Now, Schuster and her husband, Marcus Christianson, have found a way to tie those two things together -- in Two22 Brew, a new brewery slated for Centennial.
See also: Blue Spruce Brewery will feature Mexican food and porters when it opens in Centennial
"We were both formerly teachers and we decided that we wanted to get into something else," says Schuster, who was raised in Loveland. She thought about becoming the full-time administrator f the Schuster Family Foundation -- which provides grants to educational, environmental and "whole-person" nonprofits -- but her salary would have taken money away from the recipients."So we started thinking about other ways we could make money and help support the foundation, and that is where the brewery came in," she says. "We decided to open a brewery, and that some of the profits should back to the foundation."
Schuster and Christianson have both been homebrewing for seven years, and they'll take on the head brewing jobs when Two22 opens on the Centennial/Aurora border in mid-December with a seven-barrel system, room for ninety people and a patio.
And $2.22 of every $10 of profit will go toward the foundation -- a number Schuster arrived at because she was waking up for some reason every night at 2:22 a.m.
"We really see a need in this area. There is a huge suburban population here with lots of families who are used to having things to do and places to go," she says. Another brewery, Blue Spruce, is also slated to open in Centennial, but it will be several miles away.
The couple plans to keep a wide variety of beers on tap, but will start off with five, including staples like an IPA, a porter and a blonde, and some rotating seasonal recipes, including a coffee-coconut stout and a beer made with cinnamon.
Although the charitable contributions may limit the speed with which the brewery can grow, Schuster says the bigger-picture idea is to grow local community involvement. And although customers can just come in to enjoy a beer or two, eventually they may also be able to participate in deciding which nonprofits benefit from Two22.
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