Sheep and Sugar
Brewers Shawn Cooper and Joran Van Ginderachter create beers that are a piece of Belgium by way of Atlanta at Halfway Crooks Beer.
Photos: WIll BLUNT
When you first sit down at Halfway Crooks Beer, it doesn’t feel like you just stepped in off the streets of Atlanta’s Summerhill neighborhood. With exposed wooden beams and antique looking portraits of sheep donning the walls, it feels more like a cozy Belgian pub, which was exactly what co-founders Shawn Cooper and Joran Van Ginderachter had in mind.
Cooper and Van Ginderachter bonded over their love of beer and became fast friends. They were even roommates for a while (and yes, they had an epic homebrewing setup), talking often about opening up their own brewery. In 2017, a new law passed in Atlanta that allows breweries to sell their products directly to consumers in their taprooms. The duo realized it was time to set their sights on their own brewery, and they knew just the spot. “Joran and I used to ride our bikes around a lot, and there was this area near where The Braves used to play in Summerhill that was vacant,” says Cooper. They thought the tight-knit neighborhood would be the perfect place to create their own community pub.
They opened Halfway Crooks in 2019, sharing their Belgian-style beers with the public, focusing on lagers in particular. “We really liked drinking lager. It made sense. They’re also technically harder to make and require a lot of know-how,” say Van Ginderachter. For them, it's all about finding high-quality ingredients and staying authentic, which is apparent in the thoughtful sourcing and meticulous process behind their wide range of beers, especially for their Cassonade.
Brewers Shawn Cooper and Joran Van Ginderachter
To brew the Cassonade, which is available in a dubbel, tripel, and quadrupel, Cooper and Van Ginderachter source the malts from Dingemans in Belgium, opting for rich, deep malts that give the dubbel and quadruple their dark color, and the hops are sourced from Forrest Farm in Belgium. “If we want to make Belgian beers, then we want to use Belgian hops,” says Van Ginderachter. “It's really important for us to brew the most authentic beers we can.” The real star of the show in the Cassonade is its namesake, the Cassonade sugar (also sourced from Belgium). A dark, thick sugar comparable to muscovado sugar, Cooper and Van Ginderachter use it to carbonate the three variations, creating three distinct, caramelly beers.
Their attention to detail also extends to the Cassonade’s packaging. After falling down a sugar rabbit hole and discovering a blog dedicated to the nostalgia of antique sugar packets, Cooper and Van Ginderachter took inspiration from the sugar packets of old for the beverage’s label. “We wanted people to understand that the sugar is special.”
At Halfway Crooks, it all boils down to Cooper and Van Ginderachter’s desire to share their passion for beer, and to foster a connection with their community. “We wanted [a small brewery] so we could be closer to our customers and we could explain the story behind the beer and what we are doing with each beer,” says Cooper. “We love Summerhill. It's a historic community, one of the first Black and Jewish neighborhoods with a lot of mom and pop stores. Hopefully, we’re bringing a little bit of that local merchant feel.”
