fatpaczki - lo.jpg

The 7-percent ABV Paczki Ale is brewed with powder sugar, prunes and Belgian yeast, giving it a dark fruity flavor.

(Courtesy Photo | Brewery Vivant)

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - It started as a joke, but not anymore.

When the brewers at Brewery Vivant began to mess around with a Fat Tuesday-inspired beer in 2015, they weren't expecting it to actually become a thing.

But when they let some of their loyal customers try their newly-created Fat Paczki Ale, they actually liked it, proving once again that some of the best ideas happen by accident.

The 7-percent ABV Amber Ale is brewed with powder sugar, prunes and Belgian yeast, giving it a dark fruity flavor.

"We have a Polish contingent in the brewery," said Kate Avery, abbess of beer and director of sales of marketing. "They were excited and wanted to do something for Fat Tuesday. We brought it out and tried it. We had no idea it was going to explode and we actually got quite a following."

Avery said the brewery was flooded with inquiries about the beer during Fat Tuesday 2016, which, again, caught them a bit off-guard. They weren't going to make that mistake this year.

Now two years removed from the experimental brew, the Grand Rapids brewery is offering the beer during a semi-wide release on Feb. 28.

Brewery Vivant is offering the limited edition beer beginning at 3 p.m. The brewery also has 25 to 30 four-pack cases of 16-oz cans to sell for $12.99 each.

The first 100 patrons at the bar on Tuesday afternoon will receive a "paczki bite" with every pour of beer. Avery couldn't say for sure how fast the cases will go but suggested that anyone who really wants a case should arrive no later than the 3 p.m. opening.

"We didn't throw in actual paczkis, we ate those instead," head brewer Jacob Derylo said. "However this beer still adheres to the Packzi beer guidelines set by the Beer Judge Certification Program."

If that category existed within the BJCP, that is.