Bier Distillery & Brewery

Fantastic service, atmosphere & some tasty food and cocktails! 🍸

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I met Tracy at the Ypsilanti beer fest, and I’m gonna tell you that Ms.Pickles sour pickle beer is surely a gift from the heavens above. Thank you for your kindness and hospitality. Can’t wait to meet up with you all again.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Great burgers and beer!! Awesome experience, definitely adding it to our list of places to stop when in town!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 4

We tried several appetizers, sandwiches, and drinks: everything was great! Good selection of appetizers and super yummy chicken sandwich.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

It's on a busy road, and the parking is meager. But OMG, interesting beer and such. good. food. I'd be here weekly if I lived in GR.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

Everything about this place is awesome!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Aggressively competitive prices while maintaining good quality food and a very cozy atmosphere.

- Burger $14 (includes the fries): I just built my own burger. I made it a double patty with cheddar (they don’t have American cheese!), ketchup, mayo, lettuce, and tomato. There was not enough cheese on this and I suspect that is because if you ask for a double, they give you cheese for a single unless you ask for it to be doubled. That could be a big problem if you are ordering a triple. Just make sure you ask for the right amount of cheese.

The burgers were quarter pound patties and cooked somewhere around medium-well to well done (by default since they did not ask how I wanted it). That made it dry, chewy, and overall a bit less enjoyable. It was still good enough to keep, though. It was called a non-technical smashburger by the staff and that about sums it up. With smashburgers, you have to sear the outside and with it being as thick as this one is, you have to cook it too long and it ends up almost well done. My friend also ordered a double burger and had much the same experience.

The bun was slightly above average. It was toasted and still plenty soft.

Overall, the burger was good, but I’d make a few modifications to its defaults and the ordering process for them.

- Fries: VERY seasoned and deep deep fried taste. They were a bit on the dry side and with the amount of seasoning, it was just a bit overwhelming. I almost waited for them to cool because the plate was really hot, but I decided to try one anyway and it was already starting to cool. They are decent fries, though. Probably not the general public’s choice, though.

- Pretzel $9: I have heard that their pretzel was really good. Upon ordering it, it was out in roughly 2 minutes, meaning it is not super fresh. It had the standard tough exterior texture, but slightly flaky and a bit thinner than usual. The inside was soft, thick, and good. It was just a tad on the salty side. Overall, it was great, but if they are made up ahead, the price on this item may be a bit on the higher side (which is about the only price complaint I have for this place).

- Maple Ginger Hot Totty: My friend ordered the Toddy and reports it is “hot and soothing” and has a great cinnamon flavor. Also, the alcoholic content was a little on the stronger side.

- Service: Both waitresses who served us were very cheerful and helpful. Everything arrived about the time you’d expect it.

- Atmosphere: With high ceilings, and wood floors, there was a bit of echoing and voices carried. The music was soft and pleasant and not overwhelming at all. There is seating on a second floor available, too. We sat at the round tables with glass surfaces and bar stools, but they do have some standard tables available. The main feel of the place almost reminds me of Colorado.

- Conclusion: Ok, I probably complained too much. Really, most of our experience was great and I’d highly recommend them mainly due to the awesome prices, good food, and great atmosphere.

Visited Wednesday 7:00-8:30 pm.

Parking: I can see this place being busy on weekends and parking may be a bit tight. During those peak times, the neighboring business may not be open and their parking lot could be used for overflow? Not sure.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Build Your Own Double Cheeseburger with Bacon and Mushrooms

Jake was an amazing mixologist - we loved our choices of a house gin lavender martini and house rye old fashioned with a side of Captain Dave house brewed IPA. Wonderful find on our weekend road trip from WI. Will be back to try the food and Wine before we leave!
Update one day later - wine is stellar and the food amazing. Recommend the fried rice w chicken & the cod. The outdoor beer garden space is gorgeous - you just might get a leaf garnish courtesy of Mother Nature! lol

Atmosphere: 5

Service: 5

The cocktails made with in house gin and rye are dah bomb! The servers are attentive and personable. The food is amazing - highly recommend the fried rice and cod. Capt Dave for the beer win with a visit to the gorgeous beer garden in the back. A must visit when in the Grand Rapids area.

Edit to reply to the owners edit: uh oh, sounds like I wasn’t the only one caught out by the $5 charges, but I’m actually extremely glad you are creating a more transparent policy for them! Im all for that! But unfortunately It wasn’t explained as an accidental mistake so maybe you thought it was, but it wasn’t. the waitress said that’s how it works, she even went on to tell me up to $15 for the day, so no mistake there I’m afraid, that’s when I said that’s badly worded on the sign then and I even told her I’d write a review, that way other people would know to check before asking to use them. she then took it to ‘the owner’ which maybe is you, but if it was then maybe you should have come and said hi instead of let your waitress change it. I guess I should thank you for gracefully bashing ‘ev owners’, man we all suck eh…I think that’s classy…and no, I was super polite to the waitress the whole time I was there and obviously stood my ground and pointed out the the sign you posted on the chargers is misleading if you wanna charge $5. I just got this EV but now I’ll find somewhere to hang out while I’m waiting for the games to be finished at shots, bad taste in my mouth from all this.

Firstly, cool place!!! Great hard cider! Great server…But wow they were about to charge me $5 to plug in my EV for an hour haha that’s like $1.70 on a regular rate of electricity on a 10kwh charger….(Don’t worry ev haters, my other car is a V8 I just like fast EVs too) but I told them that wasn’t cool to pull a fast one on their customers on and they took off the $5. The sign they have up isn’t clear if you want to charge $5 an hour, it’s misleading, sounds like you will only charge people who want to sit in their car and charge which is fair, but I came in…I’ll upload the sign to see. If anything I just felt a bit swindled for $5…update the sign please if you want to ask $5 an hour for charging for paying customers.

Atmosphere: 5

Had a great time, and enjoyed some great beers. We even met captain Dave!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Cool place to hang out at, with some awesome beers and a unique assortment of liquor made on the property. The atmosphere was cool, staff was friendly and accommodating, food was great, just a really cool place to hang out!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Beers are very good, and the food and appetizers always above average. When we stopped by at happy hour yesterday, however, our server did not seem enthusiastic about serving us, and when we inquired about buying a whiskey barrel, she told us “the wait list is long and I’m not sure what the owner plans to do”. When we asked about getting on the waitlist, she did not address our request, and walked away..

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 1

Strawberry Fields Ale was fabulous and so was the macaroni and cheese. Small food menu but everything looked delicious. Tons of drinks!!! Great service.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Good service and food / great drinks everything is mixed/ made fresh

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5