For Jeremy Grossenbacher, opening a brewery in his hometown of Coopersville was about more than just his passion for craft beer, food and hospitality.
He also wanted to use his family’s prime property near Interstate 96 to create something the community was missing: a higher-quality beverage and dining venue with entertainment.
It was also about community. It was about creating a gathering place for locals and visitors, a place that would help put Coopersville on the map and give the Ottawa County community an opportunity to benefit from growth from the east and west.
Grossenbacher opened Coopersville Brewing Co. more than three years ago. The brewery not only put Coopersville on the craft beer map, but it also created a community. That sense of community was created through fundraising to support local organizations, supporting musicians and artists, collaborating with other businesses, and creating a family-friendly place.
I sat down with Grossenbacher to ask him more about how he created community at Coopersville Brewing Co.
When you founded Coopersville Brewery, you consciously wanted to create a sense of community. Why was that important to you?
Personal motivations aside, community was always the core reason we started Coopersville Brewing Company, which is why we gave it that name. We could have been a lot more creative with the naming, but ultimately we wanted people to know where they were spending their time. After all the development of the Grand Rapids and Lakeshore area over the past 20 years, Coopersville still seemed to be defined primarily by these very superficial things that didn’t really tell you what this great community is really about. I wanted to give people a positive experience that shines a positive light on the Coopersville area. This is the backbone of why we do what we do at Coopersville Brewing Company, and ultimately One-Eyed Pete’s and any other concept or business we start in the future.
While the concept was originally conceived as a way to invest in CBC, we never intended to offer it as something that was available after opening. We wanted to be able to stand on our own two feet financially at that point. However, demand from people wanting to participate made us rethink what the Villager Program was all about. We decided to use the Villager Program as a way to support organizations, foundations, or local families in need. When we opened, we started with 93 Villagers and since then we’ve added 20 Villagers whose purchases supported a number of different local charities or community initiatives. The Villager Program has easily become one of the things we’re most proud of.
Since opening, you have collaborated with numerous local food and beer companies. How did these collaborations come about? What was the inspiration and why was it important?
Collaboration within a community is incredibly important in my opinion. Within the craft beer industry, collaboration among like-minded individuals is welcomed and even encouraged. I can’t speak for all craft breweries, but fundamentally we understand that if we can learn from each other and improve our products, we will attract more customers to the craft beer industry, which is a win-win for everyone involved.
My partner and brewer Jim and I are both children of the 90’s and huge hip hop fans, so we knew we had to have this beer on tap, but weren’t sure what “CREAM” would mean to us. We went back to our “why” and core motives of our existence and started thinking about community. We started thinking about how we could offer this beer on a regular basis. We knew we always wanted to have a beer on tap that would give back to the community. That was going to be this beer, and after that Coopersville, recreation, education, arts and music came naturally. Each month we add up a portion of the previous month’s Cream Ale sales and find an initiative within the community that we can give back to.
Can you tell us about the events the brewery hosts to support these arts and music programs? How did these relationships come about? Why is it important to support local artists?
We regularly host live music with local musicians weekly, if not multiple times a week. We have also invited three different artists for a series we call “Art That Cares.” The artists decide on a theme and then create unique pieces that are displayed as a feature in our taproom for six to eight weeks. We then sell these pieces of art and a large portion of the proceeds (usually half) go to a local organization called Coopersville Cares. This organization helps families and individuals in the Coopersville community in many ways.
These relationships have come about because we always intended for CBC to be a place that supports local artists and provides them with a place to showcase their talents. We are also blessed with a large enough space to showcase live music and local artists. Selfishly, a big factor for us is that we need to have a consistent lineup of entertainment in our taproom to continue to delight our regular customers and attract new customers. It is important to support local artists because any large community usually has a thriving arts scene, and this can only thrive if local artists have a place to display or perform their art. We want to help encourage that and create a space that does just that.
Family is important to the brewery and part of their philosophy. The brewery offers family discounts and hosts family events. Is this effort part of a change in direction for breweries or something you created yourself?
This isn’t a change in direction for breweries. In my experience, most craft beer taprooms tend to be family friendly. The age group that has really helped craft beer take off, currently 30-45 year olds, tend to be in the middle of it all in terms of raising their families. We definitely wanted to create a family friendly atmosphere at CBC. The larger community of Coopersville and the surrounding area are mostly bedroom communities of Grand Rapids and the lakefront. That means the majority of our regular customers tend to be families. We learned early on that we have the best days in the taproom when we organize events geared toward families and kids. That has really changed the various events we organize and host.
Freelance writer Jason M. Karel writes occasionally for Rural Innovation Exchange and UPword Michigan.
Did you like this story? Sign up to receive free solutions-based reports in your inbox every week.
