For Jeremy Grossenbacher, opening a brewery in his hometown of Coopersville was about more than his passion for craft beer, food and hospitality.
It was also about taking advantage of his family's prime property off Interstate 96 to create something the community was lacking: a higher quality drink and food establishment with entertainment.
It was also about community, creating a place locals and visitors alike could gather, a place that would help put Coopersville on the map and poise the Ottawa County community to take advantage of the growth coming from the east and west.
Grossenbacher opened Coopersville Brewing Co. more than three years ago. The brewery has not only put Coopersville on the craft beer map, but it's also created community. That sense of community has come from fund-raising efforts to help local organizations, supporting musicians and artists, collaborating with other businesses and creating a family-welcome place.
I sat down with Grossenbacher to ask more about how he created community at Coopersville Brewing Co.
In establishing Coopersville Brewery, you were intentional in creating a sense of community. Why was this important to you?
Outside of personal motivations, the community has always been at the center of why we created Coopersville Brewing Company. It’s why we named it what we did. We could have been far more creative with a name, but at the end of the day, we wanted people to know where they were spending their time.
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Craig WatsonAfter all the development of the Grand Rapids and Lakeshore area over the last 20 years, Coopersville still seemed to be defined mostly by these very surface level things that didn’t truly tell you what this great community really is about. I wanted to give people a positive experience, and one that would be a positive reflection on the greater Coopersville area. This has been built into the backbone of why we do what we do at Coopersville Brewing Company, and ultimately One-Eyed Pete’s and any other concept or company we create going forward.
Strung along a wall behind the bar is a collection of more than 75 beer steins with another at least 25 tucked safely under the bar. They are part of a program you call “The Villagers.” Could you tell us more about this program?
While the concept initially started as a way to invest in CBC, we never intended to have it as something that was available after we opened our doors. We wanted to be able to financially stand on our own two feet at that point. However, the demand from people wanting to be a part of it made us reconsider what the Villager program is all about.
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Jason M. KarelWe decided that we would use the Villager program as a way to support organizations, foundations or local families in need. We started with 93 Villagers when we opened and since then we have added 20 Villagers whose purchases have gone on to support a number of different local charities or community initiatives. The Villager program is something that has easily become one of the things we are most proud of.
Since opening, you’ve had a number of food and beer collaborations with local companies. How did these collaborations come about? What was the inspiration and why was this important?
Collaboration within a community, in my opinion, is incredibly important. Within the craft beer industry, collaboration among your peers is embraced and even encouraged. I can’t speak for all craft breweries, but at its heart, I think we understand that if we can learn from each other and improve our products, it will attract more customers to a craft beer industry, which is a win for everyone involved.
The brewery has a few main-stay beers on tap. CBC’s staple cream ale, “It was all a C.R.E.A.M.,” often shortened to “CREAM,” is a nod to this venture and the community. A portion of the sales of CREAM goes to community programs as the acronym stands for Coopersville Recreation, Education, Arts, & Music.
My partner and brewer, Jim and I are both kids of the 90’s and big hip hop fans, so we knew we had to have this beer on tap, but we weren’t sure what the “CREAM” would mean to us. We went back to our “why” and the core motivators of why we exist, and we started to think about the community. We started to think how it was going to be a beer we would have on consistently. We knew we always wanted to have a beer on tap that we would use to give back to the community. That was going to be this beer and the Coopersville, Recreation, Education, Arts and Music came quite naturally after that. Each month we tally up a portion of the previous month’s cream ale sales and find an initiative within the community to give back to.
Can you tell us about events hosted by the brewery supporting these arts and music programs? How did these relationships come about? Why is it important to support local artists?
We host live music with local musicians on a consistent basis weekly, if not multiple times a week. We have also hosted three different artists for a series we call “Art That Cares.” The artists create a theme and then create unique pieces to be displayed as a feature in our taproom for six to eight weeks.
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Jason M. KarelWe then sell that art and a large portion of the sales (usually half) go to a local organization called Coopersville Cares. It’s an organization that helps families and individuals within the Coopersville community in a multitude of ways.
These relationships came about because we had always intended for CBC to be a place that supported local artists and gave them a place to showcase their talents. We are also blessed with a large enough space that we can host live music and local artists. Selfishly, for us, an important factor is that we need to have a consistent stream of entertainment in our taproom to continue to engage our regular customer base and to attract new customers. It's important to support local artists because every great community tends to have a thriving arts scene. The only way it can thrive is if local artists have a place to display or perform their art. We want to help foster that and create a space that does just that.
Family is important to the brewery and a part of its ethos. The brewery offers family discounts and hosts family events. Is this effort part of a change in direction for breweries or something you’ve created on your own?
This is not a change of direction for breweries. In my experience, most craft beer taprooms tend to be quite family friendly. The age demographic that really helped to explode craft beer, currently 30- to 45-year-olds, tend to be in the thick of it as far as raising their families is concerned.
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Coopersville Brewing Co.We certainly intended to create a family-friendly atmosphere at CBC. The greater Coopersville community and those that surround it are primarily bedroom communities to Grand Rapids and the lakeshore. This means that the majority of our core customers tend to be families. We learned early on that when we put events together geared towards families and kids, they produce our best days in the taproom. It really has changed the different events we create and host.
Note: The brewery will once again host Family Summer Social from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, August 17. That event will be followed by Micro Wrestling Federation Invades Coopersville, Mi.
Freelance writer Jason M. Karel occasionally writes for Rural Innovation Exchange and UPword Michigan.
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