join its “Brew Crew,” which allows you to sample Arvon’s limited and experimental beers. Members of the Brew Crew receive quarterly allocations of twelve, 16oz cans of beer.
Arvon Brewing Co. doesn’t have a kitchen, but you can get something to eat from food trucks that often are parked outside of the taproom. In nice weather, you can also eat outside at the brewery’s beer garden along Division Avenue.
B.O.B.’s Brewery
B.O.B.’s Brewery is the oldest brewery in downtown Grand Rapids and has earned a following for its standard and specialty beers. Its name is an acronym for “Big Old Building,” a nod to its location on Monroe Avenue in a former grocery warehouse. The building also houses 4 restaurants, a live music venue, a nightclub, and a stand-up comedy club.
B.O.B.’s Brewery offers 21 different brews, ranging from amber ales, IPAs, stours, and golden ales to summer wits, lagers, bocks, and brown ales. You can sit inside or outdoors at B.O.B.’s Brewery. While you’re there, you can also sample the brewery menu with choices like a smoked whitefish dip, pork fried rice, salad, and sandwiches.
Harmony Hall
Located on the west side of Grand Rapids, Harmony Hall is designed like a German beer hall – or as Harmony calls it, a “beer castle.” It has a range of beers on taps, including a Rye IPA, an American IPA, a German lager, a smoked porter, and an American wheat ale. Founded by 3 siblings, Harmony expanded from its original Eastown location to open Harmony Hall in 2015.
When you’re enjoying a brew at Harmony Hall, you can order some classic bar food as well. Its menu has everything from soft pretzels to vegan chili to pizza. There is plenty of seating, with a lower level that exclusively serves beer and an upstairs that offers a full-service menu.
Brass Ring Brewing
Brass Ring Brewing is known for its small batch style specific pub ales. Located just 10 minutes from downtown, it offers both indoor and outdoor seating – even in the winter! Its kitchen puts out a small menu of British-style pub fare, from beer cheese with soft pretzels to scotch eggs to tandoor chicken tacos to a ploughman’s plate.
The brewery is known for its all-natural beers that feature just four ingredients: water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. Their beer menu includes 8 Pound Hammer UK Stout, Pure Mitten Double IPA, Neighborly IPA, The Manchester English Dark Mild Ale, Liquid Spirit Porter, Wilde Irish Red Ale, Rock Steady Brown Ale, Danny Whizbang Extra Special Bitter, All Season Ale, The Wayfarer IPA, Blue Skies Pale Ale, and Golden Ticket Golden Ale. They also offer Detroit City sodas and the ability to take home some beer in a growler.
Founders Brewing Co.
Founders Brewing Co. is Michigan’s largest brewery. In recent years, Founders has become one of the biggest breweries in the nation due to the popularity of its Kentucky Bourbon Stout and its All Day IPA – which is currently the best-selling can of craft beer in the U.S. In addition to these great choices, Founders offers a wide selection of lagers, nitro brews, barrel-aged brews, hard seltzers, and limited edition beers like a German-style Märzen.
Founders Brewing Co. has breweries and taprooms in both Grand Rapids and Detroit. When you visit, you can enjoy their menu of “munchies,” sandwiches, pizzas, salads, and more. Both their beer and their feed can be ordered to-go if you prefer to enjoy it at home.
Scared Springs Micro Taproom
Founded in 2018, Sacred Springs Micro Taproom originally carried a line of nonalcoholic kombucha. Once they procured an alcohol license, however, the brewery began production of traditional mead, session mead, meaducha, hard kombucha, alongside non-alcoholic kombucha.
When visiting Sacred Springs’ taproom, you can choose from a selection of traditional meads, draft mead, mead cocktails (made with kombucha and described as “meaducha”), porter, hefeweizen, kolsch, and hard kombucha. You can also order a flight of beverages to sample a range of beverages, or get a growler to go. Although Sacred Springs doesn’t have a kitchen, you can order food from Forty Acres Soul Kitchen for delivery to the taproom.
Hop Cat
Now a chain with 9 locations in Michigan, Indiana, and Nebraska – Hop Cat got its start in Grand Rapids. The bar began with a simple goal: to bring local craft beer to the area. Its original location is a corner bar on Ionia Avenue, complete with a wall of vintage beer cans and bikes hanging from the ceiling.
At Hop Cat, you can order a dizzying selection of beers, including lagers and light ales, wheat beers, IPAs and pale ales, amber and brown beers, speciality beers, sour, wild and funk beers, nitro ales, shandys, meads, ciders, seltzers, and more. All of its beers are made locally. Its kitchen puts out a range of bar eats, including appetizers, Hop Cat’s famous fries, burgers, sandwiches, and entrees like mac ‘n cheese. They even have a kids’ menu and brunch specials.
Greyline Brewing Co.
Greyline Brewing Co. was started by the former head brewer at Founders Brewing Co. – so you know that the beer is great. Unlike Founders, however, Greyline has no plans to go national. Its focus is on producing local small batch beers, including nitro oat stouts, porters, American ales, pilsners, fruit beers, and ciders.
In addition to a truly fantastic beer menu, Greyline’s kitchen puts out a small menu that is perfect for an afternoon or evening of sampling brews. You can choose from appetizers like deviled eggs or beer cheese and pretzels or its main course tacos or nachos. You can also take beer home in cans or growlers.
Jolly Pumpkin Pizzeria and Brewery
Located on Bridge Street NW, the Jolly Pumpkin Pizzeria and Brewery is a great option for anyone who is into unpasteurized, unfiltered Belgian-style, barrel-aged sours and farmhouse ales. With locations throughout Michigan, the Jolly Pumpkin has a full menu with offerings that are sure to please everyone at your table. This includes its pizza, which is available Detroit-style for an upcharge.
The Jolly Pumpkin has more than 30 brews on tap, including artisan ales, hard cider, and a selection from North Peak Brewing Company. You can also order a selection of craft cocktails, some of which are made from its own beers.
City Built Brewing Company
City Built Brewing Company is a local favorite, and for good reason. With both indoor and outdoor seating, City Built is a great place to grab one of its “drinkably complex” beers.It has a more unusual selection compared to many local breweries, with beers like Czech pilsner, Mexican lagers, and Berliner weisse on tap. They also offer hard seltzer, cider, wine, and non-alcoholic beverages on their extensive menu.
Beyond beer, make sure to check out City Built’s taproom menu. Its owner’s Puerto Rican heritage is on display here with choices like yuca fries, pastelillos, tostones, tacos, and Puerto Rican rice.
The Best Branded Products for Your Brewery Are Just a Phone Call Away
When you run a brewery in Beer City USA, it can be hard to beat the competition. Beyond having great craft beer, it is critical to market yourself in a way that lets customers know exactly what to expect when they visit your taproom. Our custom-branded products can help you achieve that goal – and maximize your profits.
Based in Hudsonville, Budget Branders works with independently-owned breweries, bars, and restaurants throughout Michigan. We know that it can be hard to be in the same space as the massive conglomerates, which is why we offer branded products in quantities and at prices that make sense for smaller companies. With branded disposables to offer your customers, you can set yourself apart from other breweries – and expand your advertising efforts for minimal cost.
To learn more or request a quote, reach out today by filling out our online contact form or hitting the live chat button on the bottom right of your screen.
