Reflections Magazine Issue #83 - Fall 2015 | Page 18

Feature Article

By Doug Goodnough

Something’s Brewing
Husband-and-Wife SHU Graduates Grow Cotton
Brewing Co. Into Successful Business Venture

B

rett and Krista (First) Cotton
have something brewing in Adrian.
The married double Siena Heights
University graduates started brewing beer
more than five years ago as a hobby. Using
their own money – and their Siena Heights
degrees—they decided to make it into a
business in 2012. And business is booming.
Using fairs and craft beer festivals as both
a proof-of-concept and a built-in test market, Cotton Brewing Co. is on its way to becoming a full-time venture for the husbandand-wife team.
“We were just trying to be able to sell
the beer,” said Krista of the original reason
they started the business. “We never intended it to take off and have the demand
that we did. It just keeps rolling.”
Brett said he originally got the idea of
brewing beer while working in a corporate
setting in Washington, D.C.
“Beer brewing was really big out there,”
Brett said. “A bunch of friends would go hit
up these different breweries every week.”
When his job in D.C. ended, he returned
to Michigan and decided to buy a home
brewing kit.
“About a year later, I was giving away so
much beer, I called liquor control and asked,
‘What is it going to take to get a few bucks
for my beer?’ ” he said.
The answer was filling out a piece of
paper. But then a whole lot of paperwork
followed. That’s where the education part
comes in. Krista, who has a bachelor’s degree in accounting (2007) and a master’s
degree in organizational leadership (2009),