USA, MI: Arvon Brewing Co. moving operations to Grand Rapids

A brewery with a focus on IPAs is coming to Grand Rapids, MLive.com reported on September 3.

Arvon Brewing Co. is moving its operations from Grandville to 1006 S. Division Ave., with plans to open its new brewery and taproom in the city by year’s end, says business manager and co-founder Brett Bristol.

While it won’t have a full restaurant, Arvon will feature local food trucks and vendors during open hours. The plan is to have 12 rotating taps, with half devoted to IPAs and the rest devoted to sours, stouts and others.

Tentative taproom hours are 3 to 9 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, and 1 to 9 p.m. on Saturdays, Bristol said.

The move from Grandville to Grand Rapids is necessitated by growing demand for their beers that can’t be fulfilled in their current 700-square-foot production facility, according to Bristol. The Grand Rapids space is about 5,000 square feet, with half of that slated for the taproom.

“It’s been a constant growth phase for us, and this is just the next leap in that growth to try and meet the demand that’s out there,” Bristol said. “The current demand we have is about twice what we can produce.”

Arvon brews about 600 barrels a year at their Grandville location at 3057 Broadway Ave. SW. With a bigger facility, Bristol said they hope to brew double that next year.

The move will help the brewery meet the demand of nearly 48 different retailers and taprooms, such as HopCat, that are wait-listed for the beer.

Even with their current production levels, Arvon beers can be found in some stores around Grand Rapids and Detroit and on some area taps.

Their most popular beers, Bristol said, have been the DeTour Reef double dry-hopped New England-style IPA, the Jurassic Haze juicy New England-style IPA and the Voyager New England-style IPA. Full descriptions can be found here.

Two other New England-style IPAs gaining traction are Profound Technique, which has “lots of different citrus flavors come through, with ruby red grapefruit bitterness, and a hint of cantaloupe,” and Citra Drops, which has flavors of “passion fruit, mango, lime and more citrus,” according to Bristol.

Arvon was founded by Bristol and his brother-in-law Jake Stanko in 2016, with their first sale happening in December 2017. Stanko serves as the operations manager and brewmaster.

Bristol said his brewery’s focus on IPAs, as well as their financial independence that allows experimentation, will set them apart from the substantial and growing number of breweries in the city.

“We want to stay small; That will allow us to brew these really intense beers,” he said. “In order to continue to push the boundaries we need to stay relatively small.”

Along with brewing more beer, Bristol said he looks forward to interacting with and getting on-the-spot feedback from fans and consumers in the taproom -- something he currently doesn’t get in the Grandville production facility.

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