About
Our Story
The story of Copper Hop Brewing Company begins back in July of 2016 at a joint birthday party for Jeremy and Ryan. Jeremy was the beer supplier of said party and brought a few kegs of his home brewed beer for everyone to enjoy, and enjoy they did. All the beers were a hit, and thus the wheels went in motion. Ryan and Jeremy would have many brewery related talks throughout the year, and in July of 2017, at the next joint birthday party, things would really take off.
After the July 2017 party, the two were on the hunt for the perfect location and started working on a business plan to see if this venture was even feasible. Jeremy and Ryan would later sit down with Jeremy’s brother-in-law Mike to really start hammering out the details. Unfortunately, the timing wasn’t right for Mike to be an owner, but he was an integral part in helping to build the foundation that would eventually become Copper Hop Brewing Company.
Early locations that were on the radar for the brewery were Chesterfield and Romeo, but they’d eventually settle on a nice old building in New Baltimore. Now I know what you’re thinking, the brewery is in St. Clair Shores, not New Baltimore, well a little fun fact, they were actually Anchor Bay Brewing Company of New Baltimore before they were Copper Hop Brewing Company of St. Clair Shores. So where did the name Copper Hop come from? The first beer Jeremy and Ryan ever brewed together was made using all Michigan Copper Hops, thus the name was born.
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In September of 2017, a year and two months after the initial conversations begun, they had their location in New Baltimore in the old Stahls Bakery building on the corner of Washington and Main. It was a beautiful old building with an amazing history, and the kind of architecture you just can’t find anymore. Unfortunately, like with most old buildings, after opening up the walls and floors, it was apparent that the timeline for renovations by the owner wasn’t going to fit into their timeline. In September of 2018 they would be forced to pull the plug on that location. All was not lost in that year of planning and research while trying to make the location in New Baltimore work. In March of 2018 Jeremy and Ryan would go on the hunt for a new 3rd partner, and a chance encounter in the frozen food aisle at Meijer would lead to a partnership that would get them to where they are today.
One afternoon in March of 2018, Ryan ran into his old friend Shaun in the frozen food aisle at Meijer. They had known each other for almost 20 years, but hadn’t seen each other in quite a while. As they caught up on life, Ryan told Shaun about the brewery, and Shaun instantly perked up. Shaun too was a home brewer, and had always wanted to open a brewery. As they parted ways Shaun told Ryan that if there was ever any opportunity to be involved, he was interested. As fate would have it the 3rd partner that Jeremy and Ryan had on board would have to back out 2 weeks later, and the call to Shaun was made.
In October of 2018 the trio would walk the old Vitamin Village Building in Downtown St. Clair Shores for the first time together. After one walk of the space, they knew that was going to be the spot. A lease was signed in November, plans and bids were reviewed over the next few months, and construction began in April, 2019. It would be 8 long months before the doors would open to the public on December 20th, 2019. We hope you agree that it was well worth the wait.