It’s been a year of change for craft beer drinkers in the Cooper-Young neighborhood of Midtown Memphis.
After a decade as a focal point in the community, Memphis Made Brewing Co. closed its Cooper Street brewery and taproom, shifting all operations to a larger location near Downtown in the Edge District.
Many of those beer drinkers have found a new gathering place at Cooper House Project, 906 Cooper St., a small batch, boutique-style brewery and taproom built inside an old Midtown home.
The brewery, which specializes in more traditional styles, historic beers, and sours, has emerged as one of Memphis’ best local breweries. It celebrated its second birthday in December.
“I think we’ve become very much the Cooper-Young neighborhood brewery,” founder Travis Wiseman told Memphis Beer Blog, adding that Thursday nights, in particular, bring out the locals.
“Between the hours of 5 and 7 (p.m.), you can literally watch the neighbors walking down Oliver Avenue and toward the brewery to hang out for beers and pizzas and corn hole and shuffleboard and all that,” Wiseman said.
“I’m told that a lot of the regulars who would walk into Memphis Made are now our regulars,” Wiseman added. “I hate to see Memphis Made go, because I love (Memphis Made’s) Drew (Barton) and Andy (Ashby), and I loved walking down to their brewery myself. But I think we’ve done a decent job of filling in that void for folks who wanted a local brewery to get to.”
Two years in, Cooper House Project is poised for even more change.
Wiseman is ready to expand Cooper House Project’s reach beyond Cooper-Young.
Well, at least a little.
“Our plan for 2025 is to beef up production and start some light distribution,” Wiseman explained.
“I’m excited to get into the distribution game. It’s another stream of revenue, obviously, but it gets us out there a little farther.”
For now, Cooper House Project is self-distributing, meaning it’s not using a third-party middleman to sell beers to retailers, bars and restaurants.
The Midtown brewery has complete control over how and where its beers are sold, and it’s just sent its first cans of beer outside of Cooper-Young.
Cooper House Project’s new canning line
Cooper House Project’s expansion efforts began in 2023, when Wiseman purchased an automated Twin Monkeys-brand canning line that November.
He was supposed to receive it the following January, but the system was delayed and didn’t arrive until May 2024. Then — when it came — it arrived with “a bunch of problems.”
Wiseman said Meddlesome Brewing Co.’s Ben Pugh was “super helpful” in assisting in getting the canning line up and running, giving guidance on the parts that were needed and communicating with the manufacturer about issues.
“These things require a lot of attention, and they’re very tough to sort out on your own,” he said.
When all the kinks were finally worked out, Cooper House Project canned its first beers in September.
They started with a batch of Foeder Steam Beer, 5.4%, an oak-aged California Common, that was sold through the taproom in four-packs of 16-oz. cans.
Cooper House Project canned Foeder Steam a second time, and canned two other beers: A Night In Český Krumlov, a Dark Czech Lager, and Plzeň Cellar, a Czech Pilsner.
Cooper House Project has been working with a supplier that sells printed 16-oz. cans by the palette — more than 6,000 cans at a time — but allows the brewery to order a single palette layer with one design. That will allow the brewery to sell smaller batches of about 400 cans of a particular beer.
Wiseman has been meeting with his team to figure out what Cooper House Project will package in the coming year.
“We don’t want to can everything,” Wiseman said, “but, what do we want to do one-offs of? What’s been a hit in the past?”
Cooper House Project’s flagship ‘Midtowner Pale Lager’
When it comes to “hits” at Cooper House Project, one beer stands out.
The Midtowner, 4.6% ABV, is a pale lager that’s outsold everything else, and it’s now the brewery’s flagship.
Cooper House Project first canned Midtowner in January.
“It’s the one we’re hoping to build a reputation with out in the market,” Wiseman said.
“It’s just a light, simple lager. In part — I think because of its name — it’s our best seller through the taproom. It’s the one we’ve brewed more than any other beer here.”
Wiseman said Cooper House Project likes to switch things up and experiment with each beer, so that no two batches are alike.
That’s not been the case with the Midtowner.
“This is the one that we’ve done less experimentation with. It’s mostly, more or less, a single-malt pilsner. That keeps it easy and consistent.”
Cooper House Project sources the beer’s Cumberland Pilsner malt from Riverbend Malt House.
“On the board, we actually call it a ‘Tennessee Lager,’ because their Cumberland Pilsner is barley that’s grown 100% in Tennessee, and then malted at their malting house in Asheville, North Carolina.”
Cooper House Project hops it with American-bred Crystal hops that impart light aromas of floral and cedar.
Where to find Cooper House Project’s beers
Cooper House Project’s taproom has limited business hours. It’s open Thursday through Sunday.
Wiseman wants to keep that schedule in place but “open up access to our beers outside of our normal taproom hours.”
“This is working for us. I don’t want to overextend ourselves, and we end up in this distribution game where we’ve got accounts who are expecting product from us and we just can’t just deliver on it, so they lose interest in us and move on.”
That means Cooper House Project is starting slow.
So far, the brewery has sent beers to Corks Wine & Spirits, 3078 Village Shops Drive, in Germantown. On its shelves, the craft beer-focused liquor store has three of Cooper House Project’s beers: Midtowner, and A Night In Český Krumlov — both in cans, plus bottles of B.B.A. Vienna Lager.
“I’ve got a couple of places, hand picked, that I’m going to distribute out east just so folks don’t have to drive from East Memphis to Midtown to get our beer,” Wiseman said.
“But, by and large, we’re probably not going to go too far outside of Midtown and Downtown for now.”
Wiseman said that in the coming weeks, Cooper House Project beers will be spreading around Midtown. Some possible Midtown spots include Joe’s Wines & Liquor, Young Avenue Deli and Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint.
“I think starting nearby and keeping it limited to that, for a little while, will give us a better sense of how much stuff is selling,” he said.
While selling beers outside the taproom is nice, Wiseman said his primary goal remains to keep 19 or 20 beers available in the taproom.
“I’d like to think that’s what keeps a lot of people coming back here — the variety changes, and there’s always something to learn about the new beers on the tap wall,” Wiseman said.
“We still get people walking in here every weekend who are surprised that (the brewery) is here. ‘Hey, I’ve never been here before. I love the space.’ Every single weekend.”
“So I like that. I like our approach. It’s working well for us,” Wiseman said. “But I’m super excited to see what this new angle brings in doing some self distribution.”
