A new beer menu full of Grand Rapids history

8:38 PM, Dec 5, 2012   |    comments
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The menu at the new Grand Rapid's Brewing Company

GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) -- The Grand Rapids Brewing Company reopened Wednesday, featuring up to ten organically brewed house beers.

Each beer is named after something Grand Rapids related:

  • The Silver Foam is a lager style beer and historic Grand Rapids Brewing Co. label, and once among the most popular beers in the region -- until Prohibition ruined the beer industry.
  • The Brewer's Heritage, a hefferveisen beer, is a nod to the Grand Rapids' German brewers who opened some of the first breweries in the area.
  • The Campau's $90 Pale Ale is named after Louis Campau, who is considered "father of Grand Rapids." He paid the federal government $90 for what we consider downtown.
  • The Fishladder IPA is named after a popular and functional downtown sculpture created to help salmon and steelhead swim upstream for spawning.
  • The John Ball Brown Ale is named after a true Michigan pioneer, John Ball, who was instrumental in the development of downtown Grand Rapids.  He donated the land that is John Ball Park.
  • The Rosalynn Bliss Blonde, a mango blonde beer, is named in honor of Second Ward city commissioner (and beer lover) Rosalynn Bliss.
  • Brandt's Union is named after Grand Rapid's Union Brewing (1862) and its founding brewer, George Brant, who started the Grand Rapids Brewing Company.
  • The Senator Lyon's Stout is named after Lucius Lyon: senator, statesman & one of the framers of Michigan's constitution.

The Grand Rapids Brewing Company is at 1 Ionia Ave. SW in Grand Rapids.