A new craft beer is in the works to celebrate Cooper River Park’s 100th birthday

Camden County officials were brewing up ideas earlier this year to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Cooper River Park when one bubbled to the top: Beer.

County Commissioner Jonathan L. Young Sr. rode a lift last week with Double Nickel Brewing Co.’s brewmaster Rob Fox to the peak of a two-story steel tank to start the process of a commemorative local craft beer by pouring in a bag of saaz hops, one ingredient of the Cooper River 100 blend — a clear, light pilsner with a hint of lemon.

The beer will launch May 11 in time for the start of the Dad Vail Regatta weekend. The annual collegiate rowing competition is being held this year at the Cooper River Park as the Schuylkill National Racecourse in Philly awaits dredging.

The 347-acre Cooper River Park runs through Pennsauken, Cherry Hill, Collingswood, and Haddon Township, with the 2.5-mile long Cooper River Lake as its centerpiece.

The beer will be brewed, canned, and shipped from Double Nickel off Routes 73 and 130 in Pennsauken. It will be sold throughout the race weekend, one of 100 events scheduled for the park this year, said Frank Filipek Jr., the county’s director of events. Filipek said the county has plans for multiple regattas, an opera night, a wine festival, movie nights, and lots of concerts, including Hanson, a pop act that had a number one song in 1997, “MMMBop.”

Dan Keashen, a county spokesperson, said the idea was to craft a beer “with nice, clean lines” to celebrate with through the summer. The beer will be available for sale at local liquor stores, as well as at Double Nickel.

“When the idea was first getting thrown around, we were 100% on board,” said Brian Needham, a cofounder of the popular brewery that opened in 2015. Needham, who’s from Haddonfield, and all original partners of Double Nickel grew up in Camden County.

“So it only made sense,” Needham said.

Needham described the beer as a summer pilsner, similar to a shandy, with 5% alcohol by volume.

“It’s an easy drinking beer,” he said. “We wanted something that had a nice mass appeal, something that’s a good, crisp, approachable beer for warmer months.”

Double Nickel will start with an initial brew of 30 barrels, or about 930 gallons.

Needham said the brewery also designed the art for the label, which features rowers, a sailboat, a runner, and a picnic — all typical uses for the park.

“Cooper River Park has been a staple here in Camden County for decades, and its history deserves to be recognized and celebrated,” said Louis Cappelli Jr., director of the Camden County Commission.

Parts of Cooper River Park have recently been renovated as part of the county’s $100 million “Parks Alive 2025″ plan, which officials say is the biggest overhaul of the county’s park system since it was envisioned a century ago. The Jack Curtis Stadium track and field has been modernized and improvements made to playground, pavilion, and picnic areas. But the park still boasts original fieldstone retaining walls and other structures.

The park exists largely due to business leaders in post-World War I Camden who proposed a system of parks and parkways to spur growth and create a rival to Philadelphia. Victor Talking Machine Co. president Eldridge Johnson and others who were involved in or supported the Greater Camden Movement were inspired in part by the City Beautiful Movement, which advocated construction of parks and other public amenities.

In 1922, the start of work on what is now the Benjamin Franklin Bridge between Camden and Philadelphia further energized the parks effort, and in 1923 the county hired the esteemed landscape architect Charles Wellford Leavitt Jr., who was born in Riverton, to create designs.

Leavitt’s vision of a tree-lined parkway along the Cooper River in Camden came to naught — instead, it became Admiral Wilson Boulevard — and he was abruptly terminated by the county in 1927. Though the county began building the park, it was reluctant to continue spending during the Great Depression.

County voters approved a $350,000 bond referendum in 1931, and by 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs such as the Civil Works Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps provided money and labor to continue work at Cooper River Park.

Construction was finished in 1940, and the resulting park and its lake realized the essence of Leavitt’s vision, said Kevin Cook, who coauthored the 2014 book Along the Cooper River.

“It’s admirable, the clairvoyance of people at that time. They saw the future,” said Cook, who lives in Cherry Hill. “It’s just incredible foresight, and we’re reaping the benefits today of their vision from more than 100 years ago.”