The Small Business Safari
Have you ever sat there and wondered "What am I doing here stuck in the concrete zoo of the corporate world?" Are you itching to get out? Chris Lalomia and his co-host Alan Wyatt traverse the jungle of entrepreneurship. Together they share their stories and help you explore the wild world of SCALING your business. With many years of owning their own small businesses, they love to give insight to the aspiring entrepreneur. So, are you ready to make the jump?
The Small Business Safari
Brewing Success: A Father-Son Beer Business Story | Charles & Clay Gridley
Charles and Clay Gridley, the father-son duo behind Six Bridges Brewing, share their journey from homebrewers to successful craft brewery owners with two locations in Georgia's Johns Creek and Milton areas. They reveal how strategic infrastructure planning, distribution partnerships, and community engagement have helped them thrive for seven years in a competitive market.
• Started as homebrewers before investing Charles' retirement savings to launch Georgia's first father-son brewery
• Built larger infrastructure than initially needed to avoid costly upgrades later, making expansion easier
• Navigated Georgia's three-tier distribution system by carefully selecting the right distributor partner
• Boldly expanded to a second location during November 2020 despite pandemic uncertainties
• Created community gathering spaces with events, special releases like the popular "Love Tractor" peach IPA
• Integrated family throughout the business, with Clay's wife managing the Milton location and Charles' brother handling production
• Constantly adapting to industry trends while maintaining core business principles
• Named "Six Bridges" after the six roads with "bridge" in their names throughout Johns Creek
Come visit one of our two locations in Johns Creek or Milton to experience our craft beers, spirits, and community atmosphere. If you can name all six bridges without looking at our mural, your first pint is on us!
www.sixbridgesbrewing.com
https://www.facebook.com/6BridgesBrewing
https://www.linkedin.com/company/six-bridges-brewing/
https://www.instagram.com/sixbridgesbrewing/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/sixbridgescrabapple/?hl=en
#beer#love#money#distillery#taproom#beergarden#dogfriendly##packagebeer#livemusic#foodtrucks#beerdistribution#entertainment#patio#IPA#tiptop#lovetractor#sours#bourbon#rum#singlemaltwhiskey#whiskey#barbeque#prohibition#keylimepie# casualatmosphere#family
From the Zoo to Wild is a book for entrepreneurs passionate about home services, looking to move away from corporate jobs. Chris Lalomia, a former executive, shares his path, discoveries, and tools to succeed as a small business owner in home improvement retail. The book provides the mindset, habits, leadership style, and customer-oriented processes necessary to succeed as a small business owner in home services.
We're still feeling the effects of prohibition. Is that what I just heard? Absolutely yeah, they ruined it and.
Speaker 2:I just heard he won't even say the name, but he's definitely doing a shout out already to the distributor who holds all the cards. I heard that loud and clear. My friend, you know I'm going to start my own business because I want to be my own boss. I don't want to have to answer to anybody and you get your own business. What do you answer to a lot of people and they're not? There's like a lot more bosses. Yeah, we've all got them.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the small business safari where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own personal and professional goals. So strap in adventure team and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountaintop. If you did listen to our last episode, we had the charcuterie board lady on who is the gathering board duck co and she brought us food. And Alan said Chris, for next week I'm going to save my charcuterie board and come back, so I put it in the fridge here in the house. And what's he doing? Chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop. And after I told him, don't, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop it.
Speaker 1:I'll be right back. All right, I'm telling you we're going to put I'm a food snot and it's fantastic, Right? I mean, every single ingredient is fantastic.
Speaker 2:So Alan has been chewing on this stuff for a little bit. Guys and I'm telling you that last episode a lot of fun. These guys have a lot of great ideas, but, more importantly, they have some great food. I'm not lying, I had some too. But what goes best with food? Something cold, something cold, something Hopped Hopped, something Carbonated. They like carbonation. And where do we start this podcast? Three and a half years ago, drinking beer, talking about business. And we're right back here three and a half years later drinking beer and talking about business. And what are we drinking, alan?
Speaker 1:We are drinking Six Bridges and I've got my favorite beer. There's Medlock IPA and you've got Suburban Sombrero.
Speaker 2:It's a Mexican lager, I believe you know. I really think Six Bridges should sponsor the show. I really think they should come on the show. How many times have I said that about a beer, light beer, every beer we've ever had, anheuser-busch Nobody's bit yet, nobody's bit yet. But guess what we've done? Brought them in-house. We brought them in-house. Guys, the owners and founders of Six Bridges Brewing Companies, charles and Clay Gridley, are here and they're her local. They started a brewery and this is going to be fascinating because if you follow anything in the podcast, you'll know one thing about Alan he is not only a food snot, but he is definitely a craft beer snob. So, alan, Double snot.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:No, I will tell you, I've lived in it. So Johns Creek was just recently voted the best. Was it the best suburb in the country to live in? Something like that? And I've lived here for 30 years and I will say the schools are amazing, it's safe, there's restaurants from all around the world, but it's kind of boring. And then, how many years ago did you guys open up Almost seven, seven, kind of boring. And then how many years ago did you guys open up Almost seven? Seven years ago. I get this email and it was this I think you had kind of a sneak preview night or something, and somehow I got on that list. I'm like there's a brewery opening in John's Creek that's walking distance to my house. I was so excited I could hardly stand it. So today's a big day for me. And now they've got two. They're kind of moving away from me, though. What? Yeah, they've got another one over.
Speaker 2:They've expanded to two locations. Yeah, you mean, you tell me they're making-.
Speaker 1:And the other one's got barbecue. I've got to drive all the way over to Crabapple for barbecue.
Speaker 2:All right, I've got to hear the story, okay, so how do we get started in this thing? There's probably two different versions of the, so how far back do you want to go Starting the brewery? Let's go back to who thought they had a great beer, that they wanted to produce Probably my son.
Speaker 4:We were both home brewers, Okay, and so we were going down different paths. I was on the dark IPA world and Clay was looking at everything else Try this, try that, try that. And then we got to a point where we were having fun doing it and I was getting ready to retire. He was ready to not be a fireman and the laws changed in Georgia that breweries could do this. And so, as I was retiring, Clay comes up and says Dad, I've got a great idea on what to do with your retirement money.
Speaker 2:On what to do with your money, With my money. Yes, Kids don't change, do they Charles? No, they don't.
Speaker 4:Kids just don't change, and so we formed this business together, and it's been a blessing since day one. We found out we were the first father-son brewery in the state of Georgia. So another little check on the box to enjoy.
Speaker 2:So what'd you do for a living before the home brewery? I mean, what was the paycheck and retirement money coming to see this from?
Speaker 4:I was always born an engineer and so I was always making the widgets, change the widgets, but still a manufacturing process, and most of my life I worked for in the telecommunications industry and so I was able to do very well in that and squirrel away some bucks. And when the day came my advisor said go for it. And then Clay caught wind of it and said dad, friend, buddy, pal.
Speaker 2:Friend buddy pal yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, when your kid comes to you and wants to do anything, how do you say no? I always said, if my son said, hey, dad, let's rob a bank, I'd be like okay.
Speaker 4:Well, we were tailgate buddies to begin with and so we were always joined at the hip and chicanery and stuff like that. So it was easy to say yes.
Speaker 2:All right, so here we go. We got the idea here. So, clay again, thank you again for being a firefighter Again. I think I don't think a lot of people understand just the dangers you guys went through. How many years did you do that?
Speaker 3:Nine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and which branch were you in? I was with Cherokee County, okay, yeah, okay, so you saw some stuff then.
Speaker 3:Yeah, when people call 911, they're not having a good day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So here we go. So now we're going to go beer. Did you have a business plan? Because it's one thing to make a beer that tastes good which, by the way, guys, it tastes phenomenal.
Speaker 3:Got my first swig in. But did you have a business plan or idea and talk us through that idea? Let's see. You know, at the time we were going around to um different craft breweries in the area and they were saying we can't make it fast enough. You know and they were they had all these bottlenecks in place because they were not prepared to grow. So, with my father's background being in manufacturing and all that he's done, we were able to look at their processes and say we can do better with this.
Speaker 3:So, you know, we laid it out from the beginning where we were able to meet demand and kind of pivot with things and still be nimble at the same time. So, you know, definitely thought we'd be a little more hands-on than we are. We end up being keyboard jockeys most of the time, like running a business, and it's not too often we get to brew. I will say he does get to distill when he has some free time. But yeah, I think we at least myself, I underestimated that. I thought I would actually be brewing a little bit more and know I'm behind a computer all day.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're distilling too. Yes, is that available in the breweries? Not yet, okay.
Speaker 3:Our cocktails are, but as far as our bottled stuff, we're still working on that. We're aging some stuff right now and we're working our way up.
Speaker 1:What are you working on? A bourbon single malt whiskey, Okay.
Speaker 3:And then a bourbon. We've got some rum aging as well, so nice.
Speaker 1:Alan, get back here, Alan you can't get it yet, get back, sit back down. Oh my God, he's already back in it. What were some of the things you learned from the people that you spoke?
Speaker 3:to before you opened the other brewers. Let's see Just being ready to grow with a lot of the existing breweries out there. They were having problems when they had to grow. It cost them two or three times as much because they would have to go back and redo some of the infrastructure. So we looked at it and planned a larger infrastructure than we needed. It was a big bite in the beginning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you're taking a bigger leap, absolutely yeah, capital intensive upfront.
Speaker 3:But here we are. We've been open seven years and we still have a little bit of room to grow with it. So stuff like you know, the heating, the cooling, the cold storage, the plumbing and all of that, all the key components with it. It was a huge bite in the beginning but still now, whenever we want to grow, it is literally plug and play.
Speaker 1:So how long before you got into the distribution game?
Speaker 3:We had been open about seven months before we started distributing and we knew that we were going to do that. We were built out to meet distribution throughout the state and we were interviewing distributors for about six months and trying to get that relationship down because it is so key, especially in the state of Georgia because of the way that the laws are formed. It's a three-tiered system throughout the country as a result of prohibition, but the middle tier is the distributor and they hold all the cards. So you've got to have a great relationship and we're happy with the relationship that we have with our distributor. So it's another family run business.
Speaker 1:We're still feeling the effects of prohibition. Is that what I just heard? Absolutely yeah, and they ruined it.
Speaker 2:And I just heard he won't even say the name, but he's definitely doing a shout out already to the distributor who holds all the cards. I heard that loud and clear. My friends know I'm gonna start my own business because I want to be my own boss. I don't want to have to answer to anybody and you get your own business. What do you do? Answer to a lot of people and they're not. They're like a lot more bosses all of a sudden. Yeah, we've all got them. Yeah, so you guys knew and I think that's a big, just uh, delineation you knew that you didn't just want to brew the beer and have a location people came to. You wanted to be in the distribution business. So your first location where did you pick and why did you pick that?
Speaker 3:you know, initially I was looking in cherokee county where I was living at the time, and I wanted an old mill building, you know, brick walls and the heavy timber and everything. But the fire department told me that it had been grandfathered so many times, it was going to be brought up a code, sprinklers, electrical, all that stuff, and we were looking at like two million in reno saying absolutely not not going to happen. So we started looking throughout the the north side and john's creek came up on the map because literally it's between both of our homes and we found this space that was available. And then we spoke with the city about it and they interviewed us and said, hey, wait, we, we love it, let's do this, so you got the city behind you.
Speaker 2:So I think that's a great lesson learned too is don't be afraid to go talk to your local politicians, your local city officials, and not be afraid of them, because I would say my first call would not have been to the fire department going hey guys, what do you think of this? Oh, my God, clay, you're going to have to do everything to it. I would have been hey guys, I'm going to buy the building next to it and meanwhile I'm over there brewing beer in the other building. Don't worry, you guys got hoses, we'll be fine.
Speaker 1:Which is why they're so much more successful after seven years than you have been after 17. I know.
Speaker 2:I know I'm thinking the same thing. I should have just gone and talked to the city, said, hey, this is what I'm thinking of doing, maybe somebody would slap me, and Johns Creek had nothing like this Right. So they definitely were receptive. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. And in 2017, the community development director told us at that conversation. She said wait, stop, we love this, you're going to go right there. They had long-term plans of bringing the town center to that area. So they told us then because City Hall was still off of Finley Road. So they said, hey, we're actually going to buy this building and move in there and renovate it. And then the State Farm Complex. They said that's going to turn into something.
Speaker 1:So for our friends in Australia and Canada and everywhere else, johns Creek is a suburban community, very affluent, very diverse people from all over the world and not a lot to do. And their brewery opened in what is called our technology park and you kind of had to know where it was. But what's happening now is a big developer is developing a over a half a billion dollar town center, so there's the whole retail. There's some big companies that are coming in, but they're combining it with a pretty impressive they're calling it the boardwalk park system. So it's not just a commercial, it's really going to be a livable space and when you're out in your cool little uh I don't know what you call the outdoor area with the lights and the picnic tables, you're overlooking it right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the beer garden, yeah. So what a change that's going to be for you guys, that is that?
Speaker 2:did you know that was going to be that awesome and, uh, different?
Speaker 4:No, it exceeded those expectations, because you're so used to what that campus looked like and when they just started moving things around, said, wow, it's really taking shape and it really looks interesting and we're excited.
Speaker 1:Well, and a lot of people are going to go oh, lucky you, or whatever. But you also had to put up with okay, you're on the back end of this technology park that's not super vibrant, and then State Farm moves, Right, and so the biggest employer in the area all the employees that would come have a beer after work are suddenly not there anymore, right? So you've had to go through some rough patches, I would think.
Speaker 3:No, absolutely, and you know everybody's seen the class A space that's available around town, so there was that lull and then you know, everything has happened since 2017, but I think they've got a great, you, you know a great concept there, everything that they're putting together, so we're excited about it.
Speaker 1:I gotta ask you so, uh, this chris and I talked about this beforehand so I come from portland, oregon, which I will argue was where it all started, and, uh, you go to a town of bend, oregon, which, which has got shut up Chris 80, for once it's going to be about me yeah, 80,000 people, and they've got a gazillion breweries. And so finally, they changed the laws here in Georgia and a few breweries opened up and, to be honest with you, the beer wasn't even that good, but I was just happy that it happened. And now, all of a sudden, you're reading all these articles about all these breweries that are closing and the trouble in the craft industry, and I'm like we still don't even remotely have the penetration here in Georgia that we have. And you guys spent time in Colorado that you hadn't caught in Denver or in Portland.
Speaker 1:What is your opinion? I mean, I think there's people who probably opened a brewery that didn't know how to make beer. There are people, like you know you were had the foresight to have the space to expand and thought about distribution. Part of it is, in my opinion, you just have to have a place that people want to hang and, uh, you know, and you've created that in your brewery, I mean, and so there's so many breweries that closed down, I'm like, yeah, but beer wasn't that good and the location wasn't that good, but I mean, but I still see these articles, like you know, doom and gloom, what. What's your opinion on the, on the industry itself?
Speaker 3:You know, first of all, georgia is, uh, when you talk about breweries, per capita, I believe it's at 48 and correct me if I'm wrong. So, even though there's, you know, per capita, I believe it's at 48 and correct me if I'm wrong. So, even though there's, you know, 12 million people in the state of Georgia, um, when you talk about, uh, per capita, it's very low on the list. And then also, the consumption per person is quite low as well, as it tends to be throughout the Southeastern United States. So, um, you know, I know you'll look at it and say, okay, you know there's a lot of people say there's too many breweries, but I think it's actually just kind of that equilibrium point. It's getting there, it's swinging how the market does with the sector.
Speaker 3:But with my position, or with us, we were homebrewers but I think better now, we'd be better off having an MBA in the positions that we have running our business instead of a background brewing. So you know, there's a lot of people that make that jump from a home brewer to this and we're fortunate. We have a fantastic team, his experience in the corporate world, and you know, everybody in our team making it happen. So we're fortunate there. But I think the sector is just kind of balancing out a little bit. You know it's been pretty tough the last few years with everything that's going on in the world and that's for all businesses but especially brewing.
Speaker 2:So in your positions you guys really aren't doing the brewing, the thing you thought you were getting into business to do. But to Alan's point, do you find that to be successful, to get beyond distribution, you've opened up a second location. Do you have to have something else to offer people? Is it the location? Is it the offering? What is it?
Speaker 3:I think you need to check a lot of boxes. Honestly, we got into distilling because we saw a demand for spirits and the gluten-free and everything with that. We're looking at getting a wine license, a farm winery license, which is someone in Georgia where it's related to the agricultural product, and you know we do events live music, trivia music, bingo, all kinds of stuff. Trivia night is huge at your place. It's very popular.
Speaker 1:It's quite competitive too it is. I got asked to go on a trivia team. Normally I'm pretty good at it. I didn't help at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was tough so, uh, I I can't remember the last time I went I I can absolutely remember, but I remember, uh, yeah, I've not been asked back. I was asked. They're like, hey, chris, you know sports. I'm like, yeah, sit down, boom, sports section, right, all this arcane stuff. I was like nope, nope, nope, nope. They uh star wars comes up. We're like bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. They're you didn't help much. I'm like, but I didn't know the Star Wars stuff. I mean I got that, but you're right, in sports we sucked. So, no, I've not been asked back. So you guys have figured out. Is that what you're in your positions? Is that what we're doing? I mean, obviously, charles, you're working on distilling some, but on how to keep the existing concerns going, I mean it sounds like they're really staying a step ahead.
Speaker 1:I mean, they're thinking about what's next.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and you know, keeping one of the things with my job is keeping lean inventory. You know lean practices with our stuff because there's so much cash floating around and just you know our business. As an example, everybody can probably relate it to their own. I assume your audience is is a lot of entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2:Entrepreneurs guys either starting to start a business or guys trying to scale a small business. Girls, too, and gals I said guys because I'm from the Midwest.
Speaker 3:But with us it's all about cash flow. We talk about this constantly. Where we've got cash on the shelves, that's cans of raw materials. The cans are there, the grain, the hops are in the cooler, then the beer that's in the tank that's fermenting, the beer that's packaged in our cooler and the beer that's at our distributor. I mean, it's all just cash sitting there. So unless you just have tons of it, just piles of it, laying around, you've got to keep it lean and we try to do that as best as possible. He's got great experience and I've learned a ton from my father, so grateful for that.
Speaker 1:Is the engineering background coming in handy with all this?
Speaker 4:When he lets me.
Speaker 2:Oh, let's talk. Dad you and me. Right, let's put the kid on mute for a minute.
Speaker 4:Well, let's back up just a little bit, because when we got started, I think the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild was putting out a seminar. I do it once or twice a year. It says so you want to open a brewery, and it was basically exposing you to all the things that you would have to consider. You know, you got to do the business plan and so we did straws and I got the short straw. But I got with the Small Business Development Center out of Athens and got with them and they helped me write a business plan, which I had never done before. That turned out to be received really well by our financer. We had the right contractor, we had a good architect, so we had all the plans in place to say these guys know what they're doing, I've got a good business plan, the economics are there, you've got a good design, we'll go with it. And so it's worked out from that.
Speaker 1:Let me ask about the business plan a little bit, because I've asked this question a couple of times and the answer is always interesting. You wrote the business plan. It got you the money. Have you looked at it since and have you followed it and do you refer to it?
Speaker 4:We've looked at it for our expansions and modified it for that, so it goes to a much higher level when you're starting to add on to your Well, the follow-up on that is now that you're in seven years.
Speaker 1:And if you were to go back seven years and rewrite the business plan, what would be different?
Speaker 2:I don't know if I have long enough to answer my side.
Speaker 3:You know one thing that we likely didn't anticipate. I think when we got our brewer's permit, we were the 86th brewery in Georgia and when it topped out before this recent contraction I think it was at 168, something in there, so virtually double. So we did not anticipate the amount of competition that came, and it was pretty much all around the Atlanta area. So that shows you the impact that the law that went into effect in late 2017, what that did. It was quite encouraging, but we were one of the last breweries of our size to open up. There might've been one or two after us that were our size. The rest of them were much smaller town center type locations, lower volume, no distribution, a lot less overhead too.
Speaker 2:So right. So you said, boy, what would you have done different after seven years? So a short story. 17 years into it, I did uh, I did refer back to my business plan and every year I use as an annual review technique for me, um and I I pretty much shelved that program in about 10, technique for me I pretty much shelled that program in about 10. After 10 years I stopped doing it because I had outgrown where I thought I was and the pivot points didn't even look like my original business plan.
Speaker 2:And kudos to you for doing the small business plan, because I did the same thing. I went to score before I started mine and I learned so much. It wasn't that I had to have an A paper, it was the fact that I had to go through the mental gyrations to get there. And as a fellow engineer going through those the details is where I was able to solve problems beforehand and save myself money. Now, in my case I solved about 10% of the problems, so I cost myself 90% of the money. I think in your case it's probably the exact inverse. So kudos to you guys for doing the way you did it. But when you look at it now, do you go back and do an annual planning process. Do you guys sit down and say, all right, what's pie in the sky? What's this next year going to look like? Do you guys have that program?
Speaker 4:I think we review what we read in the information on a national basis and then a regional basis as to where the business is trending. That helps us out in guiding. But we've even learned we have to get it down to the macro level because of the demographics and the sales patterns from our two different locations are very different from each other. So we're having to. Okay it's not one egg in one basket solves the problem.
Speaker 1:And I want to ask about the two locations, because you've got the absolute perfect AB testing scenario going on. You've got your original location that was a little bit buried. You have your second location, which is kind of front and center in a more of a walking area, kind of like what's about to develop around you. The second location has food, you know. So are you seeing higher sales per ticket because somebody's sitting around longer because they're eating? You know? I mean, what are you seeing in the when you compare and contrast the two locations?
Speaker 4:I would say what? Let's go over the evolution, because at the time the law changed, everybody wanted to be a brewery and then people said, well, this is fun, Now I want to eat. So the next step in the process was a food truck, which was novel and creative and all that. Some people said I don't like buying my food from a place that has wheels underneath it. So some breweries decided to install a kitchen. However, breweries have to be in a place that's zoned for manufacturing, so it's a little bit out of sight. But once you start incorporating a kitchen and you expand, you can go into those high-traffic areas. So there's been an evolution within the last five years of the industry.
Speaker 1:So the state regs have a certain percentage. It has to be a certain percentage, alcohol versus food or no no, it doesn't not with breweries, since we're considered manufacturers.
Speaker 3:There's you don't have to have food at all. So you just run into a little details and you've got to kind of educate the local governments on that too, saying, hey, we're not a restaurant, okay, we don't follow under those things. We're kind of quasi where we we can manufacture alcohol, we can sell it wholesale, we can sell it in-house, we can sell it to go, we can do crowlers, we can be open on Sunday, all this stuff. So it's really several licenses put together and what we experienced with John's Creek and Milton that they kind of had to figure out.
Speaker 2:okay, we've got to start a new category for you guys, as you made the expansion to the second location, what were the struggles you guys went through?
Speaker 3:You know, it was November 2020, when we looked at the location, we got a call from the developer saying hey, come check it out. And everybody remembers the time and what was going on and you know, we hope not to remember it, but uh, we went there toward the site and we said, man, we love this. And, um, you know, afterwards, uh, they said, what do you think? And we said, yeah, we really like it. And they stuck their hand out to shake hands and I just looked at him and said, you know, I haven't shaked anybody's hand in seven months. And, uh, they said put.
Speaker 2:They said let that thing away. Holds to that sidearm, son, because November you say you remember, but that was absolutely a flashpoint for you. Back to what Malcolm talks about, and that was a flashpoint Right November 2020, you're like, hey, how about another location? I'm like, dude, we're still in that every two weeks shutdown thing and I can't shake your hand, I can't touch you, I can't. No, people aren't going out and doing nothing, right, so I'm not. Why would I do that? Because it may never happen, ever, ever again. I don't know if that's how draconic you guys were, but I mean, it's hard to look at option B when you're staring at option A. Did?
Speaker 1:you make up a new word, draconic. Yeah, I got lots of words.
Speaker 3:No, we actually we absolutely had that conversation because you know there was there was a lot going on in the market at the time and you know, with the shutdowns and everything just pivoting around, but, um, you know, we knew that we were going to get out of it and we had talked about it and we really loved the area and the developer was aligned with a lot of things we had in mind, so it worked out so you guys really just want everybody to hear this.
Speaker 2:All right, uh, I got birdie putt going, so I got the um. I would say I haven't tried it yet. November of 2020, for me and my business being in remodeling and handyman. When it first happened, I did the three phases of truth and that was back in. I'm going back to March.
Speaker 2:First, I uh, I completely ignored it. I had a guy call me and say, chris, uh, man, I can't come meet you today Cause, uh, he was a consultant in marketing. He says, man, my business is going to shut down. I'm like, hey, dude, what can I do to help? He goes, help me, he goes, you're done too, man. He said the whole world's shutting down. I'm like, dude, you are chicken, little, you've lost your flipping mind. What's going on? No way. One week later, shut everybody down, sent everybody home, accepted it.
Speaker 2:So, three phases of truth you ignore it, you vehemently deny it, and then you accept it as intuitively obvious. And then you had to go with that. And then I was like, all right, how am I going to dig out of this? And then, when our, our great governor said it was time in memorial day, around for the end of may. He said you can go out there, get your hair done, get your nails done, go bowling, don't care, just follow these things, you know. And I said rock and roll, man.
Speaker 2:Our, our phones didn't stop ringing. I was like man and I told people for the first time ever I'm in the best place ever. And then what I couldn't do, I couldn't find material. So it's always a struggle when you're running your own business and think you're getting there and by the time November hit, we still weren't steady state. And back to that. I love how you said that, because I still think somebody like me too I'm a hugger, I'm an extrovert, I'm all out there.
Speaker 2:I think we forgot how to talk to people and it took me like a full year to get back to like normal of doing that. So you had the foresight to say I think people will start going back to restaurants Because about that time is about the time I said you can go out, but you got to go out, but you can only be like every other booth. Or then you had to have the glass and you had to have this and you never thought. Actually, about that time is about the time I thought it would go back to all. Right, we're going to get back to normal. I mean, this is not going to be forever, because we just can't do this. So is that what you know?
Speaker 3:not only that, we had several people within the community that jumped on board with us to wait to raise a little bit of capital for this new location. And we had locals that said that the same things and you know we, we believe in y'all and we are going to get through this. So and they jumped on our team.
Speaker 2:Well, you guys, again we're here at John's Creek, which I think it was voted the number one city.
Speaker 1:I said that a minute ago.
Speaker 2:Right, you said it, but you said suburban something, something, something. I thought it was like the number one city to live in.
Speaker 4:I don't know Whatever. There's a good reason for that.
Speaker 1:The beer, it's the beer it's the beer, hardly is because we weren't number one until six bridges I just say they connect the dots that way just saying and now look what happened.
Speaker 2:You go out to that milton area and you go around that roundabout and then bam, I ran into another six bridges. I'm like what the hell is this thing doing on here? So?
Speaker 1:you guys have. I was a little pissed. I'm like I thought that was our thing here in john's creek. But you know, I got over it. I was happy for you, are you sure? Well, they had the food. Well, they brought you, they brought you the beer. So was that a partnership or it is okay? Talk about that a little bit. That's kind of an interesting move well, uh, let's see we knew we had.
Speaker 2:They both looked at each other. Go no, you know, you take it. No, no, you take it.
Speaker 3:We knew we had to have food there, but at same time we didn't want to take on the kitchen.
Speaker 1:Why did you know you had to have food there?
Speaker 3:We spoke with a broker who had aggregate data and he said that when you look at revenue per square foot and he had it for non-food breweries and then with food so there was a 25% difference with that. But at the same time we knew we didn't want to run a kitchen. We started thinking about it and what we were going to do. We brew beer really well and we were just like I don't think we have it in us. So we started asking around and we landed with this barbecue company. It was actually turned around with our I'm sorry introduced us from our landlord and we went and checked them out. We ate at their place and it was really good. And here we are, almost three years later.
Speaker 2:So are you thinking about doing another one, or going more and leaning into distribution?
Speaker 3:We've got one in the works right now. Oh, this is a high story.
Speaker 2:Here it is on the small business Safari.
Speaker 3:We're working on it. We'll see. I hope it'll happen.
Speaker 1:All right, I actually have a very cool location for you, I can tell you offline.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll have Alan hook you up because you're going to get the commercial real estate extraordinaire on it.
Speaker 1:Are you thinking about bringing food to Johns Creek?
Speaker 4:We've looked at it, we want to do it. It's just very expensive.
Speaker 1:So, speaking of expense inflation, how have you dealt with, I mean, the cost of these cans? I don't know where you get your grain from, but you know hops, all that stuff. Talk about how you've navigated those waters the last couple of years.
Speaker 4:I think we've been able to navigate it by buying in bulk. Excuse me, when we started off, we were buying in very small quantities and so we were able to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you were running lean based on what Very lean Okay.
Speaker 4:And we're still running very lean. You look at our ingredient shelves and the only thing on there is what we're going to use this week, but we've been able to buy things in bulk. Instead of buying it in a 50-pound sack sack, you're now buying in a 2 000 pound sack. Or instead of buying 200 cans, you're buying 8 000 cans, so multiples have compensated for that.
Speaker 2:That's got to be a hard thing to do, though right you're. You're used to one size and one number and then stroking that. Check for the next number. Who's the one who has to make that call?
Speaker 4:Me, oh boy, so he knows when there's going to be a rough week, because I get very quiet Okay. And just kind of groan and make those old man noises the old man noises come out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so our office we actually share a desk. We have a large Go bug it when you hear old man noises fucking run Exactly Go bug it when you hear old man noises fucking run, exactly Right, run. But we share an office and we've got a big conference table for a desk and we see it, right there we're bouncing it off of each other. I hear those grunts and he hears me beat my keyboard and so we're every day Same room, huh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is the first time I've had their light lager.
Speaker 2:It's good, I'm enjoying my birdie putt because I'm thinking it's going to bring birdie putts. That's why I gave it to you when we go on the rain, when we go on the course, when I finally let you play somebody else's course well, the medlock is dry for show and the birdie putts yeah, the uh, the uh medlock is aiming fluid for me.
Speaker 1:Aiming fluid, yeah just get. You get wing oil yeah, swing oil getting nice and loose, don't need to hit the range, just a couple medlocks and then you maintain with the, the light logger or the birdie putt.
Speaker 2:Right, that's what I said. Time for me to sober up. Gotta switch the light. Beer you're gonna drive soon, what? All right, that's new. Don't worry about that. Don't worry, chris, I always Uber and or I do my podcasts in my basement. So, uh, what's next for you guys? You're talking about expansion distribution. Um, is there an exit strategy? Is there a play where you're trying to get out? You think you guys were just want to ride this thing out and this is your long-term game.
Speaker 4:Well, there's two of us and there's a day or two difference in age between us. I probably have an exit strategy at some point, but it's no time soon. We have a couple of gentlemen that are rather large CFOs in large companies and they're helping us determine that value and giving us a feel for what it's like out in the market should we want to, you know, be receptive to an offer or something like that. But right now there's too much blood, sweat and tears on the floor and in the production area that what's the favorite time of your week?
Speaker 2:what's the favorite thing you do?
Speaker 1:every week. I'm going to tell you what my favorite thing that they do is. Yeah, because I appreciate it. My son is a high school teacher and on thursday you've got $5 pints for teachers. And I just think that's the coolest thing, and they just go hang out and it makes them so happy, and so I want to thank you for that Sure.
Speaker 4:My favorite is Saturday afternoon. I will come and not stand behind the bar or go in the office. I come as a customer and I go around and talk to people at the table and they look at me I'm one of the owners here and then they warm up and then they want a tour, want to hear the story, and that's the connection that we wanted Before we started. We would meet at a restaurant and one of the owners would come out and talk to you and entertain you. So it was I want to go there and talk to CT and get something to eat and drink. You would go for that interaction with him and so we wanted to bring that along with our presentation. Anybody can make beer, anybody can sell it, somebody can give you a table and chair, but to make that connection with your customers and they remember you and they ask oh, I heard you on vacation, or you did this, or please make this beer back, they have that nice, intimate, one-on-one conversation. That's your favorite time. All right, clay.
Speaker 3:I would say Thursday morning honestly, and he knows why because we're not at work at that point. We go to a men's group on Thursday morning. It's a faith-based men's group discussion and instead of reporting to work first thing in the morning, we'll go there and it's about a dozen of us and we'll have a conversation. It can be topical, whatever's going on, but it is faith-based. So just that and it's. It's an easy morning for me because I'll go in, we'll have breakfast, we'll have an hour-long discussion there and then afterwards I'll go to our milton location and we're brewing that day, and so it's just a nice easy start for the day rather than hit the ground running and I think that's one that a lot of people miss.
Speaker 2:Is that the way to start your day? We talk about this like hey, I, hey, I'm Mr 530. Get up, get a workout. Hey, I'm David Scroggins and I'm the same guy, you know. I actually get up, I work out 530, 6 o'clock.
Speaker 2:But there are days when you do that it's because this bod doesn't come by accident. Hey, because this bod eats and drinks a ton, and that's the only reason I'm still Earn your beer. I earn every ounce of it, my friends, but there's something to be said about that, because that gives you time to introspect and respect Very grounding and it is and it's very grounding, and you know whether you do it with faith or whether you do it with meditation or whatever it may be for you. I think a lot of people miss that is that we feel like we've got to run 100 miles an hour. And I'll never forget my dad saying this to me, saying this to me it's that first time he came to meet me and see me in Charlotte and I was going to take him to a restaurant and I missed my exit. But I missed my exit, going 80 miles an hour, and we did the loop around Charlotte and came back and he goes you may know where you're going, but we're not getting anywhere fast.
Speaker 2:Atta, boy, sam, that's my dad. So that's the thing, right. Sometimes you just got to slow down. And I say it to my sales guys slow down and speed up. So that's great that you say that. All right, you guys got into this because you were craft brewers. Are you doing any craft brewing other than are you doing your distilling over there in the doctor shop? Are you doing any more brewing? What?
Speaker 3:are we doing so? I still write all of our recipes and I do that every day for both of our locations. I enjoy doing that. The distilling is all his project there, where I might source the ingredients, but he's the one doing the recipe and getting everything planned out.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I get crap from the brewers. They say they spend all day putting the alcohol in and you turn right around, pops and take the alcohol out. What gives Love?
Speaker 1:it. I love it. So how do you so the trends I mean like Sours, for example kind of became a big deal for a while, not for me, but for a lot of people. I mean, are you you notice I haven't opened that one yet Are you kind of looking at the landscape and seeing what's out there? Absolutely Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and our sales manager is really good at that. He's got his hand on the pulse with that and it's a dynamic market right now. You know, in um, you know we got into spirits around 2020 and at that time, uh, rtds were becoming a thing you know, ready to drink cocktails, and now they're everywhere. So we we try to get into that market. Didn't have a whole lot of six.
Speaker 1:Those are the cocktails in a can right. I've had some of those. I'm like I'm shocked at how good they are, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they do a good job with them. There's a great company here around Atlanta called tip top that does a fantastic job. A little plug there for them, um, but yeah, the can cocktails. Seltzer became a thing Now. Na is really popular, so you just got to stay nimble with it.
Speaker 4:Be really flexible. Going back to the sours, we just put out my favorite sour. It's key lime sour and I like to brag that Publix makes their pie taste like our beer. Ooh.
Speaker 2:I may have to have that sour because I'm with Alan. I am.
Speaker 1:I'm not a sour guy, but I suppose if it was 1,000 degrees in August here in Georgia, have you had a key lime pie from Publix.
Speaker 2:I have, and they're yummy yeah.
Speaker 1:So maybe a key lime sour might be good on that hot van.
Speaker 3:We make it just like the pie, so we'll put graham cracker in the mash. We use key lime puree. Are you kidding me? We do milk sugar, vanilla lactose. We'll add vanilla to it, the milk sugar, and then there's even a little whipped cream involved.
Speaker 1:So are you. How do you Alan?
Speaker 2:are you not hungry right now?
Speaker 1:Well, I'm just kind of curious. Okay, so you're not hungry right now. Well, I'm just kind of curious, okay, so you're kind of set up for volume and distribution and you have a crazy idea like this you don't know if it's going to taste good, so do you do a small batch before you?
Speaker 3:I mean, how do you do that? So our Milton location has a seven barrel system, which is about 210 gallons. Our system in John's Creek is 930 gallons. So yeah, we can test something over in milton and try it out, see how it is. We've made the key lime pie several times before and people ask for it again and again. We usually make it when it starts to heat up. So yeah, but yeah, you don't want to, there you go.
Speaker 2:You don't want to. There's a thousand degrees. You and me are drinking one of these.
Speaker 3:I think so you definitely want to do a pilot batch. You want to.
Speaker 4:You don't want to do a thousand gallons down the drain no interesting and then tell them about our other most popular summer beer love tractor oh yes, who's in charge of the names?
Speaker 1:I want to know that. It's a pretty put in love truck there is a secret committee.
Speaker 3:Yeah, now it's a group effort with the names, but love tractors are annual. Uh, peach ipa where we'll source ge. Ipa where we'll source Georgia peaches. We'll get fresh peaches from a farm, We'll process them in-house and then add it to an IPA and it has vanilla in it as well and people love it. I mean they'll be lined up at the door when we open that day.
Speaker 2:Oh, that sounds awesome. It is Clay, I love that too.
Speaker 4:And yes, I'm laughing a lot because I'm not as clean as you are, and that's great. Yeah, people love it. We actually have people on a waiting list wanting to come and peel the peaches.
Speaker 3:We've gotten calls from California if we can ship it and, yeah, people come in and volunteer their time to peel the peaches. So community effort, do you take them up on that? Absolutely yeah, because it takes about a dozen people a full day.
Speaker 1:So that reminds me I was out in Phoenix visiting a buddy and there was a brewery out there and everybody in phoenix has a lemon tree out in their yard and you know citrus trees, and so they just had a deal where people would bring in the citrus from and then they would put it in their beer.
Speaker 3:I think that's really cool yeah, it's our most popular release of the year.
Speaker 2:I haven't had that how fun is there one of those here? See, that's, that's the kind of stuff I think. That's when we go kind of. You know what that's fulfilling for me. I love that I'm doing this job. I love that you get to walk around on saturday afternoon, so I'm going to come haunt you down. I'm going to be out there going. Hey, I'm over here that. Come talk to me. Who's this guy? Hey?
Speaker 3:hey, the old guy's father, but get him out of here oh, he's the owner shit.
Speaker 2:Um, that's great all. So is any other family members in it? We've got a couple.
Speaker 4:We've got a couple Actually we have another family that I think they're trying to solely take over the business. Uh, initially when we started, there was a young man that would they live nearby and he came by and had some of our beers and enjoyed it so much he wanted to work for us, so he initially started off as a bartender and then we found out he had other skills, so we put him in as a salesperson go out on the street, sell the stuff. Then we gave him an opportunity to be a general manager in the brewery and right now he is actually doing all of our marketing, label design, social media. That's his wheelhouse, and so that was one of the key things that we've done is we've found people and utilized what is their strength.
Speaker 4:And then later on we hired his mom to be our general manager and she is, as we say. She's now the mom of the place. It used to be just a frat house. It looked and smelled like a frat house and she's come and chopped off those sharp edges and put the woman's touch on it, so, and then she hired her daughter also to be part of a as a bartender. So there's kind of this family kind of moving slowly, you know, pushing you into the corner of the elevator to take over.
Speaker 2:You don't seem too opposed to it.
Speaker 3:No, they're great people. We're lucky to have them. But you know, as far as other family my brother is, he works in the back as well. He's part of our production team. He does all of our brewing in Milton. He operates our canning line in Johns Creek and then my wife she runs our Milton location. She's the general manager over there.
Speaker 2:Okay, over there. Okay, all right, so it is truly a family event.
Speaker 3:Family effort.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome, and you actually brought up something I think is incredibly key, and that's diversity in the management team. You know, I think it's easy to be a bunch of old white guys sitting around, but you don't make the better decisions. Have you found that with her involved, you make better decisions?
Speaker 4:She thinks differently from we do, which is I'm grateful for because you don't want everybody thinking the same way.
Speaker 2:It doesn't feel good when you're going through the decisioning process sometimes, but I think you get a way better outcome. Yeah, yes, agreed. Yeah, that's awesome. All right, ben, you guys are rocking and rolling. Did we ever get to the reason they called it Six Bridges? Because I was trying to count this thing.
Speaker 1:We did not. I'm dying to know because I was trying to come up with. I know the answer, but I think everybody else should know.
Speaker 2:All right, let's know the answer.
Speaker 4:So we go to the city and pitch our deal and halfway through, we didn't even finish our presentation, they say stop, we love you. And I said okay. And they asked what can they do for us? I said give us a landmark or something that we can tie into our name to associate ourselves, to make that connection with the community. And they came back 10 days later and said six bridges Interesting, where did that come from? So, where the word originally came from, there are six roads in John's Creek with the word bridge Trivia question, alan. And to this day nobody's gotten all six.
Speaker 2:Alan the actual the the the actual names, and so these were the founding families and settled the area yeah, abbots kimball no all right, hey guys, uh, we're not going to tell you, because what you got to do is you got to come all the way to john's creek. Yeah, make yourself a trip. Because, by the way I found out I was listening to a national tv the number three search destination in the us to go visit was atlanta, georgia. How about that? How about that? Right, so pretty interesting. Um, people are starting to pull back a little bit from going overseas and, uh, it's atlanta's become number three on the destinations. Think about that. You got new york, you've got chicago, you've got la, you've got, uh, dallas, texas and miami. You've got all these places. I mean, I'm not naming them in order, excuse me, but it's atlanta. So you guys got to come to six bridges and, um, if you get it, I'm not gonna say anything but then you mentioned oh, chris, this is where Chris is going to actually make an offer for you guys.
Speaker 2:You guys are going to go out to get an offer. Thank you, but I did. I will say, if you said I know all six bridges and I listened to you on the small business Safari, they said they would give you a six pack for free. Not a six pack, just a, Just a pint.
Speaker 3:I'm getting a six pack. Hey, if they know all six without looking at the mural in our tap room, that's what I mean, which is a very cool mural, by the way.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Can I double down? And if you mentioned that, chris said it Chris will buy you another six pack and give you a Delta voucher for your drink ticket back out. I'll keep you completely inebriated the whole way. Guys, this has been amazing. You guys, obviously you guys do not have that crazy up and down mentality. I mean, when I talk about that, is that I have that. I'm super high, I'm super low, I'm super high, I'm super low. You mentioned you hit a keyboard. I bet you have not hit a keyboard as hard as I have. You definitely haven't hit a waist back as hard as I have. So how do you guys keep your even keel? Is that the makeup? Is that the way you guys roll? How do you guys keep yourself there?
Speaker 3:I will say I definitely don't stay, even at work. I mean, it is just there's highs and lows with it, and the last place I was at, the way they put it is managing the highs and lows with business Cause it's a rollercoaster, you know. Same thing goes for cashflow. I mean it comes in and then it goes, and there's again and again. So those emotions are there too. So, having a little bit of perspective, saying okay, this has happened before. You know, if you get an account to 10 or whatever, take a breather.
Speaker 4:but throw a beer can? Yeah, throws? Oh, my goodness Pick a waste can.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm on my 10th one. Actually, they've given me one with a target on it now and this one's plastic. It's given a lot more, but I've stopped kicking a lot because after 17 years I'm just getting older and tired. So I just start taking my damadol out and just slam it across the table a little bit more.
Speaker 4:And they let me go. What also helps. I remember there was some confirmation that we're doing the right thing, we're making the right connection. A gentleman had lost an adult child and was really grieving, and the community tried to get around him to comfort him. And the one thing they asked well, what can we do? And he said just take me up to the brewery, Just get me out of the house, but take me there. I feel relaxed and I'm able to deal with it from there. And so, that said, if we've done one thing right, that was provide a place for somebody to feel comfortable.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's pretty cool. That was very powerful. That would be so fulfilling to that story. Yeah, it should be. Yeah, well, guys, you guys have done a great thing. Awesome what you guys are doing. Let's get a shout out. How does everybody find you? How do they find your beer?
Speaker 3:So six bridges of brewingcom Instagram, facebook, check us out. Come to the brewery. We're always active on social media. Sign up for our emails. When you go to our website, you'll hear about. We send out an email weekly. We don't sell your information, we just try to sell you our beer. So I hope you come check us out. Come thirsty, be ready to have some fun.
Speaker 1:Love it hey we've drank the beer.
Speaker 2:We have.
Speaker 1:It's fantastic.
Speaker 2:We're going more good job it's good and I know you were excited about this very actually kept this one a little bit from alan until just two days ago because we knew excited if you'd be, I don't know, and he knew more about you guys, uh, that you probably even knew, you know about yourselves, because he's been researching this creepy, but that's, he is creepy. Restraining order, right, uh, so you're like and I'm chris's basement and it's raining outside because we're in atlanta, are going to make it out of here, I don't know. Guys, we got to get these guys to a taco truck because they got to go take care of their biz. They're doing a great thing. You got to keep doing the same thing.
Speaker 2:It's not all sunsets and roses, but it is always a birdie putt you have a chance to make. Let's go make it happen. Get out of here. We got to. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Small Business Safari. Remember, your positive attitude will help you achieve that higher altitude you're looking for in the wild world of small business ownership. And until next time, make it a great day. You.
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