The Founders of Third Space Brewing, a thriving small business in their hometown, are Milwaukee natives with a passion for creating great beer. They first met at their third space–Camp Minikani, a summer camp located along the shores of Lake Amy Belle in Hubertus, Wisconsin. 

Andy Gehl, Co-founder and Director of Sales and Marketing, is a recovering attorney with a passion for craft beer. Andy does a great job heading up sales, marketing and community outreach for the brewery.

Kevin Wright, Co-founder and Brewmaster, holds a certificate in brewing from the world-renowned University of California-Davis Master Brewing Program.  Kevin Wright is certainly qualified as he graduated at the top of his class in 2009 before going on to win the JS Ford Award.  An award bestowed each year to the person who scores the highest on the Diploma in Brewing exam, given by London’s Institute of Brewing and Distilling.

After graduation, Kevin spent seven years brewing award-winning beer at Hangar 24, a popular Redlands, CA brewery.

Eventually moving home to partner with his Camp Minikani buddy to open Third Space Brewing. Located in an old industrial area of Milwaukee the brewery is close to the American Family Stadium, home of the Milwaukee Brewers, and also a location where their beer is sold. During the summer you will often see social media posts of their beer cans in the hands of fans attending games.

Beer school came about when Kara Olds, Event Coordinator for Third Space, was talking with a coworker about the lack of accessible education on alcohol/beer in the Milwaukee area. That, combined with Kevin’s wealth of beer knowledge and his love of teaching, made sense to start the Beer School for anyone wanting to learn more about beer.  Kara told us that “For us, it's a great opportunity to engage with our customers and showcase interesting beer from around the state.”

In 2020 the USA Today rated Milwaukee as the 2^nd best beer scene in the US second to St Louis, MO. One of the breweries that helped Milwaukee make this list is The Explorium Brewpub. Mike Doble, like the beers he brews, is deep and complex on the inside and wrapped in a playful and unpretentious exterior.  If you live in the Milwaukee area you are familiar with Mike as his name and his brewery are in the news quite often. As a self-proclaimed Type A personality, he has trouble sitting still. He is very active both personally and professionally on social media and makes no apologies for anything that he says or posts. During the Covid shutdown most people made the transition from office to work from home. The service industry took a huge hit with regulations and reductions to their usable space. As most brewery owners were trying to figure it all out, Mike was planning a second location.

Listen in as Mike Talks about opening his second location.

You might notice this episode’s guest Christian Layke as he and his business partner Brett were the guests on our last podcast that posted on June 14, 2018.

A lot has happened in the world since that last episode, and we have invited Christian back to talk about the past 4 years and to talk about their future.

Listen in as Christian shares some exciting new news for the brewery with us.

Having spent the past 20 years managing a foodservice that oversees large events at sports and entertainment venues across the country, Andrew learned that it's about more than just a baseball game or concert. It's about creating an overall exceptional customer experience. Andrew has taken this belief and combined it with his passion for craft beer to help breweries monitor their tasting rooms, increase their in-house revenues, and learn to differentiate as the craft beer industry soars past 9,000 breweries. In addition, Andrew has successfully built a community of 14,000+ Craft Beer Professionals dedicated to the growth and betterment of craft beer across the United States.

Living in Milwaukee has led us to discovering some great beers and even better breweries. We wanted to find a way to share all of the places we have found with our family and friends, which led us to our Instagram page @TheKlevensBrewTour. This page has introduced us to incredible people in the craft beer community and we look forward to connecting with more interesting people through the Market the Brew podcast.

This is our first Market the Brew profile of a Brewery In Planning. Our two guests, Christian Layke and Brett Robinson, are the cofounders of a brewery that will be opening in the DC area in the next 6 months.

We’ll be diving into their marketing strategy to build up excitement and visibility around their opening.

What’s unique about their approach is that they are making a series of collaborative beers with other local breweries to gain some pre-opening traction in what they are calling the Convergent Worlds Collaboration Series.

CHRISTIAN LAYKE
Co-founder and Head Brewer
Beer has been a part of Christian’s fondest memories—travel to far-flung locations with family and friends, toasting his engagement at Ankor Wat, chatting around many a campfire, and so many more. Drinking beer in Europe, Africa, Asia and, of course, America, got him hooked on enjoying quaffable beer served from beautiful glassware in cozy settings. So much so he was compelled to leave his job at an environmental non-profit 10 years ago to become a commercial brewer. Christian is excited to now be realizing his dream of creating a spot like that in his home community.

BRETT ROBISON
Co-founder and General Manager
It was a revelation when Brett realized beer wasn’t just a flavorless yellow beverage. He told his friends he’d open his own brewery someday. Ten years later the dream is about the become a reality. Brett has toured Europe drinking beer, quit his job in finance and did a brief stint as an assistant brewer. He followed that with managing multiple restaurants and most recently was General Manager of Republic in Takoma Park.

This episode is a two-parter and it’s about podcasting as a medium to promote your brew. Have you noticed that podcasting, like craft beer, has blown up in the past few years? When it comes to beer podcasts, I find that they fall into one of three categories: beer tasting and beer drinking podcasts; beer making and brewing podcasts; and podcasts that cover the business side of craft beer. This episode explores the idea of appearing on podcasts as a way to tell your brewery’s story and promote your brand. Our guests are Matthew Muncy, founder of the Hopped Up Podcast Network and host of the Barrel Chat podcast PLUS Jessica Rhodes, founder and CEO of Interview Connections and the host of Rock the Podcast.

This episode is about driving traffic – butts in barstools. Specifically, the use of events in creating a compelling reason to come and visit.

We are getting the perspective on this from two different breweries.

Amanda Zivkovic is the Associate Brand Manager at Heavy Seas in Baltimore, MD. She assists in consumer promotion, tap room events and charity initiatives among other things.

Our other guest is Amanda Martin with Walking Tree Brewery in Vero Beach, FL. Amanda is the Event Coordinator & Tasting Room Manager and one of the original team members of the Walking Tree Crew. She has been an integral part of developing the brewery as a highly sought-after event venue.

Ray Goodrich has bounced around from dream job to dream job—starting his post college life as a marine mammal trainer at Sea World. Then he decided to pick up a few Emmys by producing SCC football for Fox Sports. And now? Well now he talks beer for a living. He is the Director of Marketing at Foothill Brewing in Winston Salem, North Carolina and on the show to talk about Foothill Brewing’s unique community-focused promotions.

This is a special compilation episode. We pull the origin stories and behind the brand stories from previous Market The Brew episodes. Here we review 6 special breweries: D.L Geary Brewing Co.; Jester King Brewery; Lakefront Brewery; Our Mutual Friend Brewing Co.; Station 26 Brewing Co.; and MobCraft Beer.

Sarah and John McGarry are a husband and wife duo and are part of a five-person ownership/leadership team that runs Brink Brewing Company in College Hill, Cincinnati. Even though Sarah and John are located in Denver, the pair both have integral roles in the brewery’s operation. With her background in architecture and design, Sarah helped design and build out the brewery before evolving her duties into social media and promoting the brewery. John is a long-time craft enthusiast and a certified Cicerone who works in the financial tech industry by day. At Brink, John contributes to menu planning, beer style planning, and merchandise design.

Like most brewers nowadays, Kyle Vetter got his foot in home brewing. He has been the oak manager at Aspen Brewing, where his fondness for barrel aged beer started to grow. A Milwaukee native, Kyle wanted to bring what he learned in Colorado home. He is the founder of 1840 Brewing – an urban farmhouse brewery focused on barrel aging and blending. He lives by the saying, “Drink slow beer!”

Ryan Wheaton has been a professional graphic designer for the last 15 years. He noticed that his design style catered itself nicely to the craft beer industry and started doing freelance design in the market around 5 years ago. He has been hosting the Branding Brews podcast where he interviews experts in the beer branding space. He is currently the Creative Director at an advertising agency. The conversation in this episode we’ll be discussing what is involved when engaging with a design resource for branding your beer.

This is Market the Brew’s covert, cloak and dagger, Mystery Shopper episode. Our gest is “Sandi” – which isn’t our guest’s real name. Since the episode deals with the private topic of sending in mystery shoppers to a brewery, our guest has their voice masked to remain anonymous. Sandi is the taproom manager at a brewery that can accommodate around 400 people and is projected to produce between 16-18,000 barrels this year.

 

Jeremiah Zimmer is an experienced home brewer with over ten years of work history in branding marketing and sales. A few years ago, he partnered up with Jude La Rose and Jason Maxwell to launch Hop Butcher for the World in Chicago. Jeremiah was key in getting Hop Butcher for the World’s Good Ryes Wear Black IPA into the White Sox’s U.S. Cellular Field. The beer is inspired by their beloved south siders and is available in single 16oz cans at the Midwest Craft Beer Kiosk.

Joe Hudson is the general manager of the Inland Empire 66ers and a native of San Bernardino. He started working at the organization in 2001 in food and beverage. After attending the University of Utah, he was promoted to Assistant General Manager in 2010, and then in 2012 assumed the day to day operations of the club. His focus as General Manager is to provide the absolute best experience for guests in the beautiful setting of the San Manuel Stadium. Part of that experience, and the focus of this episode, will be with the partnership between the stadium and Hangar 24 brewing.

Andy Gehl, spent a few years bouncing around trying to find a passion to drive his life before the beginnings of Third Space Brewing came to be. Andy met Kevin Wright, Third Space’s Head Brewer and Co-founder, twenty years prior when they were camp counselors at a summer camp. Kevin went to brewing school at UC Davis and ended up at Hangar 24. Meanwhile Andy went to law school and became an attorney. After running into each other at a wedding and having a conversation about opening a brewery, the two went on to found Third Space Brewing in the old industrial corridor of Milwaukee.

Daylen Dalrymple is the Marketing and Digital Communications Manager at Stone Brewing based in San Diego where she oversees social media strategy and content, helps foster influencer and brand partnerships, and steers her team toward tools to help Stone execute their goals including being the standard bearer of independent craft beer. She was born and raised in Washington DC, ordered her first Arrogant Bastard Ale in an east village bar in 1999, and has been dedicated to spreading the gospel of craft beer ever since.

 

Francesca Jasinski was born and raised in Grand Rapids and she has no shortage of affection for her West Michigan homeland. She graduated from Grand Valley State University in 2006 with a BA in Philosophy and began working in mental health with the intent to eventually pursue a Master’s degree in Social Work. Instead, after developing a strong appreciation for craft beer, she started working for Founders Brewing Co. in 2007 and never looked back. She worked as a server and a taproom manager before landing in her current role as PR & Communications Assistant.

In this episode we are trying a different format than the usual Market The Brew Podcast.

I’ve been wanting to do a Round Up Episode because I like to hear different perspectives on a topic.

A Round Up is where you have different people give their answer to the same questions. I asked several friends of the show to participate by picking 2 of the 3 questions I provided and record their answers.

The questions I provided and this Round Up focus on Social Media.

Joining me for this is Shawndra Russell in Asheville, NC; Maggie Skinner in Milwaukee, WI; and Hannah Barnett from Boise, Idaho. I’m also going to take a stab at this myself.

We have with us, Justin Baccary, the Founder + President. Like most entrepreneurs, Justin has served in every role at the brewery at some point, including bartender, salesman, delivery driver, assistant brewer, and of course, janitor. Currently, he is focused on the areas of operations, human resources, accounting, and managing a growing wholesale business of kegs and cans. .

Along with Justin we are joined by Hamlet Fort, the Marketing and Events Manager for Station 26. Hamlet most recently was with a PR firm in Nashville. His experience includes digital marketing, advertising, PR, media, photography and writing, all of which he does for Station 26. A native of the mountains of western North Carolina, Hamlet chased great beer and higher mountains out to Colorado. 

Matt Henderson hails from Verona, Virginia and is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College with a B.S. in Biology. After college, Matt worked for Scott Fly Rods in Colorado for a few years. He ended up back in Virginia in 2012 working the bottling line at Blue Mountain Barrel House, where he worked his way to his current role as Assistant Director of Brewery Operations. He also took on an additional role as the project lead for Blue Mountain Brewery’s rebrand.

Our guest today is a Certified Cicerone®. He’s a cookbook author. He’s been marketing a small lifestyle company for over 10 years, has worked in media, and is an avid home brewer. This experience lead him to Cicerone in 2015 for a newly created marketing role.

This episode's guest, Henry Schwartz, began his entrepreneurial career at age 13 by following his passion for skateboarding. This lead to him owning and operating, while a teenage, Board to Death Skate Shop. He had the skate shop until he went to the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater to Study Entrepreneurship and Spanish.

Upon graduation, he started MobCraft Beer, a crowdsourced brewery that turns people's ideas into beer.

In 2015 he won a Silver Medal at the GABF; in 2016 he pitched his idea on Shark Tank, and in 2017 he was named the SBA Young entrepreneur of the year.