The Brinery in Ann Arbor uses crowdfunding in its attempt to double sauerkraut production

David Klingenberger is combining an ancient form of food preservation with the latest in fund-raising technology to grow his Ann Arbor business, The Brinery, which produces raw fermented local vegetables.

He has turned to the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to raise $12,000 to buy 12,000 pounds of locally grown cabbage in an effort he’s calling “40 Barrels in 40 Nights,” which went up on Kickstarter Oct. 5.

“It’s akin to an NPR pledge drive,” Klingenberger said. “You donate money to things you believe in.” He’s hoping the effort will allow The Brinery to double production.

But it’s more than a way to raise money, he said “It creates a platform for our community to be part of our success,” Klingenberger said. “Kids who love our pickles can donate $1 while someone else could pledge $1,000.”

True to most Kickstarter projects, Klingenberger has seen most of the pledges, at least so far, come from customers, friends and family. Still, there are strangers. “There are serial backers,” he said. “I have someone who pledged $15 who has backed 48 other projects. People like to feel part of something that’s new, start-up kinds of things.”

The Brinery’s largest pledge has been $500, with a total of $1,570 pledged one week after the project was posted.

While Kickstarter backers make pledges, they are not buying a piece of the company or future earnings. Instead, they receive rewards, which can range from a thank-you note to T-shirts. The Brinery backers will be given everything from stickers to having a custom-made batch of collector’s edition sauerkraut named after them, complete with a custom-designed label, Klingenberger said.

No money is collected unless the goal is met.

While Kickstarter targets creative projects such as indie films, video games and music, there is a category for food projects. But few have anything to do with fermentation, said Klingenberger, who calls himself the company’s CFO - chief fermentation officer. “Most of it is cupcakes, gluten-free or breweries,” he said.

The Brinery, whose biggest customer is Zingerman’s Deli, is ready to double production, producing 40 more 55-gallon barrels of sauerkraut, Klingenberger said, as the local cabbage crop is nearing the end of its harvest time. He has 12,000 pounds of cabbage lined up from local farms. He also needs to purchase 40 plastic barrels, where the fermentation process takes places. And he needs to pay staff.

The Brinery was started in 2010 after Klingenberger was confronted with a bumper crop of cabbage. As farm manager of Tantre Farm, he needed to figure out what to do with more cabbage than they could sell. He made sauerkraut using a no-cook fermentation process, and began selling it at the Ann Arbor Farmers’ Market, the Eastern Market in Detroit and eventually to Zingerman’s Deli. It is also sold at 35 stores and restaurants around southeastern Michigan, with an eye on expanding distribution to northern Michigan and the Chicago area, Klingenberger said.

Zingerman’s has become one of The Brinery’s biggest customers, buying about 6,000 pounds of sauerkraut annually. It is used on the deli’s signature Reuben sandwich. It was only the second time in the deli’s storied history that Zingerman's changed how its top-selling Reuben was made, Klingenberger said. The first was when they started using bread from Zingerman’s Bakehouse.

The Brinery, in addition to a revolving menu of sauerkrauts, produces smaller batches of other fermented vegetables such as kimchi, spicy pickled carrots, pickled turnips, fermented hot sauces and more.

Fermented vegetables are a healthy, probiotic-rich food good for the digestive tract. From start to finish, the process is raw; nothing is cooked, Klingenberger said. The Brinery’s production facility is located in a subleased space behind Hello Faz Pizza on West Liberty Street, near West Stadium Boulevard.

While The Brinery had raised 13 percent of its goal after one week, Klingenberger was optimistic that he’d meet the Nov. 4 deadline. “I’ve been told in the beginning there’s a little blip, but then it looks stagnant for awhile, with a push at the end,” he said.