Micro Brewery 235 Grandville Avenue SW Grand Rapids, Michigan 616-776-1195

Canal Street Brewing Co. was founded in Grand Rapids in 1997 by Mike Stevens and Dave Engbers, homebrewing enthusiasts who had recently graduated from college. The company was named after a Grand Rapids area where in 1800s several breweries were located on Canal Street, now Monroe Avenue. The beer bottle's labels originally included an old black and white photo of the original Canal Street breweries with the word “Founders” above it. Thus the company became known as Founders Brewing Company.Since the mid-2000s, it has become one of the most prominent breweries in Michigan, expanding its market to 25 states and its production capacity to 340,000 barrels per year. Founders was the 30th largest US craft brewery by sales volume in 2012 and 41st largest US brewery by sales volume in 2012. The brewery expects to produce 130,000 bbl of beer in 2013. As of 2013, two of its beers, Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS) and Canadian Breakfast Stout (CBS), were ranked among BeerAdvocate's top 10 beers, with CBS ranked as the 4th best beer in the world by user reviews. Ratebeer.com listed Founders as the overall 3rd best brewery in the world in its 2013 poll; Founders was 2nd place in 2011 and 2012. In April 2010, Founders won four medals at the World Beer Cup in Chicago, Illinois, and the brewery went on to win two more medals at Denver's Great American Beer Festival in September. The brewery also won one award at the 2012 World Beer Cup in San Diego.