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South Austin Brewery

Texan brewery, makers of Evel Ale, the official Evel Knievel Tribute Beer

“
We're an award-winning craft brewery/brewpub inspired by tradition, music and people like the legendary daredevil Evel Knievel. We have the licensing rights to the official Evel Knievel tribute brew: Evel Ale, a 70s style blonde ale brewed for generations, inspired by the legend himself. With other unique brews like our award-winning Kolsch, Crossroads Coffee Stout, Texas Pale Ale and more, South Austin Brewery is already on shelves in over 900+ stores in Texas alone. We're now ready to go big.
Square_cropped_evel-martyn-larger
Martyn Buffler
Managing Partner, South Austin Brewery
“
We're an award-winning craft brewery/brewpub inspired by tradition, music and people like the legendary daredevil Evel Knievel. We have the licensing rights to the official Evel Knievel tribute brew: Evel Ale, a 70s style blonde ale brewed for generations, inspired by the legend himself. With other unique brews like our award-winning Kolsch, Crossroads Coffee Stout, Texas Pale Ale and more, South Austin Brewery is already on shelves in over 900+ stores in Texas alone. We're now ready to go big.
Square_cropped_evel-martyn-larger
Martyn Buffler
Managing Partner, South Austin Brewery

Our Ambition

We've doubled our sales from 2014 to 2015 and are on track to do the same in 2017—and that's just in Texas. We've added 2 new states and are ready to distribute in 15 more by 2018. Our facility can handle 3x our current production and we're prepared to rev it up. The demand of our new Evel Ale gives us the leverage to expand nationally, then internationally. Our goal is to ride the craft beer trend (growing 16% every year since 2010) and have Evel Ale and our classic Texas beers on every shelf.

Key Facts

  • SAB on track to hit $1 million in sales in 2017; 2x growth year over year 2014-2015
  • South Austin Brewery has licensing rights to Evel Knievel's tribute beer, Evel Ale.
  • Distributing to 900+ stores in Texas, expanding to 15 more states in 2017-2018
  • Official beer of the Evel Knievel Museum & sponsor of Doug Danger and the Spirit Skyrocket
  • Craft beer market is worth $22 billion, growing by 16% every year since 2010

Documents

Video Transcript
southaustinbrewery.com
from Austin TX
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South Austin Brewery

Texan brewery, makers of Evel Ale, the official Evel Knievel Tribute Beer
$210,680 raised from 259 investors
Successfully Funded on Feb 26 2017

Why I Like South Austin Brewery

We are excited about the partnership between South Austin Brewery and K&K Promotions. We have a collaborative relationship that has resulted in the new and iconic “Evel Ale.”

I was incredibly proud of my dad, he was a one of a kind character who did everything in his life boldly and with determination. Whether it was jumping buses and canyons, or just waking up every day full of imagination and purpose, Evel Knievel's drive is an inspiration to us all. Together, with South Austin Brewery, we have created a beer that is truly representative of Evel Knievel and how he lived his life. Evel Ale is a beer that honors this legacy - a classic brew that is for everyone, a beer for the ages that compliments the character of Evel Knievel!
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Kelly Knievel
THE BUZZ ABOUT SOUTH AUSTIN BREWERY
Evel Knievel had a true love of beer. And the Evel Ale would have made that love only deeper and fiercer!
Krystal Knievel
Knievel Enterprises Stakeholder, Evel Knievel's Wife & Partner
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South Austin Brewery’s Evel Ale fuels thirst of national Knievel...
Decades after Evel Knievel achieved the apex of his fame as the quintessential daredevil on a motorcycle, his legacy of encouraging adventure and a fearless spirit is being taken to new heights, thanks in part to one small Austin brewery.
December 26, 2016 @ mystatesman.com
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South Austin Brewery rides Evel Knievel beer through crowdfunders; Big jump to other states next - Austin Business Journal
With a famous daredevil's name in hand, a craft brewing startup has hopes of raising $750,000 or more to expand its reach from coast to coast. Owners turned to online equity crowdfunding - a relatively new form of investing that opens the process to unsophisticated investors and those without deep pockets - because they wanted customers around the U.S.
December 21, 2016 @ bizjournals.com
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Burgers, Brew & 'Que Episodes
Actor and proud Baltimore native Josh Charles meets up with Michael Symon at his favorite place for crab cakes in a town where everyone fights over where to find the very best.
October 25, 2016 @ foodnetwork.com
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Wrench Against the Machine Official Site | Esquire Network
The country's most prestigious bike builders put their reputations on the line in the ultimate test of creativity and craftsmanship. Each episode pits two teams in a head-to-head battle, with only three days and $3,000 to transform basic stock motorcycles into rowdy, riding, works of art.
October 25, 2016 @ tv.esquire.com
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Daredevil successfully powers rocket over Snake River Canyon
Updated: TWIN FALLS, Idaho (AP) - Professional stuntman Eddie Braun successfully jumped over the Snake River Canyon Friday afternoon in an ode to his boyhood idol, Evel Knievel. Braun soared over the southern Idaho canyon in a custom-built rocket dubbed "Evel Spirit."
September 17, 2016 @ wsbtv.com
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DAREDEVILS & BEER: A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN

We're an award-winning Texan brewery and the makers of Evel Ale—the tribute brew to the legendary an iconic daredevil, Evel Knievel.

Evel Knievel was a notorious beer-lover. And like him, we want our customers to feel bold, ambitious, maybe even a little daring. Though not our first beer, Evel Ale is quickly becoming our most popular beer. At it’s debut at Evel Knievel Days, we sold out of three days worth of Evel Ale in just a few hours.

HOW IT BEGAN

"When I first took on resurrecting Evel Knievel Enterprises; one of the first goals I set was to help launch an officially licensed all American Evel Knievel brand of beer here in the United States. The primary obstacle was finding the right brewery that shared my passionate vision.

When I met Martyn Buffler and his team at South Austin Brewery, I knew we had found the right person and brewery. We all worked closely on the concept, design & dream that's now a reality. Evel Ale, a tribute to the quintessential daredevil Evel Knievel. The beer is an expression of passion and individuality. Martyn is more than just an entrepreneur, he's a visionary focused on innovation. He’s surrounded himself with a solid and experienced team. This is the kind of leadership that is needed to guide the SAB team to the next level and deliver Evel Ale to market nationally. I am excited to be apart of this project as both an investor and partner."

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Lathan McKay
President of Evel Knievel Enterprises is an American curator, actor, producer, and entrepreneur

Meet Our Beers

Our portfolio is diverse, unique, and award-winning.

Our craft beers are delicious enough to both spearhead our flagship brick-and-mortar pub as well as hold their own at over 900+ stores across Texas. In just over two years, South Austin Brewery has become such a local favorite that we've more than doubled our number of barrel production every single year.

The One and Only Evel Ale

"Evel Knievel is the fountain of youth" The embodiment of living one's dreams, the manifestation of nothing into everything, and failing into flying high."

- Lathan McKay, President of Evel Knievel Enterprises

How it Tastes: Easy drinking blonde ale, light in body with a slight hoppy flavor and bitterness in check. Evel Ale our tribute to the quintessential daredevil. It is also an expression of passion and individuality. Brewed with the finest domestic ingredients, this All-American blonde ale is light in body and hop bitterness but heavy on personality.

Kol' Beer

Clean, crisp, refreshing Kolsch. A perfect balance between malt and hops with a full flavor and easily drinkable.

Crossroads

A robust coffee stout. Big malty and roasted flavor, brewed with a unique blend of roasted barley, chocolate malt and oats.

Texas Pale Ale

Big hoppy up front, clean, balanced, smooth finish. Heavy doses of late-addition American hops gives our TPA a big hop flavor and aroma.

Six String Saison

Spicy, Citric, Funky & Complex. Our take on the Franco-Belgian style farmhouse ale; could be described as an Imperial.

CRAFT BEER IS RISING FAST

Today, $25 billion barrels of craft beer are produced every year.

Craft & specialty beer sales have gone from $6.7 billion to $19 billion in the last five years. The industry has had double-digit growth every year for the past decade. In America, beer is a $100 billion a year industry with specialty and craft beer having just over 12% market share in 2015 (up from 6.5% in 2012).

$22 Billion

size of the craft beer market

12%

craft beer share of beer market

WE DOUBLED SALES FROM 2014 TO 2015

We're on track for continued growth in 2017 and targeting sales of over $1 million.

We opened our doors in early January of 2014 and launched our first beers to market in May; an early success with close to 800 barrels of beer sold. South Austin Brewery then doubled sales in 2015. We're now positioning ourselves for a successful 2017 with the national launch of Evel Ale along with our full line of beers. We've increased our capacity with additional fermenters and bright tanks. SAB is also transitioning to new packaging and moving to the 12oz format from the 16oz. We have also added a state of the art canning line to increase efficiency and meet the growing demand for our beers.

OUR BEERS ARE IN OVER 900+ LOCATIONS IN TEXAS ALONE

We're been working with 8 distributors to get South Austin Brewery on every shelf in Texas, then the rest of the U.S.

WE'RE NOW READY TO DISTRIBUTE IN 15 MORE STATES

We plan to leverage the demand of our Evel Ale brand and several of our classic Texas beers for shelf space countrywide.

Our partnership with the Knievel family and Evel Knievel Enterprises has created many opportunities for SAB, becoming the official beer of the Evel Knievel Museum in Topeka Kansas and the Harley Davidson of Topeka and Evel Knievel Days Festival in Butte, Montana. There are over 3,500 microbreweries & brewpubs across the U.S. and what differentiates us is the Evel Ale—the flavor and uniqueness of this brand.

OUR JOURNEY SO FAR

We're ready to produce 3x our current levels, increase margins, and spread our brand.

February 2014

South Austin Brewery Founded

Q2 2015

Granted Licensing Deal for Evel Knievel

Evel Knievel's family grants us the licensing rights to launch Evel Ale.

September 2015

Evel Ale's Debut in Austin

Tthe Evel Ale buzz had spread so quickly that the brewery has received calls from all over the united states and different countries around the world asking how they can acquire a can, a 6-pack, a pint of Evel Ale.

Q1 2016

HEB's Feature Beer

Evel Ale quickly becomes SAB’s number one brand and is being sold in all major Texas markets. Featured beer for HEB Summer campaign. Texas’s largest grocery chain.

April 2016

Evel Ale makes its NASACR debut at Texas Motor Speedway

Q2 2016

Partnership with Museum and Harley Davidson of Topeka, KS

Evel Beer to be served at bar & rest at the dealership and museum. Evel Ale merch will be sold at grand opening and ongoing in 2017. Historic EK 20,000 square foot museum will be located next to the dealership.

Summer 2016

Evel Ale debuts at Evel Knievel Days in Butte, Montana

A 3-day supply of Evel Ale sold out within 4 hours at the beers national preview (Evel KnievelDays), the most popular Evel Knievel event in the world.

Q4 2016

Partnership/ Sponsorship of Evel Spirit Skyrocket

SAB was proud to help sponsor the Return to Snake River Jump. MB sent 4-5 pictures with rocket and SAB logos etc.

Q4 2016

Launching in Nevada, Florida, Colorado and South Dakota

Q1 2017

Launching in New York, California, Illinois, Pennysylvania

Q2 2017

Key events: Sturgis, Evel Knievel Days, Caesars Palace – Anniversary of Evel’s Caesars Palace jump, Evel Knievel Museum Opening

IT'S GONNA BE A WILD RIDE

“There’s a little Evel in all of us!”

Here at South Austin Brewery, we believe that. We live that and we invite you to do the same. It’s making the choice, even in a small way, to dare to go big. To rev it up and let it rip. That’s what this beer—and this Wefunder campaign—are all about.

We created Evel Ale as a classic 1970s style beer brewed in honor of the classic 1970s icon, Evel Knievel. A beer for the ages! It’s celebrating the timeless daredevil spirit in all of us, one can at a time.

From the day we brewed the very first batch, Evel Ale captured our patrons taste buds and their imaginations. It quickly leapt in popularity to become the most popular beer brewed by South Austin Brewery. And within just 4 months of launching Evel Ale—with few dollars spent on marketing or awareness—buzz has spread so wildly that the brewery has received, emails- calls from all 50 states and over 5 different countries around the world asking where they could get Evel Ale.  

Our vision is to spread the distribution of Evel Ale as wide as the everlasting legend of the man himself. First across America. Then around the world.  

We invite you to be a part of that journey.  Let’s rev it up and let it rip. It’s going to be an exciting and wild ride.

Martyn Bufler
CEO, Chief Evel Officer

Meet the Founders

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Martyn Buffler
Managing Partner
Serial entrepreneur Martyn Buffler brings over 30+ years of combined startup, business management - development and entrepreneurial experience with this opportunity.
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Russ Hall
Brewmaster
Rus has been involved in the beer industry for just over 20 years. A love of self expression and beer has driven his journey from small town Alaska to Austin, Texas via Portland, Oregon.
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Vic Camozzi
20+ years of award winning marketing, advertising and PR experience. He's led national marketing efforts for some of the most successful beer brands in the world, including Negro Modelo and Pacifico.
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Bryan Wallace
Board Member
Studied computer science at the University of Texas. Bryan has started multiple companies; his last SaaS software company was acquired by a private equity company in 2014.

and the rest of the team

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Liza Considine
Taproom & Events Manager
Previously employed at several microbrewery’s in Charlotte, NC, Liza joined the SAB team in early 2015 helping to evolve the SAB taproom and events venue into what it is today. 
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Mike Franklin
Head Brewer
Mike's experience of roasting coffee and brewing beer has resulted in the creation of SAB’s award winning Crossroads Coffee Stout.
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Beau Monty
Brewery Rep and Taproom Manager
Lover of most things, but especially, Pizza
, My Mom
, Beer 
(The above listed in no particular order)

raised $1,107,347
from 259+ investors

$400,000
February 2014
Priced Round
$496,667
March 2015
Priced Round
$210,680
February 2017
Chris Caho
Interested to see what happens with WeFunder. Very Cool!
Mark Lee Adleman
BBA from University of Texas 1972. Naval Officer 1972-75. Various Purchasing jobs Houston TX for 30 yrs. Home Brewer-member Austin Zealots Homebrew club.

Details

Expand all
What is South Austin Brewery?

In 2014, a group of guys
who were committed to and excited about making exceptional Texas beers founded South Austin Beer Partners LLC. We wanted to focus on the kind of beers that we like to drink and enjoy here in Texas. We're also big fans of music and the live music scene here in Austin. We also wanted a music-centric environment that really represented the Austin culture and ideals. We built a giant sound stage and taproom right in the middle of the brewery that can hold a 10-person band. We recently added a new taproom upstairs for smaller acts and private parties & events.


Our goal is to bring all of that together in an environment where people can come in and hear great music, grab a bite to eat at one of Austin’s famous food trucks and enjoy great Texas beers. We call that South Austin vibe, the “liquid soul of Austin”.

Can you take us back to the beginning? How did you get started?
We were presented with an opportunity to buy the infrastructure of an existing brewery, which allowed us to get off to a quick start. We launched in February of 2014. Our first beer was called Kol'Beer. We wanted a name that really resonated with Texas. Kol’Beer was a quick success and has been our house beer since inception.

We've had several beers that came in sequence after that. The TPA, Texas Pale Ale, an every day, sessionable IPA style beer. We then introduced our Crossroads Coffee Stout along with Belgian-style Ale called 6 String Saison. We also introduced an award winning German style Bock beer called Lukenbock. We also have a very active in house rotating tap selection and the brew team is creating new small batch beers weekly that are served at the taproom.
You’re known for the Evel Ale—how did that happen?
One of my investors and good friends Lathan McKay is an aficionado of everything Evel Knievel. He and Kelly Knievel own the largest collection of Evel Knievel paraphernalia in the world. For many years the Knievel family has been trying to find the right partner to make a beer that honor’s the late great Evel Knievel. After months of discussion and meetings we were able to work out an agreement to create and bring to market a beer that really honors Knievel legacy. Evel Ale is an all-American blonde ale. To be involved with this brand and person I grew up idolizing was something special just like the beer!
How fast are you growing? How are you measuring growth?
In 2014 we had about $250,000 in sales and produced roughly 850 barrels. The next year we doubled that to about $580,000 in sales and produced close to 2,100 barrels. This year has been a transition year for the brewery. We have added new distributors, changed our can design, size and packaging format. We have also added additional production equipment and tanks. We have also added a new canning line to address the timely nature of production and to become more cost efficient in the production process. We're planning on additional growth in 2017. We currently have over 900 retail customers around the state of Texas.
Tell us about the beer market in Texas and how you tackled that market.
Rather than align ourselves with one particular distributor we have been fortunate to create relationships with seven different distributors around Texas and we recently added one in Kansas. The national franchise laws are one of the biggest challenges for any brewery that's starting out or one that’s been in existence in Texas. We've been very fortunate to have great distribution partners. They all have their strengths and weaknesses but our core goals are in alignment and we are all interested in selling more product.

We have also seen a crowded beer market in Texas. Everybody wants to bring his or her beer to Texas. The number of breweries is growing. We've decided to really focus on some of our core brands and follow the demand. We're seeing a lot of interest outside of Texas with the new Eve Ale and with some of our core brands as well. There is great potential for us to grow outside of the Texas market. This is one of the key drivers in our partnership with the Wefunder folks.

Tell us about your production capacity.
Our capacity with only running a single crew day
shift of brewing is 7,000 barrels a year. We have a 40-barrel brew house
and have recently added additional 60-barrel fermentation tanks along with a 60-barrel bright tank. By adding another shift we could easily produce up to 12-14,000 barrels. We have a 12,000 square foot facility and have space to add additional tanks and increase production even more.
How will that evolve as you scale?
One of the things we have to consider in this model
is to expand the operations to a bigger facility. We do have some options in
moving to other larger facilities if we need larger space. We have a couple
options but this is a few years out. We have a great home at Saint Elmo
for now. We invested in a state of the art canning line from Wild Goose. This
is a significant piece of the puzzle in terms of cost of production and
bringing beer to market. We're poised to react quickly and scale when we
need to. We've also built our pads and infrastructure at the brewery in a way
that we could add more 60 or 90-barrel tanks when needed so we're in a good
position from a production scalability perspective.
What ideas do you have for growth in the next months?
I spent several weeks this summer visiting some
of the major markets that we want to target in this model. Right now we are in
Texas, Kansas, and most recently Montana, but we are going to target states
like Nevada, California, Oregon, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Illinois, New
Jersey, New York, Florida and a few more over the next 12 to 18 months. Most
have the essential distribution model and demographically they have solid market
potential and the ability to support very good numbers. Strong indication on all
levels; individual retailer, individual customers as well as distribution
partners that want to get behind the brand and what we're doing.
How has the Evel Ale been affecting your growth?

Initially we launched the Evel Ale here in Austin and have grown the brand over the last 9 months with very little marketing dollars. We also launched the Evel Ale this summer in Topeka, Kansas. The Evel Knievel Museum, which is the largest Evel Knievel museum in the world. It will be opening this fall. The beer is going to be an instrumental part of the museum and supporting activities, events in terms of the fundraising. There is talk of an Evel Brew Pub on site that will be serving exclusively Evel Ale. The museum is going to be a very important piece of the Topeka community. We did a similar thing in Montana this summer with the Evel Knievel Days, the largest festival celebration of all things Evel.

We had two giant pallets of beer, which was supposed
to be enough for 4 days. It sold out in 3-4 hours on the first day!

But even more importantly, we have worked out the
entire model for how to get beer to another state and how to get the licensing
done and the logistics on the distribution side. We're currently working on
Nevada. We should have that done this month. There’s going to be a Caesars
Palace Evel Knievel 40th anniversary celebration next year and there is great
interest in having the beer in Las Vegas.

What does it cost to go into a new state? How quickly do you get that money back?
Our initial model takes about $15,000. Cost of acquisition in terms of time, travel, and set up, logistic fees and everything else. It depends on the market size and can take anywhere between 6 to 12 months to have everything up and running. This is why it’s important to do this in parallel. In some of these bigger markets we can pull that back to probably 3 to 6 months.

We choose our new markets carefully. It's really about where can we spend the money and get the money back quickly and also build the brand with a good partner that understands the beer, the brand and has good events and a good demographic to really pull the beer through.
What is it going to take to get the Evel Ale into international markets? What’s your relationship like with the Knievel family?
We've identified that wherever there's an Evil fan club there's a fan base. There is a very strong fan base in Canada. The biggest fan base outside of the US appears to be in Great Britain. This all started with Evel’s Wembley Stadium jump. Interestingly enough there's are strong followings in France, Japan, China, Portugal and Chile in South America. People have expressed tremendous interest in hosting events and doing partnerships to bring the brand to those areas.

I think the first market will be England just because of the reach and there's such a strong fan base there. What we've talked about at a very high level is doing an event. A lot of this will be coordinated with Kelly Knievel and the Knievel family. Knievel Enterprises is organizing a jump with a guy named Doug Danger here in Austin next summer. He will be jumping the Congress Ave Bridge during the ROT rally. He's a huge Evel Knievel fan and every time he jumps it's a tribute to Evel Knievel. Doing an event like that to kick off the launch across the pond would be a perfect example of how to get that brand going. We are excited about sponsoring Doug in 2017
How involved are you with the Evil Knievel brand?

Lathan McKay, one of our investors and my partner in this project, introduced me to Kelly and the Evel Knievel family. Kelly is their main representative of the Knievel family. He and Lathan have been working together for years and they, together own the majority of all the historical collateral such as Evil’s motorcycles, skyrockets, helmets, leathers and various other items. With Kelly, Lathan and their history we've been able to build a very productive, honest and forward leaning relationship. Everything we do is really about honoring Evel and the brand. We're very involved in terms of developing the design of the can the logos and the taglines. From a financial perspective we pay a royalty to the Knievel family for the licensing rights. Anytime we sell beer we pay them a royalty per case. What we get in return is complete access to that portfolio of collateral and information from videos to images.

What’s next for your business and why are you raising money now?
The biggest upfront expense in a production facility is the cans, packaging and raw materials. One of the primary uses of the money is to get all this lined up. We will need to buy enough cans, trays and 6-pack holders. To have everything ready to scale and be in a good position to ramp that up quickly. Our partner Berlin will house everything, and then ship it to us every week to us. Right now we keep everything at the facility. A lot of the vendors we use are geared for very large production partner/facilities. Getting that whole model in place is going to need some up front capital.

A key piece of equipment we will need is a filtration system for the beer. Shipping out of state will require our craft beer to be stable in various temperatures. Many smaller breweries do not filter their beer and have stability issues during shipping and distribution.

The final need for funding is to build out the sales and distribution network within our key states. We've got some key hires to make in people with experience in setting up the distribution model, the merchandising side and the marketing and sales. Fortunately we have some experience and have learned a lot over the last couple of years.
What's been your biggest challenge so far?
The biggest challenge has been distribution and dealing with distributors. When we built our original model we were heavily reliant on our distributors in terms of playing a very active role in building the brand, merchandising, sales activity and growth. We soon realized that it really fell on us to create the demand and it was a big challenge. It caused us to spend a significant amount of time and money that wasn't in the original plan. We have re-engineered this process on a local basis so when we launch a new market we are driving the demand and brand interest. This will be a key part of our success as we move forward nationally.

The bottom line is we need distributors and they are our partners. We have learned that to make it work you both have to lean in pretty hard. We have to be realistic about their role and what they can do well. This is an ongoing challenge. We've learned a lot so we know what to expect going forward as we bring on more and expand. If you have realistic expectations about what your partners can and cannot do it allows you to plan realistically going forward.
What keeps you up at night about the business?
What keeps me up at night is that this market is changing so fast. On the retail side, it's causing things to get very complicated and very crowded. New breweries are coming in and they want their beers represented and on the shelf. The distributor is under tremendous pressure to take on new brands and create new revenue opportunities. At the end of the day the retailers are not adding shelf space weekly or building new coolers every week. There's a logjam in terms of new brands, new beers and retail space.

This is an inherent problem in the industry. It concerns us but at the same time, we are recreating ourselves. We’re doing two things. One is the Evel brand in terms of creating a very unique and iconic brand that’s out side the traditional mold of a brewery just producing another seasonal beer. Also, we’re creating something truly unique! A historical brand, iconic packaging and branding, a story and a history that is both interesting and intriguing. It is working.

Also, the largest growth area in the whole brewery sector is brewpubs. We're putting a lot of time and energy into the brewpub. We're adding about 2,000 more square feet upstairs in an air-conditioned area because people want it. They want to come to the brewery and they want to have a good experience with food and music. We now have a great platform for people to enjoy new beers. This allows us to follow the feedback, positive market trends and make decision about new beers, styles going forward.
The beer brewing industry is incredibly competitive. Why will you win?
We know the category style approach to bringing a beer to market is very unique. Everything that we've done research-wise and demographic-wise really points in a very positive direction. We have a lot of access to powerful data through our partner Vic Camozzi. The brand interest in the Evel Ale is a broad 21 to 85 age group. This is a very broad spectrum. I've been involved in many industries; software, banking, insurance, finance, security and healthcare and I've never seen a broader demographic tied to a brand. This is a large market -demographic. This includes the Millennials, GenXer’s, Boomer’s. Its people that love extreme sports, its racers and daredevils and many more. It’s also the people like my dad that enjoyed watching ABC's Wide World of Sports featuring all of Evel’s heroic events.

We have 2 years under our belt. We've made some mistakes, we have a lot of experience and we have a good team. We've got a strong relationship with the group that's tied to the Evel Knievel brand. We've mitigated a lot of what I think are the potential risks in the process. We used this year as a transition year to get things right and position ourselves for success in years to come. We've launched the new Evel Ale beer, we're in major metropolitan areas and people love the beer. They love the packaging and they love what we're doing. We've done a lot of work to get to this point and we're poised to really do some exciting things.
Tell us about the team.
There are three founders. Myself, Bryan Wallace and Vic Camozzi. Bryan and I have worked together for the last 20 years in different businesses, mainly in the software industry. Vic is a serial ad and a marketing guy. One of the best in the industry. He was one of the primary creative directors at GSD&M for 15 years and has led major beer campaigns for Spaten, Pacifico, Kronenbourg and others. He has a lot of experience with creating and building a brand, understanding the demand. He helped me put together the names; create the brand and the beer styles and names. He has an amazing team and talented resources. We're very excited about what we have been able to do so far and more so about the future.

We then hired Russ Hall, an experienced brewer with almost 20 years of brewing experience both here in Austin at Live Oak and at Portland Brewing Company in Oregon. He also ran a famous brewpub here is Austin called Love joys, an experimental brewpub early on before it was trendy and cool. He made exotic and unique beers that still get talked about and referenced today. He is an amazing brew master and has both large brewery experience and knack for small batch specialty beers. We also have a great taproom and sales team. Seasoned folks that are passionate about the brewery.
This is an unusual fundraising strategy. Why have you given your customers the chance to invest online via Wefunder?
We have all of this interest and demand from all over the US and the world. We've had a very difficult time outside of social media connecting with these people. They're asking for the beer. How do I get the beer? Where can I get the beer? The crowd-funding model creates an interesting proposition and allows us to connect or deal directly with these potential customers and the fans of the brand. This is a huge departure from dealing with a few selected investors. People around the country can get behind the brand and invest in the company on an incremental basis. We can develop that relationship. We can provide them with collateral and info; they can become ambassadors of the brand. As we go to these new markets, having investors and having people that can participate in the funding process to me is a very exciting and a unique model.


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