The B Team Podcast
Talking all things Business, Bentonville, and Bourbon. Hosted by Josh Saffran, Matt Marrs, and Rob Nelson. New episodes every Thursday!
The B Team Podcast
Ep. 67 - Bike Rack Brewing Co: Crafting Bentonville's Beer Scene
What does it take to build a successful craft brewery in the heart of Northwest Arkansas? Jeff, owner and founder of Bike Rack Brewing Co., pulls back the curtain on his decade-long journey from homebrewing hobbyist to established business owner in this candid conversation.
Since opening in October 2014 as one of Bentonville's first craft breweries, Bike Rack has witnessed—and contributed to—the region's explosive growth and transformation. Jeff shares how the brewery's name, which initially confused locals in 2013, became perfectly aligned with Bentonville's evolution into a mountain biking destination. His timing proved equally fortunate with their 8th Street Market location, which now sits adjacent to Walmart's new campus development.
Throughout our conversation, we sample three distinct Bike Rack beers: a refreshing Blueberry Lemonade Lager (created in collaboration with Dave and Jenny Mars's blueberry farm), a hazy East Coast IPA named "Dinos and Unicorns" after the head brewer's children's interests, and their crisp American Lager. Each beer tells a story about the brewery's approach to crafting approachable, high-quality brews that appeal to both enthusiasts and newcomers alike.
The discussion takes unexpected turns as Jeff reveals the challenges of navigating the COVID-19 pandemic (which instantly eliminated 75% of their taproom-based revenue), the surprising shift in customer demographics (now primarily tourists rather than locals), and the realities of running a capital-intensive business in an increasingly competitive market. His honest assessment of entrepreneurship—"You don't get in this to get rich; you get in to give to a community and have fun"—resonates throughout.
Whether you're a craft beer enthusiast, an aspiring entrepreneur, or simply curious about Bentonville's remarkable evolution, this episode offers refreshing insights into how passion, community focus, and adaptability can build something special. Ready to experience Bike Rack Brewing Co. for yourself? Visit them at the 8th Street Market or follow them on social media to catch their next live music event.
Welcome to the B-Team Podcast. I am your host, josh Saffron, with my co-host, matt Morris and our permanent guest Rob Nelson. We're here every week to talk to you about all things Bentonville, bourbon and business the B-Team Podcast Be here. Welcome to the B-Team Podcast. I'm your host, josh Saffron, with our co-host, bobby. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I looked at you Look away.
Speaker 1:Look away, I got promoted. No, no, no, no, no, with our co-host, matt Bars, and our permanent guest, bobby. Bobby, he's doing everything tonight. I'm on top of it. Must have an IV today. He's all juiced up, ready to go. Which way?
Speaker 2:is the beach that's piling up. We better change the subject.
Speaker 1:We're here every Thursday for all things Bentonville, business and bourbon. But today we're going to remove the bourbon bee and move to the beer bee, urban bee and moved to the the beer bee, yeah, and we brought in jeff owner, founder of bike rack brewing yeah thanks for having me appreciate coming in.
Speaker 1:Uh, so we met it again. Strange how things work in this town, but we happen to be at a day job event with uh, your kpmg business and my plug and play business. And one thing led to another, like, hey, he owns bike rack brewing, let's get him in on the podcast. And and here we are today. It was just as simple as that exactly worked out well yeah, and so this is one of the og, like you're one of the first of the, the brewery companies here yeah, so we um.
Speaker 2:So going back probably I think it was 2012 benton county became not a dry county. Ozark was the first brewery to open. I think they opened 12 or 13, um, in Rogers, and then we opened, we, we became a company in 2013, which is basically means you just sign a paper and think everything's going to be magic, create an LLC, but uh, we, we opened our doors, uh, uh, on a street, um, and we opened right around October, right around Halloween of 2014. And then we moved to the 8th Street Market spring of 2017, and have been there ever since.
Speaker 1:Do you have any background in this? I drank a lot of beer yeah. On that note he has a lot of practice.
Speaker 2:Can we correct these? Yes, please, I've already got mine open. Yeah, so I did bring a few different beers for you guys, cheers. Yeah, we try to partner a lot with the community and this is an example of one and we just put it on tap today in the brew room. It comes out next week and what it is it's a blueberry lemonade lager and we work with Dave and Jenny Mars and their blueberry farm and their big event they do yearly.
Speaker 1:We've heard of that before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know them A little bit.
Speaker 1:A little Happily, happily.
Speaker 2:And this one. This year there's not the huge event. So what we're doing is we still created the beer, We've got it on tap and then we created just a limited number of cans we're putting in the room to kind of celebrate the event still. And what's happening?
Speaker 1:So this will be in and out pretty quick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's an in and out beer. It's a great beer to kick off summer. Anytime you get a lager with a little bit of fruit too, that is what it tastes like. Yeah, this is the beginning of summer Summer in a can, if you look close at it. Right, this is Dave's Berry Farm trail. Yep, if you look close at it.
Speaker 1:Look at that Very fancy. So you were in collaboration with Dave and Jenny.
Speaker 2:Yeah, last year because we had the big event. They came in for a day and then we did the art, kind of gave our thoughts and what do you think about this? And so kind of collaborated, creating it to make a fun event. Any things you can do to make things more fun always is a good time. So that's the first beer we got. I mean, it screams it's June and it's starting to heat up and sit by the pool and have this. So you sell this by the six pack, by the six pack and then just by the pint in the front room and does it just sell like, do you sell at local places also besides yours? We do, but not this beer.
Speaker 2:Okay, we just created a really limited amount of this beer, which is cool. Yeah, we didn't want to turn it into something. Yeah, yeah, and we're trying to do some of the social marketing stuff together to help promote going out to the farm. I think it's a week from now when they're doing the first pick. He knows more than you do. Yeah, he does. We matched it. Well, I actually got updated on it by our GM before he came here.
Speaker 2:I can pull my notes. I'm really not that old.
Speaker 1:You probably know more than Dave does too. Fact.
Speaker 2:Well now, I love that you guys do that with local people. You guys make a point to do things. I mean, that's a big deal, yeah, very big. I think you guys should do a partnership. Gents, we already talked about it. Yeah, I like that Gents place beer. Well, like a Gentsgiving, what's the one you always like in the fall? Oh yeah, any fall kind of beer, would you know, like Christmas and the dark kind of spice. But it would be cool to do one of those at the Gentsgiving.
Speaker 1:Well, we talked about because if you walk out his front door and you have the binoculars out, you can see right into the front door of the Gents place, the new location. So we talked about doing some exclusive stuff for the VIP members. So we're already thinking about that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've, of course. You are In our 10 years. We've done a ton of different community partnering stuff and it's kind of the fun of owning this. I mean you don't I kind of like in the brewery business, a little bit like the wine business. You don't get in this to get rich, you get in to give to a community and have a lot of fun. But we've done, we. We probably leaned in most over the years with the arts community, especially musicians. I mean literally we. We produced and paid for two different albums of local artists with Neil Greenaw recording and, like I mean we produced vinyl for it. I mean you talk about something that's a little on the crazy side and that's how we know Jared Sears so well working with him. He's been on podcasts with us, yeah he used to work at our brewery.
Speaker 1:Our singing right we sagged on that episode. Our singing right, we sag on that episode.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh boy, he just played at our brewery last Friday night. His band played Really. Yeah, he's pretty good. Oh, he acts like he's not. No, he acts like he's not. He's massively talented and the group he has every one of them are pros. They just all have day jobs and they put together Jukebox confessions and it's a 90s cover band and it was perfect because he was playing at the barbecue fest on saturday and he came in and did his, like his rehearsal, outside for all the people and we it was like three hours. We loved it, it was great.
Speaker 1:We did miss the barbecue fest, by the way.
Speaker 2:We have to get out of that next year how do you, how do you guys keep up, though? Like with bentonville went from like a few main events to literally every weekend there's some, like you're, you're 100 festivals coming up, and then the monetary has the concerts all the time and you don't like, you just have to pick and choose. Like 2014, 2015, like it was like once a month we had a big fan and now I mean there three, four events every weekend, and then also we're trying to run events because we've got a massive patio out there and we want to. You know, we like we support beer and hymns would be a great example. They come in on a once a month. They they play hymns and we raise money for a third, you know for, for whatever charity it is that month, so we can actually utilize our space for a lot of the events. I mean, we're, we're limited, you can get, you know, a few hundred people, but but it's, it can be exhausting.
Speaker 2:It's probably the, it's probably the thing over time that, like it's first year, you're all in, you're excited and and everybody's reaching out when you're nine or ten and eleven and I'm like well, but everybody's reaching out wanting to partner with you.
Speaker 1:Like I gotta pick and choose now. You pick and choose now. I used to do everything.
Speaker 2:Now I got to pick and choose A hundred percent, because it I mean bike events. There's at least two every week, oh yeah, and we, you know, traditionally tried to align ourselves to the biking community. It was really, really easy. You had the name Well back, yeah. Would you have ever thought that you have in this area? Know that. I mean, when we came up with it, it was 2013. Everyone's like Bicrack. What does that even mean? People were thinking you were a visionary Bicrack, yeah. And then you know it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1:Oh I see Bicrack Bicrack. I see that that's good. Yeah, you saw the biking scene before it blew up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was, we saw it. I mean, it's probably because we just went through seeing Crystal Bridges and then when we saw them do that with biking, it's like okay, this is going to happen Like that. Yeah, If you did partner with them, could you guys have it on tap for when people come to the gym? Can't you tap? No, we don't have that. That would be neat if you could.
Speaker 1:I thought I can't spill too much yet because we there's. But like, if you have an exclusive wrap or exclusive, hey come in. Only at the Jen's place Can you get this bike rack brew, and it happens to be on the Wal-Mart campus. So if there's something you could do that made sense on the Wal-Mart campus, so I mean it will be. It would be really cool to be able to find something. Where'd you get that beer? It's wrapped right across the street. Go over and see our friend Jeff at Bike Rack. I think it's a huge opportunity, oh, huge.
Speaker 2:Huge, you guys have food now too. Yeah, we did. We added food. Your chicken wings are fantastic. You like them. Thank you. Good, good, Absolutely love them. He hates the chicken wings. No, it, they're really really good. It was a fine line. We just felt there was days where we were open and no other food was there and we'd have people come in and walk out. We'd have people have one beer.
Speaker 1:Hit the road we're trying to keep it super simple.
Speaker 2:Chicken wing you need. Chicken wing is in a beer, yeah, and if you haven't tried our massive big pretzel, it's so good but it feeds three, Right, yeah, and it's what we tried to do. I mean we kind of doing what what Starbucks does, If you walk in there, like their ovens, those their unique European ovens that you don't have to take up a lot of space. I mean, we're a production brewery everything in back, like we had to carve out a little bit of space and let's put the most efficient, you know food we can do and we're going to be limited to one or two things. But let's do one or two things pretty quickly.
Speaker 2:Really good yeah, and the wings are great, thank you.
Speaker 1:Flavored wings. Yeah, yeah, I know that. Buffalo.
Speaker 2:I think it was buffalo barbecue. Yeah, I just get the dry rub and then I get the dip. So buffalo barbecue dry rub. I like the dry rub. Yeah, barbecue dry rod.
Speaker 1:I like the dry rod. Yeah, yeah, they're great. I mean, you're earning a lot of value today. I didn't even know that you knew jeff in his business. He doesn't, he. I live downtown. I go to bike rack on a semi regular base.
Speaker 2:It's a great location, great yeah, no, we, it's all gonna get better with everything that's going on there. Yeah, what's? What's pretty funny. So I used to work at walmart and I would drive by that location every single day for 10 years and I never knew that old tyson building was there because it was overgrown trees.
Speaker 2:And, um, a buddy of mine, daniel hints, calls one day after I don't know if you guys know daniel, he's crazy in a good way, um, and he's the one who initiated downtown bettenville dbi. He's the guy who started all that. And he said Jeff, I want you to walk through a new project and we're developing. I'm like, oh, okay. And we walked through this and it was the worst place I've ever seen in my life. It was the old Tyson chicken kill plant. I don't know if anyone had walked in there or around it for 25 years. And we went through and he laid out the vision and we're like we're in, let's do it.
Speaker 2:So we had to do a lot of changes. We had to rip out our you know, because we got super heavy equipment. We had to dig down two feet, put, put concrete in such a lot of some expensive build it was an expensive build out to put a working brewery in there, and but it's been worth it, it's been, it's been a lot of fun and it's it's kind of transformed. I mean we've. You know, bentonville is kind of weird because the area where the new home office is and where we are, fifteen years ago I don't know if anyone ever went there yeah, and that now.
Speaker 1:I mean you. I'm going to have to play like the lottery with you because you were on the bike green you your locations right next to the new walmart campus. It's like you're seeing things happen before they happen. You couldn't be in a better location previously, but now, with the walmart campus right next door yeah, it it's, it's a I would.
Speaker 2:I would love to say it's being smart, but it's kind of being in the right area, like we're in this area, in this town, over the last 15 years hasn't everything been so successful? Yeah, um, it's. It's betting on the right, you know the right place. If we'd picked some other town, that would have, yeah, it wouldn't be the same way. For sure, you know well. And that's like when they opened eighth street, you know, nothing was over there. So we're like, man, it's weird that it's way over there. And then they're like, oh no, no, they're doing a full late. You see what's coming? Like, yeah, now that you're seeing it come to fruit, like you're like, oh, okay, I get it now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the one of the fun parts of that was getting to be a part of the laying out and the planning of all that and a little bit getting to see the sausage being made, you know, and then going through here's how we need to lay it out, like picking everything and and just hearing, you know, in the culinary institutes, going in there and some of the restaurants and places, and what's unique about our area is it's different, like we want what other people would think competition, more places to drink, more places to eat, it all it's good, it feeds off each other. Yeah, when it's just us, like coming out of COVID, it's. You know, people want to go where there's multiple things and they want to bounce from one thing to the other. Well, I was going to ask about that because the shuffleboard place was next to you, for a while.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the holler was. I mean that was a cool spot, but it didn't last long.
Speaker 2:No, I mean COVID. Yeah, I love that place. Its whole theme was, you know, connect and hang out and be together. And then that happened. Yeah, I mean, if there was ever a business that was like couldn't survive COVID, it was it. It was designed all around hanging out and spending time with friends. So now Homegrown's there. Right, not the same exact place. They've got a plan for that. Down the road, homegrown has moved into the front area, which when the cheese thing was. Yeah, all the little small places and Homegrown has reignited energy in the place.
Speaker 1:I bet the traffic. People walked in like, oh, that's where Bike Rack is. I've heard of it, I've never been there before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's funny. We started opening earlier on Saturday and Sunday because the beauty of Homegrown is so damn good. Yeah, people are willing to wait an hour and they come over and have a beer. Correct, there's a line outside. They'll come over and see you, yeah, and just forget it and have some chicken wings. Exactly, we've had that happen. That's probably about it.
Speaker 2:I don't want biscuits and gravy, I just want some chicken wings. Rob's making me hungry over there. Yeah, we should get them on here, though. Who Homegrown? Yeah, do you know the guys over there? We do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, for us, what works perfect is we've got a big parking lot, but they fill the parking lot and then all of a sudden, they close at 3 o'clock and then we fill the parking lot from 3 on. So if you're asking for two businesses that really complement each other, well, it's really the two of us. Now, given the chance, I would, if, if I could have the holler back, I'd go like that in a second, because what's changed for us? We're not as busy later at night as we used to be, because when the holler was open, they were open until midnight and 1 am and we used to have to stay open later and would have to in a good way. I mean, it was a good business, but now it's not as busy as pre-COVID late at night. There's more of a downtown density now. Be careful what you wish for with that campus opening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 2:With the hotel and all that there. I think it should help that. I think, because people will just walk over there versus going clear downtown. Yeah, I mean, as soon as that eighth street opened our business, the traffic's been dramatically different and yep, it's uh. How is the craft beer space in general? I mean, I know it like it exploded. What was it five, ten years ago? I would say probably 10 to 15 years ago. It's just exploded. Um, I would say everyone wanted to open up a brewery Overall. Now there's a lot of competition.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but competition is good. Everybody seems to like each other here, is that?
Speaker 2:yes or no, it's beer competition. We always call it beer. I mean it's, you know, there's just so many tap handles out there. I think the bigger overarching trend, if you look at the younger, younger generation, you know, early 20s they probably don't drink beer as much as our generations might have, um, or the generation of even 10, 15 years ago there's there's a lot more um, there's a lot more focus on mixed drinks and there's, frankly, a lot of the, the, the marijuana environment than existed 10, 15 years ago. You know, kids now pop a gum, pop a gummy and grab a sprite and hang out all night. Yeah, well, that's what it's funny. You say that because we, we just got back from Florida and our, our neighbor is a huge beer drinker, mm hmm, but he's on some medicine so he has to drink these non-alcoholic like they have ultras out like a non-alcoholic.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we're at the bar and they said the younger generation, that's what they she's like, they all have gummies and then they have non. So do you guys have like a non-alcoholic you're going to try to bring out? Because he's, she said she's like I never thought in a million years. But the younger kids, they don't, they want non-alcoholic. Yeah, we, we carry non-alcoholic and we carry more than one. Does it rate? Oh, it's starting.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, like I would have never thought, the challenge I've got with non-alcoholic beer producing it it's a little bit more expensive to produce and I mean, unless you're really good at it, I don't think it tastes quite as good as regular beer. Yeah, and then the other challenge, like Athletic Brewing Company, if you're familiar with them, tons of money have went in. They've kind of owned that. And what's beautiful about the beer business? It's protected by the three-tier system and all the the laws that the government has put against alcohol forever. When you start talking non-alcoholic, you can have the big guys go in. When I say the big guys coke, pepsi, whomever come in and they're not governed by this three-tier system, and like, all of sudden I go from competing in a beer category to now trying to compete in a soft drink category?
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, so we carry it in our brew room? Yeah, we're not. I mean, we kicked around doing it a few years ago. We tested them. Yeah, we're just like eh, it's easier. Yeah, just supply it. Yeah, supply it, it's just. You know, in our taproom has changed over the years. Now we've got great mixed drinks. We have a bartender who loves making fresh mixed drinks. She pre-mixes them every day and they're fantastic and we sell far more than we used to. We sell a lot more seltzers. We sell a lot more. You know, the category just changes, but that's smart because you're catering to a wider audience.
Speaker 1:You know, a lot of the brewery in town is like if you want beer, you come here, and if you don't want beer you got to go somewhere else.
Speaker 2:With 2014,. We learned that lesson really, really quick, because you go in and say we're just going to be a beer bar and you know you don't like it go, and then all of a sudden you, the whole group, leaves and it's like, quickly, we're like, okay, we need wine, but you're a business guy, you figured that out. Well, it's yeah. I mean you just, customers are the lifeblood of you know, but like this Because, like, our wives aren't going to care, I think the girls would, because I, this is a, this is a state.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, when it comes to beer consumption, we're either, probably we're in the mid to late 40s of 50 states, um, we're not. You know michigan, we're not san diego, california. We spend a lot of our effort and time creating a strawberry, lemonade lager, a blueberry lager. We have one of our top sellers, a lager beer, a lighter, more approachable beer. We put some flavors in it because we're trying to make something. Just like you said, oh, I don't like beer, but I like this. Yeah, all right, let's pull out these ipas while I do that.
Speaker 1:My favorite um summer brew used to be lining kugel. I used to love it. Yeah, yeah, they're good, we have a shandy.
Speaker 2:This is great, yeah, this is almost like a shanty. Yeah, yeah, or something. Yeah, this, yeah, this is one of those that you could now what type of ipa? So I've done and it's an east coast ipa, so, matt, you might like this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a little bit hazy okay, that's not the big ip he's becoming, he's morphing out. I think we come around.
Speaker 2:yeah, so matt doesn't like the big west coast. This, yeah, gang, like I love this artwork, do you do you guys? Who does all of this for you? We've done it all in-house different employees, employees yeah, this one looks like you might have a party. Someone's taking some of those gummies, cheers.
Speaker 1:That's good, you'll like this one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is good, I'll trip it all over myself. So as a small business business, you can do lots of crazy, funny stuff. We named it dinos and unicorns because our head is a unicorn. Our head brewer, his, his kids love dinosaurs and unicorns. His daughter loves unicorns and he literally has a sleeve of tattoo of dinos and unicorns. Like you's, like you brew a good beer, we'll name the beer after it. Yeah, easy, that's good, that is very good. And they're ice cold too. Yeah, I'm going to be sure, with ice. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Appreciate it. So what's your top selling beer? It's an IPA.
Speaker 2:But it's. We're probably more balanced than most other breweries out there. It's our traditional what I call West Coast IPA. We call it Slaughterpen. It was originally named after the first mountain bike trail here. It's kind of been the standard we've had forever, and then over time we've seen this, the hazy IPA, kind of jump in and take a bigger role and 6.2,. So it's not horrible. Yeah, no, it's not In the tap room. We've got some bigger or 6.3. 6.3, yeah, yeah, sorry, Used to be. Yeah, that's close enough, but it's not crazy.
Speaker 1:That sounded like an empty one. There you write that whole thing, Matthew.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was really good, Never challenge. Matt or more so, dave, in a beer chugging contest. Really, I've never seen these guys chug a beer quicker than Really.
Speaker 1:Oh, are you going to shotgun this next one, the third one? I?
Speaker 2:mean did you teach Dave how to shotgun beers Like? Dave's got a. He's got a special talent. I've never seen anything like it. He's open to throw. It's unreal. Both of these would be good to do that with.
Speaker 1:Which one did you like better?
Speaker 2:Two totally different beers. Well, yeah, this is one that you, when you're out at the pool. I drank this all day. This one just has a lot more depth. I can drink this all day too. Yeah, this is one I want, Unless I'm at the pool, then I'll take 12. But one or two, but this one, like you say someone that doesn't drink beer, you can be like, hey, try this. And they'll be like oh, I left a little vodka in there, Good old rice.
Speaker 1:I think your bartender that you have at your house could open these up nice and easy, bring them out to the pool, sure, sure, toss it in Ellison.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so now these. So all of your stuff, do you guys does any of it sell? Like Mac the local? Yeah, yeah, we do, Just not the special stuff. Yeah, this, this is a really this is a really really unique one that we don't do very often. Most everything we make, we try to can and keg it, Okay. And then three, we work through a distributor. So we would, if it's going out into the market, we sell it to a distributor. They'll take it to liquor stores bars restaurants.
Speaker 2:So is this a yearly release? This is year-round, year-round, okay. Yeah, this is the only one that's once a year. Now, this is so good. This started as a yearly release and it just kind of grew into yeah, don't take it off the top, yeah, and it's. It sells super well in our tap room.
Speaker 1:So how much are you involved in the day to day, or is the staff running this?
Speaker 2:or like what's the? Uh, I am not as involved as I used to be because I got a day job six years ago. Um, in some ways to you know, help make sure that a brewery can make it through and be successful. I get it there's. If you've ever heard the saying about, like you want to be a millionaire in the wine business, you start with two.
Speaker 2:Um you know, um, I mean, brewing is a capital intensive business and not super easy. I'm involved. I mean I'm there for events, I'm there in the evening. So I'm still really involved because at the beginning I was radically involved. But you know, before I went back for for a day job, I was teaching beer at the culinary institute prior to covid, and so I'm pretty deep into beer nerddom. I can.
Speaker 1:I can really nerd out with some, some people on beer I mean, I tell people that my day job pays for my very expensive night and weekend job.
Speaker 2:It sounds exactly, it's exactly right it's's a hobby I don't want to say it's a yeah, no, I love it, but it's. The best thing I can do is to make sure that we're not cash flow strapped. We've got to sit around and worry about having to pay employees.
Speaker 1:You mean running your own business. You're not printing money. Oh Right, it's not. People think that's the case.
Speaker 2:Yeah, from these two, from the two that we've tried. You guys, your stuff's pretty, pretty amazing and I mean, the hardest thing is you had to go through going through what COVID had to be like forever. Yeah, you know everyone we talked to that. A small business it, yeah, we, we took a, we took, we had three locations. When we went into COVID, 75% of our revenue was taproom-based and it 100% shut off. Yeah, where were the other two locations? Springdale, and then we bought a place downtown Springdale and Springdale was doing great, but I don't know if there was an area hit harder by COVID as far as traffic than downtown Springdale, because you had the entire Tyson tech team that was our clients, and they all worked so went closed. Yeah, well, we, yeah, we sold the building and then, um, our original location we had for quite a while is our second location, where the old peddler's pub was.
Speaker 2:We were next door yeah yeah, yeah, and then it just confused so many customers because we were three quarters of a mile apart yep and so that was just.
Speaker 2:This is the only way. This is the only one. We brew everything in our location. Um, and it it's unique. We, you know, this is what's a little bit we can.
Speaker 2:We can take a long time making our beer, and what that means is, um, we're not pasteurizing, we're not filtering our beer, and yet when you pour it in, you're going to say, oh, wow, it's super clear, super clean. We keep our beer in and yet when you pour it in, you're going to say, oh, wow, it's super clear, super clean. We keep our beer and our fermenters much longer than most people, because we bought, we be big equipment and have the ability to, and the longer you can age something, it's like a bourbon. Give me a 12-year bourbon or give me a six-year bourbon and tell me which is better. And we're not talking years, we're talking weeks, all right, but we can get natural clarity and natural stability by the ability to keep things in longer, and that's why having even a lager of ours has a lot fuller flavor than you're going to have with a pasteurized lager that's designed to last on a shelf for nine months warm. Is that the one you brought? My final one is just a base lager.
Speaker 1:You're already on the third one.
Speaker 2:That's like the base of everything lager. It's what we try to. I mean, it's kind of the gateway beer into craft beer. I feel You're to go out to the West Coast or go to Colorado and ask what the brewers are drinking If they're not drinking IPAs.
Speaker 2:They'll be like I'm drinking a Coors Banquet beer. So yeah, so it's kind of I would say our american lager is very inspired by a coors bank. Yeah, that's fair. How do you still so when you started in 14? Do you still make what that kind of that like? Do you have like a staple beer that you still you guys still make, or is it all evolved into other things? There's probably three that have been a staple the slaughter pen ipa, the amber ale. I've had the amber ale, the amber ale and then the golden ale. Those are the ratings, what I usually get, so okay, I'm not the chicken wings, the golden, the golden.
Speaker 2:I'm not gonna get too nerdy on you. We probably most ventured into lagers, um, which gives a little bit more crispness, not the as full of flavor, but we have the ability to do it. A lot of other craft breweries don't do it because you have to age the beer a lot longer as a lager. Okay, that's as nerdy as I'm gonna get. No, that's great. When you decided to get in, did you like? Did you already make beer yourself at home? Yeah, there was a group of us that did some homebrew stuff. None of us were professional. It's a rabbit hole. It's a little bit like the way I would like it. I love to grill, I love to be out in my big green egg. It's like thinking, okay, I'm ready to open a restaurant, I make the best egg, my big green egg.
Speaker 1:It's like thinking okay, I'm ready to open a restaurant, yeah, I make the best and it's better pizza than me. Let's open a pizza. It was good pizza.
Speaker 2:Well, and the thing you and thing you need to realize when you're doing all these homebrew events all your friends and family are coming over and they're coming over for free beer and none of them want to tell you that your kid's really ugly, yeah, but the beer isn't that good like you can't. It's very difficult with homebrew to manage the fermentation process and the transition, and so it was a lot of like overblown. This is going to be so easy we're going to kill it. Um, it's probably a lot of years of corporate america's like. I gotta do something different in my life at some point to go at least stretch, and you know, not do this thing my whole life.
Speaker 2:But uh, yeah, we, we went in with this very naive, very, I mean just we were. I mean, if you were to look at our original plans, like you just roll your eyes, I mean, in fact I do roll my your eyes. I mean, in fact I do Roll your eyes laughing at how pathetic. But the thing is you have to have that to go into business yourself. You have to be like you know what, we're going to do it and we're going to figure it out. It's really easy to do kind of dry in anything.
Speaker 1:No, but it's high risk. You had a day job right where you were insuring the man and you had it at one point as well, and obviously you do. It's like, should I do something for myself that pays bills and is very safe, or do I take the risk? And the entrepreneurial folks jump out and take the risk and hopefully most are successful, but many are not. Many are not. It's hard being your own boss.
Speaker 2:And sometimes you got to go do that multiple times at different things until you've hit on the right one. So we should all try crack them at the same. I got it Ready, all right. Yeah, two, three. I hope he's really good. That was kind of cool, like frat party, like yeah, that was cool, that's good.
Speaker 1:So what you see in the label of this is just beer like this is just standard you know what, if I close my eyes, this is like yankee stadium, like a baseball game beer. This is what this reminds me of. This is like he's got the best.
Speaker 2:Cooler too. This is like the perfect amount of cold too. Yeah, yeah, and check out the label. It's got out the labels. The topography yeah, topography of the mountain. That's your man's man's beer right there. That's the one. This is good. It's probably the one I end up having the most of.
Speaker 2:It's just a beer. It's beer. It's 5% alcohol. It's what you go if you're going to have a pizza. I mean it's just an easy drinking beer and we want it to compete. I mean we want it to be. I guess how we differentiate is it's something like this that we're not pasteurizing, we're not filtering. Yet when you pour it in a glass, it's going to be super crystal clear. It tastes it as well. Yeah, yeah, I mean super crystal clear and it tastes it as well. Yeah, yeah, it's. I mean, craft beer is a. You know, it's a little bit. You're gonna. You're gonna notice everything we make, we, we refrigerate and everything we try to turn as fast as possible, and beer is a perishable item object, just like everything else, and, like we, we try to turn and make stuff and have it be as fresh as possible. It's very refreshing, you want it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's great. Yeah, it's very tasty. Which one do you like the best?
Speaker 2:Again, there's not a best, it's like chicken wings pizza and lasagna.
Speaker 1:We know you like chicken wings. Yeah, I mean, I love pizza, I love lasagna as well. They all have their own purpose and their own. If I was to be doing this, I would drink this.
Speaker 2:If I was to be doing that, you start out with a few of these in the morning, as you're firing up the green In the morning Right, we're on the beach for sure, right. And then, as the afternoon rolls on, you have an IPA or two, and then maybe you move back to this and throw one of these in the middle. Question and throw one of these in the middle.
Speaker 1:Question for you. Yeah, we're on Helios, ken. Helios is his boat, and it's noon and we're pulling out. What beer are you starting with? Noon?
Speaker 2:Noon, I'm going straight IPA, straight IPA. I think I'd start a few of the I do too.
Speaker 1:Strawberry lemonade. I do too. I feel like on the boat it's the lemonade lager one. I feel that way there's not a wrong choice. No, no, no, but I mean I'm I'm a pretty big craft beer check so now, like 11 30 at night, when the dj's spinning on the boat, what's coming out?
Speaker 2:we've got bourbon yeah, we've never had that. It's like, if that was to happen, most likely not bourbon at that point, because you know you only have so many beers, there's only so many beers you can have, I agree, so I'm at bourbon at that point most likely, I agree.
Speaker 1:So what's next for Bike Rack? I mean, you guys have kind of been in all of it, but you have three, you have one, you've crafted things in.
Speaker 2:Like what's the no coming back out? I? I think what we're going to be focused on this year? Um, obviously the taproom growth has been strong because eighth street market opening, we're, um, investing a lot, doing concerts every weekend, so we want to be a place. We're in an experience business, um, and so when you come to buy crack, you know you're going to see tons of dogs. You, either friday or saturday night, you should see a band, um, and you're gonna have really good, solid beer.
Speaker 2:I'm such a beer nerd if we don't make a beer that's like I can. I love different styles. It can't be off flavors, it can't be anything bad. Um, my wife hates going out with me to different bars and different things Cause I'm like I can't drink this. Um, so that, and then growing our outside the market, working through our distributor, um, we're going to get pretty aggressive, trying this beer to the, the lager, trying to get a lot more aggressive in the marketplace with it and, uh, try to get more, more kegs. And you know it's, it's, we've got the, the equipment, we've got the size to to brew more, and it's really trying to figure out let's, let's make that brewing more happen, um, and maybe, maybe, get ourselves into some places that hadn't always had craft beer, um, and then you know being aggressive with with to to make sure we can get a tap handle or two at some super busy places. It might be little rock or or, uh, and we're only in the state of Arkansas. You know Dixon Street or wherever. Yep, are you down that way yet? Yeah, we are, we're.
Speaker 2:Just I would say we've been pretty conservative in our market approach. Covid was quite a hit for a lot of us coming out, you know, because it's just, you changed everything you did upside down and it's like OK, now how do you get it? And change a little bit back. I would say we're not going to probably push quite as hard in cans, but more into kegs and draft canning. For us, because of the way we're designed, we're not super efficient. We know we need it, we know we want it, but like we, just we, we're, we're very manual, like we, just we, we're, we're very manual and what we're really good at is making a lot of beer that can sit in a fermenter and age and then putting it in a really big keg and letting our distributor go sell it.
Speaker 2:And we need to do more of that, if you're not already, I would say, like the three hotels downtown, yeah, like, get a handle on there, because, like you got all these, you know people from out of town. Yeah, anytime I'm out of town, it's like, oh, what's your local always want to? Yeah, just give me a local beer, we'll see what is like. What is this called? When you go to a restaurant america bike rack lager or american lager yep, it's like, because I know like peddlers is where I always have golden. Yeah, yep, and I didn't know if they have these, this or if they, but I mean they're, they're a lot of restaurants have the golden ale. Yeah, go to downtown, yeah, no, and I think this is better than golden ale. It's different. It's different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, if I'm, I would rather drink myself. Personally, my taste, I'd rather have that lager than a golden ale. And now it's a little heavier. Yeah, it's, the yeast is impacting with flavors in a way that the yeast doesn't impact here. So you get like a weird it's almost like fruitiness to the, to it now to be out most everywhere I go. Or if I'm going out of town, I am going to get the ipa. Yeah, I mean it's just. I agree. Yep, all right, give me your. So the ipa is kind of like that's everyone's like to show what they're really good at. They really enjoy beer. This is just for people like me that are russies. People can taste this. You guys are in Charles Hatter, right? Yeah, you know Tony, yeah, he. Yeah, you know Tony. Yeah, yeah, he was on here, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was something. One of our eyes view. Oh really. Yeah, that was the night we played beer pong and then we went out to eat and Bobby passed out at the dinner table. That was my blood pressure.
Speaker 2:Just to be clear.
Speaker 1:So it was Trailhead, yeah, sure, trailhead, trailhead, yeah, with a beer pot. I miss it every time. Shout out to Tony.
Speaker 2:Haven't seen him in forever, since he opened up his new location. But they're crushing.
Speaker 1:We need to go out there. I want to ask a question on pricing. Yep, how do you price six-packs? How do you price draft? Do you look at what's going on in the community, at others Do you? How do you figure out how to price a 12 ounce beer or a six pack?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there's three different considerations. One is our tap room. The second one is the six pack. I would say we are not going to be the most aggressively priced six pack simply because it isn't our business model. What we're getting ready to do I talked about is with the kegs and trying to get on some of the drafts is let's get more aggressive there.
Speaker 2:Um, we feel we have a competitive advantage doing something like that where, um, like you know a friend of mine, you're like, uh, jesse core, his canning line could probably produce in 10 minutes what ours would take in a day to produce and our canning line produces 30 a minute. But I mean he literally can pump out 300 a minute, much more efficient. Yeah, I mean, it's just a massive investment he's put into it so he has the confidence to go strike a deal with Sam's Club and actually put in, you know, do the seltzers and have a members-marked seltzer. It's just not a game we could ever play, unless I'm ready to write a $3 million camming line check. I mean Matt could write you that check today. I could. Just don't drop it, don't cash it.
Speaker 1:It ain't bad for you back up in.
Speaker 2:New England Don't cash it. So for strategy-wise, I mean, we're trying to be. We're probably the same as every other craft brewery in Northwest Arkansas. So you're paying attention to. Yeah, I mean, you know, between that $9.99, $11.99 price range, you're going to see most everything. Maybe some may go a little bit above that at retail, yeah, um, but I think you're smart for going for the bigger quantities because you know our we're. We never none of us at this table ever thought we would say this, but we're becoming a destination and and people they aren't going to be able to buy this at home anyway. So, yeah, get it as many restaurants as you can have in bars and go that way. Yeah, when you say that, it's funny because, being in the brewery in 2014 and being in the brewery in 2025, I can go in on a Saturday now and I won't know one person.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And half of them are from across the country, oh yeah, or another country. Yeah, our bartender is. One of the first questions they'll ask is where are you from? Not from here, yeah, and it's interesting, we you could tell, like when we had the tornado a year ago, we had two weeks and two well, probably two months of really having hurt business, because tourism is such a big part of it and uh yeah, than any of us realize. Like I never would have thought when they said what was, and because rob and I, when we rode bikes a lot, we had always we'd always be on breath pushing our bike up the hill.
Speaker 2:And you get to the top and ask people where they're from and it's like you said, none of them were from here, they were from other states. You know even other, like the west wheel people. Yeah, we've met people from new zealand, people from New Zealand and Australia that come here for the yearly OneWheel. Yeah, we live out of Kohler and I'm driving home at night when that because they're all out of Kohler. It's really crazy when it starts.
Speaker 1:Well, we talked about this when you started in 14, I would always joke with people what are you doing here? I'm either 90% I work for walmart or I sell to some. Yeah, and now it's the bike community, it's, it's uh, I want to come to visit crystal bridges. Yes, I'm doing a tour for the the mars houses here. It's like you get this whole group of people that normally wouldn't think to be here which is nice because we're starting to feed off other.
Speaker 2:It's nice for all of us. Yeah, we have more than just the one walmart, much more diversified 100. Yeah, it's um and it's interesting to see the community change. And this is going off topic here, but my daughter's a fourth grade teacher. Shout out, yeah, shout out to teachers, that's a tough job. She taught, uh, two years at sugar creek, downtownonville and the last year there they eliminated a fourth grade class because Centerton opened four more in our in Centerton gamble and there just isn't a lot of like the, the. The housing downtown is either Airbnb or it's people with a lot of money with a little bit older kids, a lot of money with older kids. Yeah and um, so it's an interesting thing seeing the change in our community. I mean, yes, so the Airbnb community, like we advertise, with different Airbnb people. Here's a coupon Come visit Super smart.
Speaker 1:Super smart. All right Community stuff was great. The beers are fantastic. You're a good dude, we love you. The food the chicken wings, the chicken wings it's the thing we talk about.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:About that's awesome how do folks find you website?
Speaker 2:link.
Speaker 2:Yeah, uh, bike rack brewingcom. Um, we've we've put a lot of effort and time into our website. Go and check it out. Bike rack brewingcom. But you know bike rack brewing on all the socials, yeah, um, follow us to see what events, whether it's friday night, saturday and all spring, summer, summer, fall. So are these like at the momentary, you guys have a bit, or are you just sincere? Right now we have our own patio, which is nice. We have our own stage.
Speaker 2:What about the new concerts? Yeah, and I even heard there's like talks or maybe it's already in the works, like an amphitheater that's going to go by red bar. I, I can see that. I mean, what's beautiful? Like that's going to be like a mini sphere, like a vegas sphere that's supposed to go down. We have to staff up when there's any concert on momentary night, because we end up being pre-game and we end up being post game. Yeah, and post game and the you know the tailgate. They're walking right through the parking lot, yeah, and so what? We? Sometimes, we most of the time we try to do a music a night that they're not doing music, which is nice.
Speaker 2:There's not a lot of places downtown that have live music. There isn't. And I would tell you, being in this field, like just to do live music, to do any event, I've got to go get five licenses yeah, it's expensive and I've got to invest thousands of dollars. So BMI and I mean all your name invest thousands of dollars. So BMI and I mean I'll name every one of them and the aggressiveness of those companies, they're it's ridiculous, it is craziness and I I mean it's it's, it's tough, we love it, but it's a massive investment and it's kind of like go get up, we paid all these people.
Speaker 2:Now we've got to get bands every week. Yeah, all these people, now we got to get bands every week. Yeah, yeah, yeah, keep it up too. Yes, no, we, we enjoyed. I mean this, it's probably one of the last. I mean we've got the great big ox at the amp. We've got it. We've got the, the momentary, that next, it's like who's that, who's that? You know, who's going to take care of the people that are staying here and want to play music? So that's kind of where we fit I love how you give back.
Speaker 1:Thank you, yeah cheers, yeah, cheers.
Speaker 2:Great stuff, a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:Yes, thanks for coming in.