According to its Facebook page, local mug clubbers and pub-crawlers are anticipating this summer's opening of the proposed
Harmony Brewing in Grand Rapids' Eastown.
The former Jack's Liquor store at 1551 Lake Dr. continues to move steadily toward its $350,000 transformation into a cozy neighborhood brewpub. Siblings Barry and Jackson VanDyke and Heather VanDyke-Titus, owners of Bear Manor Properties, began converting the combination store/house structure last summer and hope to have the place open in late June or early July.
"Barry had seen a historic photo (of the building) and hoped the brick pillars were under the façade," says Jackson VanDyke. "We tore off the awning and all of the tongue and groove, and found three brick pillars and openings for windows."
Patrons will have front-row seating for much of the onsite brewing process, where they'll be able to look through a glass panel into the house's basement-come-brew house. The living and dining room windows will open onto the fermentation room instead of the yard, says VanDyke.
The building needed a new concrete basement floor to hold the 200-gal., 500-lb. tank. The plumbing is roughed in, and the electrical systems and mechanicals for the HVAC are in process.
Part of the brewing system will use recycled food-grade dairy tanks.
"We drove out to Wisconsin and bought three
recycled dairy tanks from a guy who repurposes them," VanDyke says. "They're just as good as anything we could have bought new and they already have character."
VanDyke says the pub's opening date depends in part on approvals for a state liquor license and issuance of a brew notice from the federal
Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
Source: Jackson VanDyke,
Bear Manor Properties and Harmony Brewing
Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor
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