Best of B Team: From Homebrew Naivety to Brewery Reality

This week on The Best of B Team, we're throwing it back to our episode with Jeff, owner and founder of Bike Rack Brewing Co.

Imagine the sun on your shoulders, a cold pint in hand, and a reason to show up, this conversation lives where small batches meet big community energy. We crack open a limited summer release designed for poolside afternoons and talk about why keeping it scarce pushes people off the couch and out to the farm to taste it fresh. From the first sip, the strategy is clear: let the beer be a moment, not just a product, and pair it with simple, smart marketing that moves people to gather.

We share how a decade in craft beer turned our taproom into a home for local artists, funding albums, pressing vinyl, and turning Friday nights into rehearsal halls for a 90s cover band. Partnerships aren’t a slogan for us; they’re a map. When your front door lines up with a neighbor’s venue, you dream up VIP-only drops and collaborations that feel earned and close to the ground. That same “build with what’s near” mindset led us to a tight, fast food menu: wings done right and a giant pretzel that keeps tables happy without stealing space from tanks in a production brewery.

There’s also the truth about the leap. Home brew praise is kind, but scaling demands process, fermentation control, and a willingness to rewrite plans that once felt perfect. We talk through the gap between optimism and execution, the risk of leaving safe jobs, and the grit it takes to keep learning. On the board, a balanced lineup leads the way: a West Coast IPA named after local trails, hazies for modern palates, and approachable ABVs that invite another round. Along the way, you’ll hear the laughter, the near-misses, and the simple rules we live by: make beers that fit your place, keep the menu sharp, and let community be the headline.

If this story of small-batch creativity and hometown loyalty hits home, you need to see the full episode! Follow the show, share it with a friend who loves craft beer, and drop a review with your favorite taproom pairing, we’re taking notes for the next collab.

Watch the Full Episode: https://www.bteampodcast.com/bike-rack-brewing-co-crafting-bentonvilles-beer-scene/ 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Welcome to the B Team Podcast. I am your host, Jock Staffer, with my co-host, Pat Morris, and our permanent guest, Rob Nelson. We're here every week to talk to you about all things Bettonville, bourbon, and business. The B Team Podcast. Be here.

Local Partnerships And VIP Ideas

SPEAKER_01 0:26

So that's that's the first beer we got. And it 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 us by the six-pack? By the six-pack and then just uh by the you know, by the pint and the is it is it does it just sell like do you sell at local places also besides your we do, but not this beer. Okay. We're just we just created a really limited amount of this beer on the phone. Yeah, which is cool. Yeah, we didn't want to 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, you know, going out to the to the farm. I think it's a week from now when they're doing the first pick. And we we matched it. We matched it. Well, I got I got I got a Josh, I got actually got updated on the RGM before it came here. I can pull my notes. Probably not more than Dave does, too. Fact. Yeah, yeah. Well now, I I love that you guys do that with local local people. You guys make a point to do things. I mean, that's this is it, that's a big deal. Yeah, very big. I think you guys should do a partnership. Jens We we already talked about it. Yeah, I like Jen's place beer. Because if you well, if you have Thanksgiving, what's the one you always like in the fall? Oh yeah. Any fall kind of beer with you know, like Christmas and the dark kind of stuff. But it would be cool to do one of those out to Gentsgiving.

Supporting Musicians And Making Vinyl

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Well, we talked about because if you walk out his front door and you have the binoculars out, you can see right in the front door of the Jets Place, the new 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.

Adding Simple Food To The Taproom

From Homebrew Naivety To Business Reality

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Yeah, we've thinking in our 10 years, we've done a ton of different community partnering stuff, and it's kind of the fun of owning owning this. I mean, you don't I 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 it to give to a community and have a lot of fun. Um but we've done we've we've probably leaned in most over the years with the arts community, especially musicians. I mean, literally we we've produced and paid for two different albums of local artists um with Neil Greenhaw recording, and like I mean, we 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. Yeah. Working with him, he's been on podcast with us. Yeah, we used to work in our brewery. Our singing, right? We s we sang on that episode. Yeah, oh boy, yeah. Well, he just played at our brewery uh last Friday night. His band um played uh yeah, yeah, because he was like he's not. No, he acts like he's not, he's massively talented in the group he has, every one of them are pros. They just all have day jobs, and um 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. Yeah, you guys have food now too. Yeah, we did. We we added food. Um like your chicken wings are you like them? Thank you. Good. Absolutely love chicken wing. No, I yeah, it it wasn't easy because 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 just we'd have people come in and walk out, we'd have people have one beer hit the road. Right. Um, we're trying to keep it super simple. Yeah, um chicken wings, chicken wings and a beer. Yeah, and if you haven't tried our massive big pretzel, it's so good, but it feeds three, right? Um it's yeah, so we've added that legit. 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 they're unique European ovens that you don't have to take up a lot of space. I mean, we're a production brewery, everything in the 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 gonna be limited to one or two things, but let's do one or two things pretty quickly. Really good. Yeah, yeah. And the wings are great. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. When you decided to get in, did you like did you already make beer yourself at home? Yeah, there was a group of us. Yeah, there was a group of us that did some homebrew stuff, and none of us were professional 90s. It's a rabbit hole. Well, it's a little bit like I I the way I would like it, like I love to grill, I love to be out of my big green egg. It's like thinking, okay, I'm ready to open a restaurant. Yeah, I make the best thing. And it's better than me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

There's better pizza than me. Let's open a pizza.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

It was a good pizza. Well, and the thing you and the 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 a homebrew to manage the fermentation process and the transition. So it was a lot of like overblown. This is gonna be so easy, we're gonna 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 and you know, not do this thing my whole life. 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 laughing and how pathetic. But the thing is that that's you have to have that to to go into business yourself. You have to be like, you know what, we're gonna do it and we're gonna figure it out. It's it's really easy to do in anything.

Choosing Risk And Entrepreneurship

SPEAKER_00 6:04

No, but it's it's but it's high risk, right? You you had a day job, right, where you were supporting the man and you had a 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 you know take a risk? Yeah, and the entrepreneurial folks jump out and take the risk, and hopefully most are successful, but many are not. Yeah, many are not. It's hard being your buff.

Best Sellers And IPA Lineup

SPEAKER_01 6:25

And and sometimes you gotta go do that multiple times at different things until you've hit on the other one. So, what's your top-selling beer? Or it depends on it's an IPA. But it's we're probably more balanced than most other breweries out there. Um, it's our traditional what I call West Coast IPA. We call it slaughter pen. It was originally named after the first mountain bike trail here. Um, it's kind of been the standard we've had forever. And then over time we've seen this, the you know, the the hazy IPA kind of jump in and take a bigger role. And 6.2, so it's not horrible. Yeah, no, it's it's not we've in the tap room, we've got some bigger or 6.3. 6.3, yeah. Yeah, sorry. Useless. Yeah. That's close enough. But it's not crazy.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

That sounded like an empty one though. You write that whole thing, Matthew?

Taproom Culture And Beer Antics

SPEAKER_01 7:15

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. Oh, it's are you gonna shotgun this next one, the third one? I mean, did you teach Dave how to shotgun beers? Like Dave's got his head back in the back. He's got a special talent. I've never seen anything like it. He's opened his throat and he can't. It's unreal. Well, I mean these both of these would be good to do that with. Yeah.