Gathering Place Brewing Company, a craft brewery that plans to open in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood late this spring, has launched a $25,000 Kickstarter campaign to help pay for the construction of a tasting room and a walk-in beer storage cooler.
Gathering Place is currently renovating 4,100-square feet of space in a one-story, 32,991-square-foot building at 811 E. Vienna Ave. in Riverwest, about a block northwest of Kern Park, to house beer production and a tasting room. The building is also home to Flux Design.
The new brewery is the passion project of founder Joe Yeado, a senior researcher with the Public Policy Forum. Yeado has been brewing beer and refining recipes for the past decade. His home brews have won multiple awards.
Yeado’S Saison and Belgian Trippel brews took third place in both 2013 and 2014 in a competition sponsored by Boston Beer Company, the Massachusetts-based brewer of Sam Adams beers. In the past year, Yeado’s beers have taken home 22 awards, including three first-place ribbons at the Wisconsin State Fair.
“We are really excited at the outpouring of support for the Kickstarter campaign,” Yeado said. “We established the brewery with a pledge to help the community, so it’s incredibly rewarding to see that the community believes in our mission and is willing to back us.”
Since the campaign was launched last week, it has raised more than half of its $25,000 goal. Once it opens, Yeado said the brewery will donate at least 1 percent of its quarterly sales to a different nonprofit organization in Milwaukee.
“We want the community to grow and prosper as we grow and prosper,” Yeado said.
The Kickstarter campaign will run through March 9. Those who donate will receive certain perks, such as branded pint glasses, t-shirts, tour tickets and tickets to the brewery’s grand opening, depending on how much they contribute. Larger contributors will be able to name a brewing tank at the production facility and get a chance to brew a custom beer with the Gathering Place staff.
