GRANDVILLE, Mich. — Take one step into Oakestown Brewery and look to your left, and you'll see the brewery's tagline - "Brews that are meant to be shared." It's a simple slogan, but it has a deep meaning. It dates back to a time when co-owners Tom Feeney and Bill Simaz were drinking beers that Simaz had brewed at home.
"This guy is brewing a lot of beer. He's got a 12-tap kegerator. He's got stouts. He's got porters. He's got IPAs. He's got lagers, all on tap. He's got one on nitro," Feeney remembered.
"We're tasting the beers. They're very, very good, and my wife goes, 'These beers need to be shared with others.'"
The two started Harbor Light Brewery in South Haven and eventually had an opportunity to open up another brewery in Grandville. It's an opportunity Feeney says hit close to home.
"My kids went to high school at Grandville High School. It was great. My daughter was a cheerleader, and my son, I wanted him to play rugby. I'm a big rugby advocate, so I agreed to help coach out, coach the high school, and we did very, very well. So I have soft roots in the community. When this opportunity came up, I said, 'Yeah, you know what? I know it's a lot of work. Yeah, I'm going to dive head first right into it,'" he said.
The plan for Oakestown Brewery was to open in October 2023. But as many small business owners will tell you, things rarely go according to plan. Inspections took longer than expected. But the real delay was an act of nature.
"There was a hole drilled through the ceiling to put some lines in for some equipment, and they forgot to fill the hole. And if anybody remembers the torrential downfall that we had the Monday before Thanksgiving, we ended up with a half to three-quarters of an inch of water on the floor because it was just flowing like crazy," said co-owner Tom Feeney.
"It was a gut punch."
The beginning of the Oakestown story may have been filled with drama. But after they got everything cleaned up, things started going well.
"We opened up last year in a space and collaborated with Crust 54, which is a pizza place out of Holland," said Feeney, who noted that the brewery also partners with many other businesses in the Grandville area.
"For instance, Wildroast Coffee. We have a coffee blonde that we make. We make our own sodas, root beer. It's phenomenal. So we collaborate with Tippy Cow Ice Cream, and they have great root beer floats. We've also collaborated with other businesses, like Striders, next door, the athletic shoe wear. So it's all about community. We're very, very community-centric."
But the thing that keeps people coming back, Feeney says, is the beer selection.
"We have a stout, a porter, a Scottish ale. We have lagers. We have pilsners. We have IPAs. We have sessions. We have goses, a little bit of a sour beer, if you want. So that is the thing that we want to bring to the community. It's a wide variety of flavors, and we think that we have a great product to offer," Feeney said.
One of the things Feeney is most proud of is that he gets work alongside his daughter, Carpenter Valk-Feeney, who became the brewery's manager shortly after finishing grad school.
"It's wonderful. She's absolutely awesome. Ask all of the customers. Ask the people we do business with, and so forth, she's got it going. She's really sharp. I'm very, very glad she's here," he said.
As the brewery celebrates its one-year anniversary, they'll be offering drink specials and activities to mark the occasion. On Tuesday they'll be decorating coasters. Thursday will be euchre night. For a full list of events, visit their Facebook page.