Harmony Brewing Celebrating Aluminum Anniversary

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The traditional gift for celebrating a ten-year anniversary is aluminum, and while your wife might not appreciate receiving that, one Michigan brewery can’t wait to break out the cans for theirs. Harmony Brewing in Grand Rapids is going to mark this occasion by moving their popular beer out into distribution and adding hand-crafted spirits to their lineup as well.

BY Amy Sherman FOR MiBrew Trail

Harmony Brewing celebrating 'aluminum' anniversary

MIBREW TRAIL MAGAZINE

WINTER 2022

Harmony Brewing recently change its license from brew pub to microbrewery, which now allows them to brew beer, wine, and spirits. (Harmony Brewing/Courtesy Photo)

wood-fired pizzas in Eastown and homemade sausages at Harmony Hall. The brewery is owned by the three Van Dyke siblings, Jackson, Barry and Heather. "We’ve wanted to do distribution since day one," co-owner Barry VanDyke said. "But there were weird quirks in the laws that didn’t allow us to do it. Then during the shutdown, the industry was changing, we thought we could look back into getting into distribution. And we were able to figure it out." Originally licensed as a brewpub, Harmony was only allowed to sell their beer, and only beer, on-site. Their redesignation to a microbrewery means that now they can make not just beer, but also wine, and spirits. Harmony can now distribute their beer to bars, restaurants, and stores, which they plan to start doing soon, through self-distribution in the local Grand Rapids market to begin with. "Our idea is to get ourselves out there, and establish a presence out in the retail market, and in the bars and restaurants, and then approach a distributor after that," Barry said. "Eventually our long-term plans are to sign with a distributor, but for now, we’re small."

Harmony Brewing has two popular pubs in Grand Rapids, one in the Eastown neighborhood and Harmony Hall on the West Side. (Harmony Brewing/Courtesy Photo)

The Founders/GVSU partnership allowed design thinking students to interact in an authentic learning experience with a client to meet real world needs. Almost all of the students who participated in the partnership found working with Founders to be a positive experience and were excited to design an actual product. The project is a great example of how partnerships can be developed between the business community and higher education to engage in practical experiences that can help students prepare for future careers and creative endeavors. If Founders decides to implement any of the ideas or not, at the end of the project, GVSU design thinking students got to brew their own beer and "chase the what if."

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"We have been dreaming about this for a really long time," said co-owner Jackson VanDyke, via a press release. "Harmony has been around for ten years, and we have established a company with a strong reputation and some fantastic products that we are super proud of. We put a lot of love into what we do, and we can’t wait to get Harmony in front of even more people." Harmony Brewing has two locations in Grand Rapids, one in the Eastown neighborhood and one on the West Side of the city. They’ve been operating as an on-site sale brewpub for ten years and are well known for their award-winning

Harmony will have two beer offerings to start, and they’ll be available in six-packs of cans. Lovely Day IPA, a medium-bodied beer that gets enhanced with lavender, chamomile, Citra hops and the zest of 80 oranges, will be one of the beers. The other will be Black Squirrel, a unique smoked black porter. The still that Harmony picked is the same type that Long Road Distillers use for their small-batch brews. Barry said that knowing they are right around the corner if a mechanical problem occurs and can

provide a bit of their expertise to the situation was important. They also are helping Harmony get started in the spirits business by contract brewing their current offerings, so you can still enjoy a hand-crafted cocktail at either location. Once the still is up and running, and Barry has fine-tuned his technique, you can expect to find a lot of gins on the list, as well as other, lesser-known spirits. "I’m working on developing different kinds of gins, that’s my main passion," he said. "You can get so in the weeds with all the different botanicals and the way you can express gin. We also really love amaros and fernets, those old-style aperitifs. That’s where I’ll really be focusing because there are already a ton of people making vodka."

Harmony Brewing in Grand Rapids has a variety of new spirits available. (Harmony Brewing/Courtesy Photo)

Barry and Heather are two of the three Van Dyke siblings and owners of Harmony Brewing. (Harmony Brewing/Courtesy Photo)

He also currently has a limoncello spirit, something that you don’t find at many distilleries here in Michigan. "That’s the stuff that really geeks me out," Barry explained. "And that is why it looks like a laboratory in here." Listening to Barry talk about distilling you can really feel his passion for experimentation. "There are so many ways to express your mood with gin," he said. "You can do all different kinds of moods,

One of the new spirits at Harmony Brewing is Limoncello. (Harmony Brewing/Courtesy Photo)

and also, you can just have good strong gin." For now, you’ll only find Harmon’s spirits on-site at their two locations. At some point, they will work with the state to distribute their liquor. Adding distribution and spirits to their lineup will allow Harmony to continue to grow, while not adding another location to their lineup. "The industry still isn’t what it was pre-COVID," said Barry, referencing the pandemic shutdowns and labor shortages that still affect the restaurant industry today. "It’s like out of the pan and into a different kind of fire. There’s still a lot of unpredictability." "It’s been a long time coming," said co-owner Heather. "We were one of the first to apply with this new version of the law, and it took over a year to go through the process." Barry concurred, saying that Harmony has been in a constant state of making plans, then changing the plans, all year while they awaited approval.

"Now we are finally actually going for it, and it’s awesome," he said. In 2022, Harmony will celebrate their 10th anniversary, and having these new offerings in the market is one way they are going to celebrate this milestone. They’ll also be hosting several different events throughout the year to commemorate this accomplishment, so be sure to follow them to stay up to date on Harmony happenings. "It’s a chance for us to get our stuff out there," Barry said. "We’ve always felt a little like we weren’t on stage with the other guys, since we couldn’t distribute, there were some festivals we couldn’t attend because our license as a brewpub was very restrictive. This will help us grow our brand and reach out into the community like we’ve never done before. And we are really looking forward to that aspect."

Harmony Brewing recently change its license from brew pub to microbrewery, which now allows them to brew beer, wine, and spirits. (Harmony Brewing/Courtesy Photo)

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