It was on a Tamarack bus somewhere on his Western Trip, nose in book, that Max read about coffee. Realizing he knew very little about the seemingly simple drink, he decided he was going to learn about it. In fact, he thought that he would make for a good coffee snob—if given the opportunity. With total tech-free time out west, the inkling to become a coffee snob soon turned into an entrepreneurial idea—the reinvention of cold brew coffee. Not the most likely idea to come from a 16-year old hiking through Yellowstone National Park. But, nonetheless, it came to him. And through the hiking and the singing and the campfires, the idea percolated and percolated.
After he came home, he began to learn more about coffee. Max discovered that cold-brew coffee is less bitter, and creates a sweet, smooth taste without the typical coffee aftertaste. With his idea brewing, he tried to make it. But, there was no easy way to filter the beans. So, he did what any true camper would do, he grabbed a glue gun and an old screen door and prototyped the product. A new business ventures class at Jewish Frankel Academy allowed him to continue to build upon his idea and eventually, BRUW was born.
Like all great inventions, BRUW was designed to solve a problem. It filtered the coffee to create the perfect, mess-free cold brew cup of coffee.
BRUW was launched via Kickstarter in November 2015, and within a month had reached its target goal to raise over $10,000. The first BRUW filters were manufactured in January 2016.
Max, a determined teenager with a hardcore entrepreunreal spirit, was determined to make this happen. He applied to “Hatch” a Shark Tank-like show that connects inventors and product developers with retail and corporate partners, and investors. And low and behold, he made it out of the incubator—signed deal in hand—with the Home Shopping Network.
According to Max, BRUW has sold thousands of filters all around the world and continues to grow very rapidly. And BRUW products are made locally, in Michigan, by special needs adults through Jewish Vocational Services.
When asked how Tamarack has affected his life, Max replied, “I am who I am because of camp. It’s hard to verbalize specifically what eleven summers at camp (and counting) has taught me. It’s shaped me as a person and I wouldn’t be me without it.” What we do know is that on a five-week trip out west, totally unplugged, Max was able to discover something about himself and BRUW was born from that.
We couldn’t be more proud of our alum Max Feber. Mazel Tov on all your BRUW success and here’s to many more cups of cold brew coffee!
Update: We are excited to announce that on January 6th, Max Feber and BRUW, will air Shark Tank on ABC. We will be watching!