Episode 24: Russ Klisch, President of Lakefront Brewery

In this short interview, Henry Nosek of Midwest Microbrew sits down with Russ Klisch of Lakefront Brewery to discuss what it truly takes to start and run a successful craft brewery. Russ shares his hard-earned wisdom on managing cash flow, choosing the right business partners, building a distribution strategy, and why passion and personality are just as important as making great beer.
Whether you're a homebrewer dreaming of going pro, an aspiring brewery owner, or simply a craft beer lover, this interview is full of practical advice straight from one of the Midwest's most experienced brewers.
🍺 Topics covered in this interview:

The biggest financial challenges of starting a brewery
How to choose the right business partners (and plan for exit strategies)
The role of quality in long-term success
Taproom vs. distribution — how to sell your beer
Marketing your brewery through personality and community

🎙️ Missed our first interview with Russ? Watch it here:    • Episode 5: Russ Klisch, President of Lakef... 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Hey everyone, welcome back to Midwest Microbrew. I'm your host, Henry Nozick, and today we have a quick one for you. This is a shorter interview than our usual format, but it's packed with some really great insights. So I sat down with Russ Klish of Lakefront Brewery to talk about what it really takes to get a brewery off of the ground. From managing a cash flow and choosing the right partners to the importance of quality and having the personality to market yourself. Whether you're an aspiring brewer or just a craft beer enthusiast, there's something in here for you. Let's get into it. All right, Russ. Thank you so much for meeting with me again. It's great to see you again. Good to see you again. Yeah. So I guess next question that we had for you is what are the biggest challenges in starting the brewery?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

For me, uh, I think with anybody, it's probably first is money, just trying to get it. Sometimes people are more wealthy than than others, but uh typically I I find that a lot of them are probably you know somewhat cash strapped. The other one is uh is your partners or employees or or who to pick and and and be with to go with. I usually find most breweries start with several people and and as you go along you find out that uh maybe one or two of them didn't uh didn't work out as much as you as you hoped. And uh and you have to find a way to to get by that. And uh, you know, that's something you should definitely think about when you when you start, is almost like an exit strategy for for some people or how somebody can get out if they don't want to be in after a certain period of time running uh running a place. And so you have to to do that to get it going, and then once you get it going, you have to have a uh you know a a positive positive cash flow. And that's always hard to to get up and and over. One thing too is I always have to mention is that you know anybody who doesn't believe in quality really shouldn't be in uh brewing. And so I always don't talk too much about that, but quality lets you brew. Um but most of the time that when you find that people don't make it in the business, it's not because of quality. A lot of people understand that, it's because they don't have the good cash flow. And so that's what you have to to do there. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

So that's that's good advice. Uh-huh. Is there any other advice you'd give to uh aspiring brewers?

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Um You know, uh just uh I'll also you know, you look at distribution and or tap room and how you're gonna sell it and and see and how you're gonna market your place. A lot of people are their own uh their own best billboard and they kind of go out and use their own personality out there and uh you know that that works for a lot of people unless you really want to get big real quick and then you have to need uh marketing. But most of the time, uh I I find most of the uh people in industry a bunch of characters and and usually their their their personality will uh will will get them going. You know, if they have good beer, it'll it'll keep on keep on going out there with them. But uh but yeah, uh it's it's uh having to you know just be you know positive with what you have, keep on growing, keep on uh working hard. It's it's uh it's a labor of love when you first first start out, and you have to keep that going uh along the way. And you always feel like you're you're taking uh you know three steps forward and two steps back, but just gotta keep on keep on going forward.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Well, that's good to hear. Thank you so much for answering those questions, Russ. I appreciate it. Thank you. Alrighty, guys, that's gonna do it for today. Be sure to check out some of our other exclusive interviews with the people from the best breweries in the Midwest. Bye now, I'm gonna go back to the bottom of the bottom.