City Built Brewing Co. hopes to bring unique flavors to craft beer scene in GR

The first time Dave Petroelje made a batch of home-brewed beer for a larger crowd was at his sister's wedding. Since then, he's brewed and bottled for so many parties and weddings he can't keep track of them all. 

"Everyone always says, 'So when are you going to start selling stuff?' So that kind of put the idea in my head that I could go pro," says Petroelje, who started home brewing his own craft beer with roommates when he was still studying biology and geology at Calvin College. "…I decided might as well just make my own job." 

Petroelje, along with his friend of eight years and former neighbor Ed Collazo, is part of the team behind the recently announced City Built Brewing Co., which joined Harmony Brewing Co. last month for its Flower Power beer release party. 

"We're halfway to our fundraising goal, so we thought it was prudent to do an announcement that we're here," Petroelje says. "A lot of our friends have known for a while and I get asked by people all of the time how the brewery is coming along." 

The plan is to move into a 5,000-square-foot building in Monroe North, though Petroelje and Collazo aren't saying which quite yet due to some paperwork still waiting for final approval.  

However, when the funding gap is closed and the paperwork is official, he says City Built Brewing Co. will not only bring a much-needed dining option for those in the Monroe North neighborhood, but also bring a different taste sensibility to the craft beer market in Grand Rapids. 

Well read on his trade, Petroelje says craft beer's origins lie in the home-brewing movement, but over time many of those traditional styles have been replaced by mass-market, industrial type beers. 

"You go to pick any brewery, you're going to see IPA, pale ale, stout, porter – those are very ubiquitous in the craft beer theme," he says. "I'd like to do beers that are not necessarily British in origin, although we can't ignore that 40 percent of the craft beer market is IPA so we're going to have to respect the market in some ways and offer some hoppy beer."

So, with a unique beer list in place, City Built Brewing Co.'s owners are planning a Puerto Rican-inspired food menu - a nod to Collazo's family heritage and a robust pairing for the hybrid, off-beat flavors Petroelje plans to brew.

"There's only one restaurant in the neighborhood, really, at the moment, so we'll be another option for a neighborhood that does not currently have a brewery within walking distance," he says. 

To learn more about City Built Brewing Co. or to keep up with its progress toward opening day, visit the brewery here on Facebook. 

Written by Anya Zentmeyer, Development News Editor
Images courtesy of City Built Brewing Co.