GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Mark Sellers gets asked a lot of questions about his bars, but there’s been one that he’s gotten much more than most in recent months: When is the Grand Rapids Brewing Co. going to open?

"I get asked about 20 times a day," said Sellers, owner of BarFly Ventures LLC, who finally posted the answer - Wednesday, Dec. 5 - on the new brewpub's Facebook page.

“I wouldn’t announce the date until I was pretty certain,” he said. “Now that we’re brewing beer, we’re ready.”

Brewers Stu Crittenden and Jake Brenner started brewing a brown ale on the brewery’s 7-barrel system, which is bolstered by a several 15- and 7-barrel fermenters, on Wednesday, Oct. 24.

It will be one of eight to 10 house-made brews, including a new formulation of Silver Foam, the popular pilsner-style brew that the original GRBC distributed throughout the Midwest before the historic brewery, which once produced upwards of 250,000 barrels per year from a castle-style brewery located at Michigan Street and Ottawa Avenue, folded.

Sellers purchased the brewing system equipment from the former owners of the Grand Rapids Brewing Co. after the brewpub, which opened in 1993 on 28th Street SE, closed in June 2011.

But the new GRBC opening was delayed months, Sellers said, because the old owners stripped much of the equipment of fittings and components, which had to be replaced and installed at extra cost.

The new all-organic brewpub "is looking better every day," said Sellers. A large mural of the historic brewery will occupy one of the new brewpub walls.

The GRBC will occupy 10,000-square-feet of space at 1 Ionia SW. Sellers is investing $1.5 million into the renovation. The restaurant will be able to accommodate 450 customers on the ground floor plus a special event space in the basement.

The alley side of the building facing the Van Andel Arena will feature a deck for open-air seating and large garage doors facing the arena that will be opened during the summer months. The brewpub will anchor a redevelopment underway to functionally combine two buildings into one mixed-use complex.

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