Brewery Vivant made a big splash in the canned craft beer pool when they released Solitude, Farmhand, and Triomphe, the first canned Belgian IPA, in May 2011. Triomphe became an immediate favorite of the CraftCans team, and when they released cans of their specialty beer Kludde (pronounced “clued”) just eight months later we decided we should pay a visit and meet the folks that are cranking out these Belgian- and French-inspired ales in cans. We recently met up with owner Jason Spaulding, his “Abbott of Beer” Rick Muschiana, and brewmaster Jacob Derylo for a tour.

Brewery Vivant 

Their brewpub in a Grand Rapids, Michigan neighborhood occupies the chapel of a former funeral home while the adjoining, right-sized neighborhood brewery sits in what was once a stable for horses that pulled wagons with the recently departed to the site. The classic architecture of the historical building matches the type of beers Brewery Vivant is making, and one can’t help but wonder if more than the magic of Belgian yeast is contributing to the character of their fine brews.

After the tour Jason shared some of his time and answered our questions about their beers, their building, and future canning plans for Brewery Vivant. Cheers!

Brewery Vivant's year-round cans

(CC) Solitude, Triomphe and Farm Hand were released in cans in 2011. At the time, your Super Zaison was also on the list to be canned. Is that still in the works?

(JS) Zaison is going to make its first appearance in our newly designed can that will accommodate a wrap around style paper label. We are running into inventory space issues and have come up with a way to use a single can for various styles. Zaison will be the first to go through this (hoping it works) and launching first of April 2012.

(CC) Big Red Coq, "A Hoppy Belgian Ale", is another one of your popular beers that has quite a following in these parts. Any plans to put that one in cans?

(JS) Big Red Coq should not be too far behind Zaison. We are still working on the artwork for this one but will have this debut in May.

Potential Big Red Coq can designs utilizing the wrap-around paper label

(CC) Two more new canned beers this year is great news! What else is in store for Brewery Vivant in 2012?

(JS) We have four 60 bbl tanks on order which will take us to our maximum capacity of 5,000 bbls. This is awesome but will also make it a little more crowded around here, thus less room for extra inventory of cans. We are pretty stoked with our can new can design and hope this will allow us to get a bunch more specialty brands out there.

"Coming down the can line in 2012 you should see our Double IPA, Belgian Tripel, Belgian Quad, our Barrel Aged Triomphe and maybe a Belgian Style sour."

Tripel prototype - currently serving as a pen holder on Rick’s desk!

Coming down the can line in 2012 you should see our Double IPA, Belgian Tripel, Belgian Quad, our Barrel Aged Triomphe and maybe a Belgian Style sour. Should be a big year, although many of these will only be available locally since we are doing some small runs.

(CC) Kludde was recently released in cans, and he is one bad-looking dude. What is Kludde, and why did you choose to name your strong dark ale after him?

(JS) Names just sort of happen. I name some, the brewers name some, and others pitch in too. We love to make the beer first, taste it, and then finalize the name if we can. Our manager Lauron researched and named the Kludde. As tradition has it in Belgian folklore, Kludde is a werewolf kind of beast that eats livestock and torments people leaving the pub. Usually how the stories go is that people leave the pub, only to be wary of the Kludde lurking and get so scared they have to return to the pub for one more. Seemed kind of fitting.

view of the bar at Brewery Vivant

(CC) Your building is awesome, and is certainly a unique setting for a brewpub. Any interesting stories related to the history of the building?

(JS) One of my favorites is a rumor our servers started in the beginning. Since we are in an old funeral home, they started telling people that our tables were made out of old caskets that were left in the basement. People still ask about this, which is really funny. It is actually old barn wood but the casket thing is just too fun not to let hang out there.

Triomphe was the first Belgian IPA to be canned

NOTES: Brewery Vivant’s site is chock full of information on their beers, brew crew, business philosophy, and more. We highly recommend taking a virtual tour of the pub and brewery to get a first hand look at the “old casket” tables in the hall.

Also, there are several things we've been made aware of since this interview took place. First, Brewery Vivant became the first LEED Certified Brewery in the United States! An amazing accomplishment. They are also looking into expanding their distribution into the Chicago market sometime this summer, and perhaps even more exciting is news that they are working on a collaboration beer with “one of the biggest in the microbrew industry.” Just which microbrewery that is and what beer they will create remains a secret for now, but we’ll be sure to share the news as soon as we hear!