Brewery Vivant
Microbrewery
in Grand Rapids,
Michigan,
United States 🇺🇸
Associated Venue: Brewery Vivant
Established in 2010
We are excited to share our passion for beer, food and sustainability with you. Much of the inspiration behind Vivant comes from the small breweries that dot the countryside in Southern Belgium and Northern France. Often, those breweries are true beer artisans who are also an integral part of their community. They experiment with unique yeasts and local ingredients, always with an artistic eye to their creations. Sourcing ingredients locally makes their beer pair exceptionally well with a meal of locally sourced produce, meats, and cheeses. Brewery Vivant promotes living the good life by brewing farmhouse inspired beer, serving a from-scratch menu, and building a sustainable community one beer at a time.
shrubber (15840) reviewed Farm Hand from Brewery Vivant 14 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Can. Lemon, berry and malt aroma. Slightly hazy yellow color with moderate head. Slight sweet-tart lemon and earthy barley malt flavor. Not quite like the typical saison but still a good drinking beer.
shrubber (15840) reviewed Triomphe from Brewery Vivant 14 years ago
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 5
Can. Orange malt and pine hops aroma. Clear amber color with nice tan head. Sweet orange malt and lightly bitter grapefruit peel/pine flavor. Watery palate. Okay but on the weak side.
shrubber (15840) reviewed Solitude from Brewery Vivant 14 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Can. Molasses malt and grass aroma. Dark brown color with moderate head. Chocolate and sour milk/lemon flavor. A bit funky.
Silphium (4309) reviewed Zaison from Brewery Vivant 14 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
On tap at Crunchy’s, East Lansing. Clear straw body, medium-thick tight off-white head. Grainy nose, grassy with hints of citrus, unfermented sugars, and alcohol. Sweet body with citrus peel (sugary orange), grassy and bready with fruity esters and alcohol warmth. A little too sweet to drink in quantity.
Silphium (4309) reviewed Solitude from Brewery Vivant 14 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Can. Medium-deep translucent brown body, thick to medium tight cream head. Nose sweet and estery, quite toasty, with brown sugar, banana, clove, and a hint of cola. Rich and very nice. Body drier than expected, toasty with burnt caramels and spice- primarily clove; also pepper. Raisin notes round out the palate. Well-attenuated, thin, and watery.
Earlier Rating: 2/28/2011 Total Score: 3.6
On tap at the brewpub. Deep translucent red-brown ruby/garnet body, thin tight buff head. Nose of clove, toast, and dark fruit, estery with slight sweetness. Firm estery body with cloves, dark fruit (plum), brown sugar, and toast, with a spritzy mouthfeel. Quite good, clean and well-executed.
mrbunn (3068) reviewed Farm Hand from Brewery Vivant 14 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Sweet ass 16 oz can! Pours a nice orangish gold with lots of bubbles and a medium head. Aromas are a little funky with honey and grass. Flavor is about like the nose... honey and grass are the main draws. The funk backs down a little bit and there is just a hint of lemon edginess. It’s good... definitely the best saison in a can that I’ve ever had, but that’s a sample pool of exactly one.
mrbunn (3068) reviewed Solitude from Brewery Vivant 14 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
16 oz can. Pours the color of cola with a similar thinness and transparency in the light. Carbonation leaves a nice dense (but thin) head and little carbonation rises or sticks to the sides of the glass. First approach with the nose leaves the sensation of stepping into the grain bin of grandpa’s farm when I was a kid or going to the grain silos with him. Kind of a dusty and grainy aroma. Closer analysis indicates there is a little hint of dark fruit in the background, but it’s almost all grain. I’m wondering where the Belgian yeast complexity is at, because I’m not finding it in the nose. Flavor is better. Sure, it’s heavy with dusty grain, a little bit of a woodsy flavor (leaf detritus and firewood), nuts and just a hint of raisin or prune. It is light on the palate and doesn’t go very far... kind of thin. I like it enough, but it seems to lack complexity.
mrbunn (3068) reviewed Triomphe from Brewery Vivant 14 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Big can! Pours a very clear mandarin with a sudsy head. Aromas are very faint... a little bit of barnyard funk, silo/grain dust and herbs. After the beer sits for a couple of minutes, I take another sniff and get blasted with resin and pine, but then it’s gone again. I’m pretty sure there is some sort of voodoo magic protecting this beer from my nose... First sip reveals that the dark magic might be affecting my palate as well. About all I get from it is a tingly hops sensation on the back of the tongue in the late aftertaste. The second sip reveals a bit more complexity, but the flavors (and aromas) seem to be playing hide and seek with me. A little bit of citrus (orange), a little bit of grass, some sweet and a little edge of tartness is about as descriptive as I can be (oh, with that tingly hops finish.) Interesting stuff, but it seems to vex me a bit.
Silphium (4309) reviewed Tripel from Brewery Vivant 15 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
On tap at the brewpub. Hazy straw-yellow body, thin off-white head. Nose of clove, clover honey, and light fruit. Clove-forward body, estery, with crackers, pear, and other light fruits, finishing dry and dusty with bitter hops. Not bad.
Silphium (4309) reviewed Pepper In the Rye from Brewery Vivant 15 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
On tap at the brewpub. Translucent orange body, thin off-white ring of carbonation. Sweet, syrupy nose with notes of honey. Some bitter pepper in the body, but mostly sweet with clover honey, sugar, crackers, and toast. After a few sips, green raisin notes take precedence. A tad cloying.