On a bright Tuesday afternoon, Cooper-Young’s Young Avenue Deli is buzzing with Memphians either enjoying the patio sunlight or inside playing pool.
33-year-old Charles Parker, a bartender at the 2119 Young Avenue for two years, cleans a glass and explains how business has grown since he started working in the Cooper-Young area.
“All these drafts have a big part to do with it,” Parker said. “The drafts help the neighborhood.”
Memphis Made Brewing Company is directly down the adjacent street, located at 768 S. Cooper.
It is one of four local breweries that are located in Memphis, which include High Cotton Brewing Company, Wiseacre Brewing Company and Ghost River Brewing.
Memphis Made’s tall, gray building began business in Oct. 2013 and then opened it’s own doors with a taproom in November 2014.
“You go in there on a Saturday and they’ve got a good crowd,” said David P. Smith, owner of Cooper- Young beer store Hammer & Ale. “Clearly Cooper-Young likes their beers and supports them, as does all of Memphis.”
Andy Ashby, 40, is the co-founder of the small independent production brewery known as Memphis Made.
He said Memphis Made is a little different than national breweries like Budweiser because they cut out the middleman and self distribute to each bar or restaurant that offers Memphis Made beer.
“We’re doing it our way,” Ashby said. “We’re not trying to be exclusive, but just for how small of a brewery we are it is kind of exclusive beer. Even the ones that we produce the most of, the three yearround- beers, are only in a hundred accounts at the most.”
Memphis Made distributes to about 132 customer accounts in Shelby County. These restaurants range from neighborhood bars in Cooper-Young to locations in Collierville and Germantown such as Memphis Pizza Cafe and even Whole Foods Market.
“We just got picked up at Rendezvous which is a big account for us,” Ashby said “I’ve been going to Rendezvous for 30 years. It’s kind of exciting. We’re on more taps on Beale Street, and so it’s been kind of fun to see that growth.”
Rendezvous is a popular downtown restaurant that caters to tourists at 52 S 2nd Street.
As Memphis Made drafts have reached popular spots like Rendezvous, increased interest in Bluff City brewing companies seems to grow, according to Ashby.
“It certainly doesn’t hurt,” Ashby said. “Craft beer has enjoyed a big explosion across the country but in Memphis, there’s really only four craft breweries. By definition we’re a little bit of an exclusive animal.”
However, Ashby said that that exclusivity does have an advantage for the bars that carry local beer.
“I would argue that there’s a lot of breweries that are based in Michigan and California and other states that have more beer in Memphis right now,” Ashby said. “If a bar has our account that’s kind of an advantage because they have something that not a lot of people have.”
Smith definitely has that Memphis Made advantage with 921 Cooper Street’s Hammer & Ale.
The store opened it’s doors just one month after Memphis Made, basing itself on the “concept” of selling growlers of the local and regional beers found in the Bluff City.
“I could get beer from them whenever I needed to get beer,” 52-year-old Smith said. “We still do sell a tremendous amount of Memphis Made, but in the beginning it was fantastic because there weren’t as many beers in the Memphis area.”
Hammer & Ale contains 24 taps in total, three of which are Memphis Made brews. Smith said that the popularity of Memphis Made vs. the other Memphis breweries definitely depend on the season.
“High Cotton, Memphis Made, Wiseacre, and Ghost River — they all kind of fluctuate,” Smith said. “What’s nice about Memphis Made is that they’re always doing seasonal beers so they’ve always got something new on tap. They’re always relevant.”
Still, Ashby isn’t quite satisfied with Memphis Made’s coverage and has his eyes set on expanding at a steady rate.
“There’s a lot of places we’d like to be,” Ashby said. “We’re trying to grow up to the point where we can do that.”
Ashby said the brewery doesn’t want to “outkick it’s coverage,” though.
“We want to grow at our own pace and make sure we were taking care of each customer as we add them,” Ashby said. “We didn’t want to overextend ourselves. It’s been really successful and really busy for us.”
With Cooper-Young as the backdrop for both Memphis Made and Hammer & Ale, Smith said the neighborhood is a unique “microcosm in of itself,” - a “perfect mix” of residential and commercial establishments where pedestrian traffic benefits non-franchised businesses like Memphis Made and Hammer & Ale.
“It sure is nice to have them in the neighborhood and have the same business concept,” he said. “I.e., craft beer.”
