We were lucky to catch up with Brenden Johnson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Brenden thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

A couple things. One is my roasting method. It’s estimated that something like 97 % of all commercially roasted coffee is roasted in drum roasters. A drum roaster is easier to use, needs some but minimal monitoring while in use, and is the best for developing a bean’s complexity during roasting. At Almost Human Coffee, my partners and I discovered fluid bed roasting. we purchased a fluid bed roaster from a local hobbyist at am amazing price we couldn’t pass up.
There are pros and cons to every roaster. I appreciate that using a fluid roaster adds a little bit of a challenge to roast at the same quality, more intuition and skill to develop the complexity I want. It doesn’t hurt that, while the drum roaster does have an advantage, the fluid bed roaster more effectively avoids drying out the natural oils and diminishing the sweetness in darker roasts. There’s also some talk that there’s less chance of developing carcinogens, since there’s much less surface contact.
Secondly, from the very start with Glass City Roasters, my partners and I had decided we wanted to create our own syrups for our coffee. For one, we would never use any artificial preservatives and use natural preservation methods to ensure longer shelf lives. Secondly, we would never use extracts or artificial ingredients. Our vanilla was vanilla beans scraped straight out of the pods (which we also used), strained but not filtered. Every syrup was completely natural and used only a tiny amount of potassium sorbate. We experimented with pasteurization as well. I intend to create a new line of syrups and currently make fruit syrups for use in seltzers at Quenched & Tempered Brewing in downtown Toledo.
I also intend to have carbonated sodas infused with fruit purees on tap when we open our physical location, and I’ll be experimenting with different flavors to infuse in our cold brew as well.
We hope to do plenty more experimenting in the future, creating a coffee bean subscription, and having a rare coffee club as well as a mug club when we’re fully open.

Brenden, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Coffee Populace is a collaboration with Funky Turtle Brewing Company. I co-founded Glass City Roasters with the goal of delivering the freshest coffee possible and offering truly custom roasts to satisfy all tastes. The mission continued after a name change to Almost Human Coffee, a move deemed necessary to set the roaster apart with a more unique image. During those years, my determination to serve the people firstly of Toledo but also nationally with the best coffee I could provide led to several accolades.
These included a bronze medal in the Golden Bean, the most prestigious yearly international competition featuring hundreds of coffee roasters, and a win in Ohio Magazine’s 2018 best of Ohio voting for best custom-roasted coffee in the state. Almost Human also earned a distinction as Nextdoor.com’s neighborhood favorite three years in a row, a streak interrupted by the pandemic. My goal at Coffee Populace remains the same as it was at the very beginning. Whether you’re chasing the current trend in coffee or you’re looking for something more unique, you can count on Coffee Populace to deliver. We have been perfecting our craft for over a decade and continue to roast with the utmost pride, delivering only the best. Coffee Populace is here to serve everyone; we’re here for those who are looking for new experiences and for the people who never stray from their tried and true. We sell more than just a drink. Truly good coffee is an experience in itself: it is a time alone to relax and reflect, a time to reminisce with an old friend, or a raucous time with good friends. Whatever coffee means to you, Coffee Populace crafts the experience that truly transcends the norm.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Funky Turtle is a microbrewery in Toledo that initially specialized in meads and ciders but has expanded from there. It was founded by two friends who frequented Almost Human Coffee. It was usually black coffee or a bag of beans, and it eventually led to a collaboration: a coffee mead. After some deliberation and experimentation, we settled on a mocha and a caramel latte mead. We provided the coffees for both, steeped the as cold brews, and helped make the caramel syrup.
We had collaborated with other breweries before, which also involved having our coffee in VIP beers for Glass City Beer Fest from the likes of Black Cloister (RIP) and Black Frog in Holland, OH. Funky Turtle was our closest and most regular collaborating team
We had discussed in passing a possible joint venture, once before leaving our second location for our third and final location on Sylvania Avenue in Toledo. We discussed it briefly again, though in passing, and I never really thought about it again or a while.
When we announced our permanent closure, Funky Turtle was there with a case of braggot and some mead for the party.
A short time after our dissolution, I decided I wanted to continue roasting and formed a new LLC. A few months later, I was approached for a meeting with Tom and Drake, the founders and owners. To my surprise, they had drafted an entire plan to combine businesses. Capital was provided for a new roaster, building changes to accommodate it, coffee stock, and supplies for a percentage of ownership. It was a great plan and we’ve been a joint venture ever since.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

This is where we differ from most. We took out no loans to start Glass City Roasters, we did everything as inexpensively as possible, and we built almost everything, structurally speaking, from scratch.
Funky Turtle provided the initial capital to begin with Coffee Populace, and my proceeds with serve to repay that over time, particularly as we open a physical location soon.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.coffeepopulace.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coffeepopulace/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coffeepopulace/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brenden-johnson-a1716746/

Image Credits

Myself