Beer City, USA is the story of Grand Rapids, Michigan told through its love of beer.
Introduction
Beer City, USA is the story of Grand Rapids, Michigan told through its love of beer.
Manitou Films is producing an independent documentary television series that celebrates the unique culture of our city’s brewing industry, from the 1830’s to the present day.
We will discover why the greater Grand Rapids area has earned the title of Beer City, USA by taking our audience on a journey to Founders, Bell’s, New Holland, Short’s, and dozens of other local craft breweries and taprooms in West Michigan, as well as distributors, retailers, home brewing clubs, major beer festivals, and the Grand Rapids Community College craft brewing program.
Our story will be told by the brewery owners, head brewers, home brewers, historians, breweriana collectors, city leaders, journalists, tourists, mug club members, and beer aficionados that make Grand Rapids the best beer scene in the nation.
If you’ve come this far, please pour yourself a pint of your favorite local craft beer and consider supporting our project.
Goals of Beer City, USA – Documentary Television Series
- Capture the stories of Beer City, USA to highlight our local craft beer scene
- Preserve Grand Rapids beer history
- Promote tourism in West Michigan to a nationwide audience
- Re-engergize our local consumers and foster pride in our beer community
- Showcase West Michigan as a great place to live, work and play
- Celebrate diversity, equity, and inclusion by showcasing a variety of interwoven storylines and featured interviews
- Support workforce development by showing why breweries are a cool place to be employed
- Recruiting and retention of young professionals across all industries in our region
- Plant a flag in the ground that shows the world we are Beer City, USA
Fundraising and Budget
Manitou Films has raised a total of $37,500 from corporate sponsorships, with $25,000 more committed. Experience Grand Rapids, the Beer City Brewers Guild, The Mitten State, and the Grand Rapids Public Museum are all current Sponsors.
We have filmed a total of 11 days so far, capturing over 60 hours of footage from Founders, Brewery Vivant, City Built, Grand Rapids Brewing Company, Thornapple, 3 Gatos, Cedar Springs, Kusterer Brauhaus, White Flame, Archival, Grand Rapids Public Museum, Rivertown Home Brewing Club, Grand Rapids Community College’s craft brewing program, the Michigan Brewers Guild’s Winter Beer Festival, and the Beer City Brewers Guild’s Pro-Am Festival.
Manitou will film 35 more production days over the next 9 months in order to deliver four hour-long episodes. The estimated date of completion is January, 2025.
Our goal for this Indiegogo campaign is to raise $150,000 of our budget, with the remainder coming from corporate sponsorships and private investments.
The total production budget is $500,000, which includes the remaining production days for crew labor and equipment, 6 months of editing, and post-production.
This public crowdfunding campaign begins on Monday, October 9th, and will run until Tuesday, November 28th, 2023.
If your business is interested in supporting us with a sponsorship, please visit beercityusa.tv and click on sponsorship opportunities for more information. If you are interested in investment opportunities, please email us at investors@manitoufilms.com
Thank you for your time and consideration in contributing to our cause! Please check out the suggested contribution levels and all of the amazing Perks that we are offering in exchange for your generous support.
For more information on our series Beer City, USA, please continue reading below:
Storylines
Beer City USA
The online poll that put Grand Rapids on the map, sparked a massive flood of beer tourism, and how the city has flourished as a result.
The Forefathers
The Grand Rapids beer scene began in the early 19th century as immigrants brought their European brewing traditions with them. We meet those who are protecting the relics of the past and see how the city’s collaborative spirit began with the formation of Grand Rapids Brewing Company in 1893.
Beer Boom
In 1997 Founders Brewing Company opened its doors and was the first of 80+ breweries that would come in the following decades. A look into this beer boom and what made it stand out from other beer havens.
American Dream
From craft beer titans like Dave Engbers and Mike Stevens of Founders Brewing Company, to upcoming brewers like Mitch and Whitney Ermatinger of Speciation Artisan Ales, the quest to achieve the American Dream is an inspirational story.
Home Brewers Unite
The backbone of Beer City, USA is the passion of its home brewing community. A look into the clubs who are embracing the tradition and inspiring the next generation of beer makers; we will meet several who made the coveted leap from home brewers to brewmasters.
Artistry/Craft
As with any craft, brewing is a tried and true art form. How brewmasters are elevating their craft to keep beer connoisseurs coming back.
Beer City Pro-Am
Homebrewers and breweries come together as teams are paired off in an annual competition to see who can create the best Grand Rapids brew. Who will win?
Winter Beer Festival
The annual mecca for beer lovers in Michigan and beyond. A behind-the-scenes look at how Grand Rapids hosts this massive festival and why thousands of people come to brave the winter weather for an unprecedented variety of craft beers.
Rising Tides Raises all Ships
While competition is the name of the business game, it’s not so much in the Grand Rapids beer scene. How these area brewers are friends, not foes, and how the spirit of collaboration is elevating the culture of Beer City, USA.
Future of Grand Rapids Beer
A look at the school in Grand Rapids Community College that is training the next generation of beer entrepreneurs. We will also see how consumer choices, mergers, and distribution channels are changing the landscape of the beer market, and how the future of craft beer looks a lot like the past.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Black Calder Brewing
Two entrepreneurs Terry and Jamaal have been contract brewing with Brewery Vivant for several years, and brew collaboration beers and hold events with other breweries like Speciation in Grand Rapids. They hope to open a tap room of their very own, and we will be there along the way to capture their journey in Black Calder Brewing.
City Built Brewing
Edwin Collazo is one of our city’s great success stories. He came from the world of finance, founded one of the fastest-growing breweries in Grand Rapids, but stays true to his roots by serving delectable Puerto Rican-inspired cuisine.
3 Gatos Brewing
Brazilian-born home brewers Linus and Renata de Paoli were formally trained in beer making in Germany. A chance encounter led them to purchase a local brewery in 2020, and 3 Gatos Brewing was born.
Brewery Vivant
Kris Spaulding is the co-owner and president of Brewery Vivant, where she spearheaded their effort to become the first beer production facility to become LEED certified for their sustainable practices.
Brewery Nyx
As one of Grand Rapids’ fully woman-owned breweries, Jessica Stricklyn started Brewery Nyx with the purpose of making gluten-free beer.
Grand Rapids Community College
Allison Hoekstra is an assistant professor at GRCC, heading up their craft brewing program that provides hands-on experience into the art, science and technology of brewing, with a focus on microbiology, biochemistry, and sensory analysis.
Historical Timeline
1830’s: John Pannell founds Grand Rapids’ first brewery, making an English-style hop ale for the city’s first residents
1849: Christoph Kusterer, a German immigrant, founds City Brewery and becomes the 19th century’s most prominent brewer
1893: Six breweries in Grand Rapids merge together to compete with Anhueser-Busch, forming the Grand Rapids Brewing Company
1918: Prohibition begins in Michigan, closing all Grand Rapids Breweries
1940: Fox Deluxe Brewing Company opens, but only survives 11 years
1978: Jimmy Carter signs H.R. 1337, legalizing home brewing and paving the way for a new revolution
1997: Founders Brewing Company and New Holland Brewing Company open for business
2000’s-2010’s: The modern Beer Boom in Grand Rapids explodes and flourishes
2013: Grand Rapids wins a national online poll to claim the title of Beer City, USA
Episode 101:
“The Beer Boom”
In our pilot episode we will take our audience on a journey to the first breweries started in West Michigan in the modern era, and the entrepreneurship struggles that Bell’s, Founders, and New Holland all faced on their way to becoming some of largest craft beer producers in the United States. We will jump backwards in time to the founding of our city’s brewing industry in the 1830’s, showing how this industry grew and thrived, and how six local craft breweries merged together to form the Grand Rapids Brewing Company in 1893 to compete with Anheuser-Busch. We will the return to the Beer Boom of the 2000’s and 2010’s for the explosion of local craft beer, but end on a cliffhanger of how Prohibition killed a historic industry overnight.
Episode 102:
“Home Brewing”
In this episode we will document how Prohibition and the Dark Ages of beer in Grand Rapids led to the garages and basements of the home brewing community, and how many of these artisans turned a hobby into a career by becoming head brewers at some of our best-known breweries. Plus we will look at local home brewing clubs like PrimeTime, Brewsquitos, and Rivertown that make our region vibrant for innovation and culture, the science and artistry behind brewing, the Grand Rapids Community College program that educates the next generation of young beer makers, and the Beer City Pro-Am festival where award-winning home brewers are paired with local breweries to produce a unique beer that is judged by a panel of experts. Who will win?
Episode 103:
“Collaboration”
Our third episode is all about the collaborative spirit of beer in our community. This theme is truly what sets us apart from our competitors and the one thing that everyone agrees on: rising tides raises all ships in Grand Rapids. We don’t have the greatest number of breweries per capita, we don’t have the biggest number of barrels in distribution: what we do have is a universal culture of Midwesterners who are all helping each other succeed. We will show how breweries are the cornerstones of our neighborhoods, by giving back to our community through philanthropy and fundraising. Our historical segments will focus on the modern pandemic, and how breweries and city leaders banded together to weather the storm – the biggest threat to our brewing industry since Prohibition.
Episode 104:
“Beer City, USA”
Our final episode will reveal the online poll that made Grand Rapids officially Beer City, USA, and everything that came after: the surge of beer tourism, the rebranding of our city, and what the future holds for the craft beer scene. Young students at the Grand Rapids Community College craft brewing program, innovative taprooms like Hopcat, and major festivals like the Winter Beer Fest at LMCU Ballpark. Our historical segments will touch on our previous moniker of Furniture City, how our city’s beer lovers navigated Prohibition and the Dark Ages, and we will look forward to how some of our largest breweries have merged with worldwide brands in order to compete in the most competitive distribution channels. Finally, how the future of craft beer looks a lot like the past: enjoying a beer with friends and family at your neighborhood craft brewery.
Local Impact and National Markets
A 2019 study commissioned by Experience Grand Rapids found that the economic impact of beer tourism in Kent County now stands at $38.5 million, more than triple the 2015 figure of $12.23 million.
The study estimates that local breweries attracted over 94,000 beer tourists during the study year.
The 2019 study found that over 25 percent of beer tourists came from outside Michigan.
Beer tourism supported 378 jobs and
$9.9 million in earnings in Kent County,
a significant increase from the 2015 study that showed beer tourism supported 171 jobs and $3.3 million in earnings throughout
the county.
GR Beer Tourism is Booming
source: experiencegr.com
Keith Patterson
Director and Executive Producer
Keith Patterson was born and raised in Grand Rapids, and graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Film and Video Studies. He lived and worked in Los Angeles for over 15 years as a producer and post-production supervisor on television series for ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, the CW, USA, Lifetime, E!, ABC Family, Nat Geo, and Disney XD. He currently resides in Grand Rapids with his wife Bethany and daughter Gabriella where he owns an international award-winning creative advertising agency called Cre8gency. He founded Manitou Films in 2022 with the purpose of producing world-class documentary series like Spirit of the National Parks, Beer City, USA, and Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes.
Contact:
Phone: 323-599-0939
Email: keith@manitoufilms.com