When I got off the phone, I'm calling dad. I'm like, "Dad, guess what? You quit your job, go home to join the family business. You just started hustling." We boys thought it's the stories that you were sharing with family. What was like the first big account where you were like, "Holy smokes, dad, we made it."
From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Mark your calendar. We're headed down to Brown County on July 26th for Hard Truth Bourbon and Barbecq Festival. Get ready for a smoky, savory, and spirited weekend at Hard Truth in Brown County. Join me at Hard Truth Distilling Co.
the weekend of July 25th and 26th for an unforgettable celebration of bourbon, barbecue, and good times. We've got live music rocking from 9 until noon with four different acts, bourbon and barbecue tastings and pairings, bourbon blending and cocktail crafting classes, as well as a VIP bourbon and cigar lab. They also have interactive competitions and outdoor activities, bourbon barrel roll races, barbecue toss and cornhole tournaments, $10 entry for a $300 prize. If you're a good cornhole player, hit me up. Let's join up. And they have axe throwing as well.
Me and my team are going to be down there and I will be releasing a full weekend itinerary for Nashville/ Brown County that is guaranteed to be a great time. Tickets for the Hart Truth Bourbon and Barbecue Fest start at $10 for general admission. That gets you entered in the festival, the live music, and pay as you go food and drink. For $35, you can get the barbecue sampler pass, tastings from all the barbecue competitors. Or for $75, you can get the VIP ticket where you get VIP lounge access, premium bourbon tastings, and a guided distillery tour by master distiller Brian Smith, previous guest of the show. I will see y'all in Brown County the weekend of July 25th and 26th.
Now, let's get into the episode. Today, I'm joined by Patrick Howard, co-owner of Bad Dad Brewing Company, a family-owned brewery and pizzeria founded by his father Barry, his brother Derek, and himself. With a mission to bring beer lovers of all generations together, Bad Dad Brewing has become a staple in Indiana's craft beer scene. Since its creation in 2016, the brewery has seen remarkable growth, winning prestigious awards and securing partnerships with major establishments like Holiday World and Splash and Safari. And we're going to get into that a little bit later in the show. Today we're going to be talking about the Bad Dad brand and how they are family business with a little bit of personality, the growth and success in the competitive industry and the future of craft beer and then touch a little bit on fatherhood.
Patrick, welcome to Get In. Thank you. Appreciate it, mate. Man, I am uh I'm excited for this. I feel like I say that at the beginning of every of of every episode, but I really truthfully am excited for this episode. You guys are based up in Fairmont.
Yep. Correct. Fair. Grant County. Yes. Right.
Right on the edge of Grant County. We just did a little feature about Gas City. So, I've been looking into uh the county that's what James Dean's Boyhood Home or whatever, right? And I'm excited to dive into all things craft beer and and Bad Dad specifically. If anyone if you haven't checked out their website, it's it's a ton of great dad humor, uh which I I truthfully love. I always have some fun little dad jokes here and there.
Well, talk to me about like the beginning, right? like you and your dad took over or started this this brewery and craft obviously craft beer is very very prevalent. This was back in 2016. Like what what made you guys want to go all in on this? We would brew as a hobby. Uh specifically I' I'd come back from college, brew in Thanksgiving, go back for finals, come back uh for Christmas and it'd be ready.
We did that for three or so years. Um and right after that uh he decided, hey, let's open up a brewery basically as a waiting room for our restaurant next door. Okay. So you already had a restaurant? Yes, my mom owned that. Okay.
And that is that the pizzeria? Yeah. Uh no, that's actually a completely different thing. We haven't talked about that. Grains and Grill. So it's more of a upscale restaurant steakhouse.
Okay. Wait, so your mom runs you is a family of hospitality. We are family of entrepreneurs. Okay. So what was the restaurant that that your mom owns? Yeah.
So it's called Grains and Grill. Um it's more of an upscale uh full bar uh restaurant. Wide different uh menu options, really fantastic food. I'm extremely biased and I will tell tell you that about our food, but we've al also got a lot of pedigree with everything that we do. Wow. Okay.
So, Grains and Grill, how long has that been around? Uh 2015 and I think a couple of weeks ago we celebrated our 10 year anniversary. Oh, man. Well, congrats to this. So, this was your mom's thing. Yes.
It all started with mom. Okay. She got us into this. So, your mom she got us into So, your mom runs Grains and Grill. Yes. And then a waiting room is what you guys were doing for the beer.
Yeah, we we were turning people away for two hour wait times. Um I mean that's how you do it in the industry. You say it's about two hours and they say, "All right, we'll wait around." We're like, "Oh gosh, what do we do with these people?" Well, put a beer in their hand, sit down for a couple hours, everyone's feeling pretty good. Yeah.
Right. So So your mom's restaurant doing well and you guys decide, okay, well maybe we could, you know, have a little tap room and serve some beer. What got you guys to the point that you knew you had a product that was worth selling? I used to work at Caddyy Corner right here in Broadripple uh from this building. My dad asked me, "Hey, do you want to quit your job, do this full-time and grow it? Uh, and that was in 2017 of the summer."
I said, "Absolutely." Uh, I'd love to be my own boss. It really just kicked off from there. I started brewing. I was bartending. I was uh doing seller work, delivery.
I was doing everything. In 2020 is when we really hit our uh big break, which is kind of uh uncommon for the industry. a lot of the the restaurants, well actually all the restaurants had closed down. Um you can't eat in there, you can't drink in there. Um however, uh the liquor stores were uh still open. Um so they were basically just telling everyone, "Hey, if you can put a UPC code on a can and uh get it into our system, you can get into our stores."
So we got into all over different uh places in Indianapolis uh and northern Indiana because of that. And so had you been trying to build those relationships with those liquor stores for a while there and they were kind of hesitant to bring you guys in or Well, no, it was just it it made sense. Um during that time a lot of people they slowed down. Um they uh they were laying people off. We were doing the exact opposite. Uh we hired our first time uh full-time brewer um which freed me up to be able to get out there and do sales.
really just uh gave me the opportunity to get our name out there when a lot of people were just kind of slowing down and and figuring out what are they going to go forward. We're just very we try to be very forward thinking. Yeah. Well, take me back to to the beginning though. It's 2016 and your dad and you were brewing beer, but it's not a company then. Yeah.
Like what what brought you to Bad Dad Brewer and like the whole branding and image behind it? So, I let me start with the name Bad Dad. Uh the the follow-up question everyone has for me is was he a really bad dad? I said ah no he was actually really great but uh the name has a story. So my my parents like I said lifelong entrepreneurs. They had something completely different 20 years ago now.
Um and I started working there when I was just a little guy. What was it? It it was an auto salvage yard uh over in Hartford City. Little town if you haven't. Yeah. Wait.
So you had they had an auto salvage yard. So meaning you like people drop their cars off there or whatever like scrapyard type thing. It was actually No, not not technically a scrapyard. Uh they would uh pick up vehicles for insurance companies. Um uh they had State Farm that was one of their biggest ones. Uh and they did that for oh gosh probably 11 years.
Um growing that business and eventually selling it back in 2011. But uh my brother and I, we were just little guys. Uh I was probably eight, he was probably 10. Uh working there. Uh, I was mowing uh the grass, doing the landscaping. When he turned 16, then he was able to drive.
I think he was uh driving flatbed trucks and picking up all over Indiana. Heck yeah. Okay. So, they own that business. Oh, yeah. And and and and we always just said, "Oh my gosh, in the middle of the summer when all these kids are playing baseball and having fun, we're out in the sun working and oh gosh, we got a bad dad.
All our friends have good dads." Well, he thought that was pretty funny. Um, so he uh named the brewery after that, but I always tell people, I mean, it wasn't that bad. I mean, 20ome years later, I'm still working for the guy. Yeah. I mean, must not have been terrible.
So, you guys name it Bad Dad and you decided to just like lean all the way into that branding. Yes. Uh cuz I mean like the website's super sharp and just like all the fun. And when we say branding, right, it's like you have beers like socks and sandals, you have you're grounded, mister, pull my finger. I mean, just great dad jokes, right? Yeah.
I mean, how do you guys come up with the idea to like really lean all the way into that and and take it to like the next level? So, I I I would tell you this, my dad uh myself and and my brother, we are not clever people at all. Um, but we surround ourselves with funny people uh and great minds greater than ours. So, uh we uh hired a a marketing firm down in Indianapolis called Pivot Marketing. Um and prior to us, they had done a few different rebrands for uh breweries. So, when we came to them and we told them, "Go nuts.
Have fun with it because that's what we do." They decided, "All right, we're going to create this whole new brand for you guys. We're going to lean into the bad dad, the dad humor. Uh, not taking yourself too seriously." Kind of the things that when we were talking to them, uh, they really picked up on that really resonates with people. I mean, for sure.
Uh, so you talked about, you know, as COVID came around and liquor stores really started taking a bunch of your product in, that was like your first big break. Tell me how that like meaningfully changed your business and your trajectory of of Bad Dad Brewing Company. Yeah, so prior to that, um, I would I would say there's three big tiers of breweries. And between those two tiers, there are massive amounts of scale that you have to go between. We were in that first one obviously and that is a tap room that really supplies for your four walls um your tap room and and maybe a handful of different uh you know special accounts uh 10 or so around the the county. Um when 2020 happened that's when we decided to go from more of a small craft local brewery to more of a regional production brewery.
So um we started canning uh we got Did you have to get your own like equipment and facility? Uh yeah. So, uh, we have our, uh, uh, our own, uh, uh, building in Fairmont. It's a old John Deere implement store. Lots of lots of history in that if you want to go into that. Yeah.
And around that time, uh, we had to scale up our equipment. So, we went from a 10 barrel system to a 15 barrel system. It produces a lot of beer. Like, give me like put that into example. Like, how many six-packs are you getting from the extra? Don't make me do math.
Oh, is this supposed like No, no. We we So, uh what we currently do, everything is in a 16oz can and they come in 24 can cases and then we just recently went from uh these uh if you've been to like a Total Wine or anything, you see the the breweries that have like a a plastic cap on it. Yeah. Pack tech. We just went from that to boxes. So Oh, yeah.
And and it gives us so much more real estate to to really sell home the brand. Yeah. Oh my god. Is that like a these like graduating stages where it's like we go from the because I feel like uh the true getting going craft breweries, you always see those little plastic four topper things on them, right? And it's like they have their sticker on, but now you have boxes, so you're you guys are fancy. Craft beer.
Um it it is much as a lifestyle brand. Um but it's also uh you you have to demonstrate value. And one of the things that we notice is when you look up to kind of benchmark yourself, um what are the other guys doing? Well, everything's in nice little boxes. You go to a a liquor store uh or a retail store like a Meyer or something. Um everything's in nice little boxes.
Uh and and and that is something that we decided that's what consumers value. They they like the packaging. Um and it also gives us a lot more uh real estate. When you guys were going from like kind of like stage one to stage two, what was like the first big account where you were like, "Holy smokes, dad, we made it." I would say uh Big Red Liquors uh down here in Indianapolis. We got into uh probably 15 different stores.
You walked in there. How does that how do those conversations work? Were was it at a time when co we just need supply or was it like an ongoing process where you had to like finally convince them that you were worth it? Yes. Uh some places it's it's as easy as you go in there and you say, "Hey, I I package my beer." And they say, "All right, email this person with the UPC codes, the price, and what beer it is, and we'll get it set up."
Um but uh places like Big Red, I mean it's you got to do some work. Uh this is a this is a industry where you got to do a lot of ground work if you're want to grow. So uh it was a little bit more involved. Um you know talk to this guy, talk to this manager, drop some samples off and then kick it up to the big guy. Besides just the taste of it, right? Cuz I mean there's a lot of people whose like you know dad brews the absolute best beer in their home brewing system and like you know it's it's very special.
But besides just overall taste, what kind of things go into from a buying perspective for whether it's bars or retail stores? Product mix is a a big one. Price is another big one. 5 years ago, um pricing has changed on craft beer quite a bit. Uh buyer um trends have changed. There used to be a time where you could sell uh $15 fourpacks at any time.
Um lots of fruit in it. Uh, and that's a style that's very popular here in Indiana. Um, over the last few years though, uh, fruit prices have skyrocketed. Now, that same $15 for fourpack would be going for $25, uh, in 2025. And, uh, it it's one of those things where I think consumers are actually gravitating towards uh, more accessible and price efficient um, beers. Oh.
So, do you see craft beer has become a little less craft or a little less like, you know, like high quality or tons of ingredients? So, I I I will say off the the get-go, being in the craft industry, I hate the term craft because it insinuates that um a lot of beer isn't brewed with craft. And I'll tell you, uh, the big guys, they have massive amounts of money to be able to highune this product to be a perfect product for what a consumer is buying. Um, we do that too. Uh, the craftiness from what we do is it's very small batch. We do things that it's a little bit more out there and we can do that because we have a smaller system.
The craft industry has definitely changed in that um the the boom that we'd been experiencing really since the 70s when Jimmy Carter uh passed that law and what was the law allowing craft breweries to um uh I I believe self-distribute um without going through the distribution system which opened you uh up to be able to brew and then sell in your own tap rooms and stuff like that. I'm not a historian but I believe that's that's kind of what it was. But over the last 30 years, um, that's really changed. Uh, I think last year was the first year in Indiana that more breweries closed than open. And and that's something that we, you know, we really keep in mind. Yeah.
I do feel like, you know, maybe mid to late 2000s, 2010s, like craft beer was ripping. You know, I've had uh Clay and Dave, the founders of Sun King on. They were one of our our first episodes that we released. And I mean they talk about just like riding these waves, but like I don't know, you know, if it's inconsistency, but volatility of craft beer, right? And it's like with the rise of more uh seltzers and ready to drink cocktails and like it's just a constant ever changing uh dynamic and how are you guys balancing that with a thinking of like new innovative fun beers to launch? We are leaning into the marketing obviously uh and trying to establish ourselves as a lifestyle brand.
Um that's something that you see uh a lot of uh uh successful national and regional breweries succeed with is they identify with a subset of the population. They come up with things that really speaks to them. Uh one of the things I really talk about um and and enjoy personally is uh the garage beer uh over in Columbus. I think the Kelsey brothers, they're doing it right. That's exactly what um 90% of the beer drinking population wants. A garage beer.
Yes. Amen. I mean, truthfully, just something that's light, easy to take down a few of with your boys on a Friday night in the garage. But and and but when you look at their branding versus ours, it's very different. They they lean into uh uh the fun uh obviously football dads. Oh, yeah.
We're we're very much the average dad. Yeah. I I was going to say, what is what is you talk about being a lifestyle brand, what is the bad dad lifestyle? We've talked about family quite a bit. Um that's very important to us. The bad dad lifestyle is being a good dad.
Yes. Yes. Well, it we've always thought it's it's the stories that you're sharing with family. Um the metaphorical passing of the torch and you know when your your your children grow up and of or of age, sharing a beer with a son or daughter, like that's a very sacred moment for a lot of people. Um, and being able to reminisce on those stories of, "Oh, do you remember when dad did such and such or do you remember when mom or it's it's not even just it's uh it's not even just dads. It's that less than stellar parental moment that we all get to talk about and laugh about around the table."
Well, this is interesting because I feel like most craft breweries have a serious almost like snobby kind of vibe when when you think about, oh yeah, I drink an IPA, right? How do you guys kind of like keep an arms length away from that or differentiate yourselves from the like a little bit more uppidity of oh it's an it's an IPA? Yeah. Well, I mean I I'll tell you this right now. IPAs are our top selling brand. Our top selling beer overall is called Tapestry of Obscinity.
It is an IPA. I drink IPAs. I like IPAs, but they're not my favorite style. But to to get into more of like how do we distance ourselves from that? Well, I think we just keep ourselves grounded. We brew beer.
Uh, beer's been the the drink for the common man for a long time. We're not brewing high art. We'll brew some things that we put a lot of heart and soul into. Um, big imperial stouts where we're adding all sorts of fun adjunks, coffee, cocoa nibs, vanilla. We'll barrel age it. We did one that was barrel-aged in maple barrels.
And that is super crafty, right? But it's fun. We we we don't try to to make it something that's going to be an art gallery if it's uh the label. We wanted to be uh relatable, fun, and hide some Easter eggs on our labels as well. We have dad jokes on all of them. So, you have dad jokes on I love that.
So, you talked about Big Red being kind of like that first break where you're like, "Oh, man." Like, we're kind of rolling. Uh as as you kept adding and kept growing. What were a few more of those moments where you're like, "Holy smokes, like we've made it." So, uh, Total Wine, um, they opened up one store, uh, in, uh, northern Indianapolis and then a year later they opened up four more. Uh, that was a huge one for us, and they're a huge account as well.
We're we're in basically all the major liquor stores in Indian or in Indiana at this point, but getting up into Fort Wayne, um growing into South Bend, and then in 2023, uh we were approached by a distributor which turned into two distributors. Uh and now we're uh distributed all over Northern Indiana with our partners Indiana Beverage and FiveStar Distributing. Oh man. So, and before it was all self-distributed, so you were just ripping around up to Fort Wayne, South Bend. I had I had help. Um, I've I've uh hired a few people o over the years um to to help me grow um you know, take orders, grow accounts, um manage some of the accounts that I've already made.
But um uh I've been here from the beginning. I've I've I've grown this business. Uh I'm 31. You start losing count after uh after uh uh 25, I think. But um you know, I'm I'm a young guy. Uh I've I've dedicated a lot of my life to this.
I have a lot of pride in my brand, but I I've had a lot of help along the way. Dude, you quit your job. Yep. H here uh working in logistics. You go home to join the family business of beer. Yep.
Well, the family business of of hospitality that then was becoming beer. Yeah. You just started hustling. Yeah. We have Midwest Hustle on the side of all of our vehicles and I think my business cards, too. Midwest Hustle.
I love that, dude. And at the time you're talking about self-distributing, right? So, you guys are going out when you sign Total Wine or whatever here in Indianapolis. Like you got to make sure that your beer not only gets produced right. Yep. Canned and packaged right, then transported, right, and then put on the shelf, right?
Yeah. Cuz that's the thing. I think I don't know if everyone knows this, right, but it's like you're responsible for your little It's almost like you're renting a little shelf space, right? Like you're in charge of putting where it goes. Yeah. Like the the merchandising is what they call merchandising, right?
Like they you don't just drop it off there and say, "Hey, thanks. Put it where it goes." Like you have to get it where it's supposed to go. Correct. Yeah. So, I mean, uh, in our self-distro areas, we're still doing everything ourselves, uh, for our off- premise accounts, the liquor stores and and such.
Uh, we bring the beer in, uh, we invoice them, we stock it on the shelves, uh, we merchandise. Uh, that's, you know, putting things on the shelf, but also taking things off the shelf. Uh, if there's things that are out of date, you know, they get tucked around uh, the the corner, pushed to the back, uh, you turn it over and you're like, "Oh, this is 3 months out of date." uh the logistics of returning that, crediting it back to the count, and replacing it um to make sure that your beer is nice and fresh and exactly the product that you want to be on the shelf. Wow. Like what time do you have to get in?
Like is there like a specific time of day where it's like you're in the mornings like stocking liquor stores? When I was doing that and sales rep who's doing that now, he's usually in there around 9 9:30 morning. Wow. Okay. So, you guys are growing. You're talking about in 2023 you got approached by a distributor and was that like the they feel like oh man like we we've we've made it like we're we've really done something here.
It says a lot uh about what you're able to create when you're approached by a distributor because getting picked up by a distributor uh you have to establish yourself. You have to have some sort of reputation. Hopefully a good one or else they're not going to pick you up. We established our reputation because we were in all sorts of places. We were taking tap handles from from people, you know, doing a lot of work to make sure that we're we're being aware of. How does marketing a craft brewery work?
Right? It's like you have to convince people that have never met you to buy your beer in a shelf full of other beers that look enticing. Like how much of it is like other kinds of marketing efforts, packaging, sampling? Like what do you have to do to grow a brewery? You can't do anything unless you have good liquid. If you don't have a good product, it's not going to go anywhere.
People will pick that up. There used to be a time where you could brew anything and and you're going to make money hand over fist just because the industry was growing like that. It's not doing that anymore. So, yes, you have to have good liquid. Um, marketing wise, uh, like I said, we we we take ourselves not too serious. We try to identify with the common person, find those similarities that a lot of people share.
Socks and sandals, whose dad hasn't worn those? I wear those. I'm a little guilty on that. But um it's a little bit of guorilla marketing. So um we've put billboards all over the place. I and and if you've seen them, you you remember them.
Hired a local actor out of uh Indianapolis, uh Clint Robinson. And uh he uh he is exactly what we wanted for our bad dad look. I have seen these. Yeah. Oh, like this big dude. Yeah.
The or the underwear one. I feel like I've seen that. Yes. We We are body positive at Bad Dad. We are body positive, dude. The the big dude in the So, what's his name?
His name's Clint. Clint. Yep. And he's like doing yoga with a beer. It's just like he is the essence of bad dad. Whatever people want to do at their brewery, that's fine.
But we're not going to be doing yoga at our brewery, but we will have fun with it uh with our marketing. You going to say kind of gorilla marketing, right? Cuz you have to convince one person at a time, right? to like not buy Sam Adams and buy Bad Dad. Well, at at a liquor store level, um doing lots of tastings. Uh that's how you have to promote yourself.
It's grassroots. I pride ourselves that we have boots on the ground. Uh I got people in liquor stores doing tastings every single weekend at Total Wines, Big Reds. Uh up in Fort Wayne, you got the Cap and Corks, the Belmont Liquors, meeting with consumers at their level. um sampling uh give them a you know we have tidy widey koozies like that was the genius idea uh that has sold so much beer whose idea was that who was who was who was sitting around the table and it's like you know what you guys should make tidy whitey koozies it's it pivot marketing I I I'm telling you there I think they just moved offices last I knew they were down in Fountain Square we just told them go nuts you know there's there's a limit and we've definitely uh pushed back on some of their ideas, but uh when was there like a crazy idea that's like I wish we could do that, but we can't. Uh yes.
Uh but the one that I defin we we said, let's lower the shirt a little bit. When when the shirt was pulled up, we're like, let's lower the shirt a little bit. Yeah. It doesn't need to quite be a crop top. Brand guidelines need to be below the belly button. Below the navl.
Yes. The naval. Okay. Uh that's super fun. And it's like uh you're having fun with it and you're taking away that like almost arrogant vibe that I feel like some craft breweries have. But it's also like that's such an Indiana thing where I like meet all the people who run the breweries in Indiana and they're like all great people.
Like they're all just like oh they're very normal, fun, loving. Like you don't get into the beer business unless you're a fun person. I feel like and it's competitive, right? Like you think about uh what Sun King starting 25 I believe years ago something like I think they just celebrated 25 and they were like the first commercial craft brewery or something in in Indiana. Go back and listen to that episode if if you want the exact stat there. Um but when you're going back I was talking to the to to the abyss the fourth wall.
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Like, how do you go and start to compete with these legacy players in the Indiana beer space? The market's really pulled back and that hurts. When you're at a larger size and the market's pulled away, it's hard to um adapt to that a lot harder than it is when you're small and you grow into that. Now, we're nowhere near the size of any of the top breweries in in Indiana. Um, Sun King is the the second biggest brewery, I believe, in India. Yeah.
And then three Floyds is, you know, they're they're enormous. They're in a different stratosphere. They're still only in that second tier that I was telling you about, the small and then production and then the national brand. Three Floyds isn't a national brand, right? They I believe they have national distribution, but I mean there is a large difference between them and the Miller Kors products. Uh yeah.
When you think of even some of the West Coast uh like huge breweries. Oh, yeah. And even them uh cuz I mean the the last two I named obviously aren't craft, but like Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams is is Oh, you say Bells? That's a Bells out of uh Michigan, right? And and they're they're a national brewery, right? Yeah, they distribute all over the Three Floyds or Sun King are still trying to get into that game.
I mean, I can't speak for them, but um I as far as the size of the breweries that there's a huge difference between those three tiers, many many thousands of barrels between them, man. So, and you guys are are you still brewing on 15 barrel? Yep. One machine. Uh yeah, it's a it's a three vessel uh system. So, we have a mash ton, a boil, a whirlpool.
Um, and if anyone's in the industry, you know what I'm talking about. But, um, those are all the basic things that you're going to need with a 15 barrel system. Uh, our system, we can grow into it if we need to to add a fourth vessel to be able to speed up and do multiple turns per day. We're we're very much a production brewery. We brew uh two to three times every single week. Um, so we're brewing a lot of beer and sending it out the door and selling it.
Yeah. Give me a a rough scale of how many cans of beer go out of uh Bad Brewery in a week or a month. 15 barrels every single week. When we get our distributor pickups, they're probably picking up uh another 10 barrels uh every two weeks. How many cans go into a bar? How many cases come out of a barrel?
A a case or a a barrel is approximately 10 cases. And that would be 240 beers. Yeah. So, okay. 240 times. Okay.
You made thousands of cans of beer going out every single week and that led you guys to become the I think exclusive beer partner for Holiday World. Yeah. Craft craft beer partner. Craft beer partners. Tell me about that process. Yeah.
So, uh reached out to the good people down at uh Holiday World and uh they were in the process of starting an alcohol pro program. Um you know, just kind of exploring different avenues for revenue. That was one that you know, obviously a little bit more hesitant on. Uh they're a family-owned. Uh they were hesitant about working with you all. No, just uh bringing in the alcohol in general.
Um so that conversation was a little bit you're like, let let me tell you the the benefits of of this. And they did not come to us with uh you know, not no plans whatsoever. Let me tell you the benefits of uh being able to have uh alcohols offering at the park. You can obviously price these things so that people aren't getting into trouble uh on the rides cuz it's a it's a it's a very safe. Yeah, I was going to say I can't even remember like at most amusement parks is there alcohol? Uh it's it's growing.
Um I know that uh I think Cedar Point um and they actually have uh their own uh private label uh just like Holiday World with a brewery out there. Um but uh I mean Disneyland's had alcohol for a long time. Oh yeah. Right. What is that? Uh Epcot.
Right. You just drink around the world and it's like talk about that's not very safe. But but when we were approaching them about, you know, um uh selling alcohol in the park, they're a family-owned and operated park. Uh they're one of the oldest in in the nation, I believe. They're very familyfriendly. And how do you mix those two?
Um you you off obviously have to tow a line. We we don't sell a lot of beers that are high alcohol content there. Um we price these things so that people don't get in trouble uh over consuming. just providing something that is able to uh have more branding in people's hands that they enjoy is always valuable. Okay. So, and you guys kind of like work with them on creating private labelled beers.
So, I know that on their website, right, it says like developed with Bad Dad Brewing Company, but it's like there so like what are the beers that you guys have for them? Yeah, so we have the Bahari Blonde, which is a blonde ale. Um, we have the Plymouth IPA, uh, which is an IPA, and all these are named after different rides in the park. And then, um, the most recent one that we added last year was the Nevermore Amber Ale, um, named after the legend, which is one of my favor rides down there. We go down there quite a bit. Okay.
I say, are you do you frequent? And then they also have our friends Mom Water is there, too, which is Mom Water is based down in Ferdinand. Yes. Which is cool. I mean, I love the the crew over at Mom Water. They've created an awesome product that a lot of people didn't know was in Indiana.
So, you're helping them develop uh their style of of beer for Holiday World. That's pretty cool. Yep. U and was that like a moment where you're like, "Holy." Another one, again, we keep talking about these, "Oh man, we've made it moments." Yeah.
No, extremely blessed to be able to work with them. And uh yeah, that that was definitely one of those moments where when I got off the phone, I'm calling dad. I'm like, "Dad, guess what?" I I mean, yeah, you will never believe this. Every time I call him, he's like, "What good news you got for me?" Amen.
Right. Well, do you have other partnerships like that where you private label? Yeah, we do. And that's actually a growing uh project that we're doing this year. So, uh last year, Sycamore Hills uh up in Fort Wayne. It's a private golf club.
They did a private label with us, the the Sycamore Hills Logger. We've done another one with the Codory up in uh Cookamo. Um their logger um which that was really fun to do that one as well. We did a whole video pushing for it. the who's your logger. Huh?
Well, okay. Talk to me about that process. Like, well, if there was someone out there with, you know, maybe there's they have, you know, a decent sized following that maybe wanted to launch their own beer. Yeah. How would that process work? Already kind of done that um a couple months ago and I'm actually hearing back from golf courses.
So, I've reached out to a handful of golf courses about doing private labels and uh you know, I just sent things in the mail, made some labels that just said, you know, insert your beer here. um a little bit of placard the information on it, my business card, and uh I actually have a meeting with a golf course uh later after this. Heck yeah. So like they you work with them and they're like, you know, what's like the cost investment to get a private labelled beer up and running? Even more so than cost investment, um it's also what's the minimum amount that you can do just to see how you can try it. Um depending on the beer, it's anywhere from uh a little under $1,000 to about $1,600.
K. How many K? 20 cases. 20 cases. So, we could do a Get Indiana limited edition beer. Yeah, that was 20 cases.
But what if you don't have What about distribution? How would I get a Get Indiana beer up and running? Nate Spangles Get Indiana Hoosier something or other. I And I'm sure that there's many people that would uh that would say, "Hey, I want that in my liquor store around here." Um I I mean, I would have to ask them see what that's like, cuz I couldn't just sell it to my people. I would have to me work with you guys and then cuz I don't have You have to distribute it.
Yeah. Cuz I don't have like a license to like you can't sell it on like e-commerce. You can't People can't just buy my beer online. No, no, no. But you can give it away. You just give it away.
Yeah. Interesting. I have like a vision like that would be a really fun thing to do like a co-branded. Yeah. You know, like respond to this. Maybe if you would buy a beer that was co-branded between me and Bad Dad, maybe we maybe we rip that out in uh in 2025 or 2026.
That would be sick. And do those partnerships is super smart. Like it's fun. Does the liquid change or do you just like take the liquid that you already brew and then put their label on it? Uh some of them are like that. Uh others we've brewed just for them.
Um and you know, we have to take into account what that does for production. uh if we're not doing something that we already make and uh do a private label for them, brewing something specifically for them, it just they're gonna have to the minimum amount that they're going to have to take on is a lot more. Does that like uh affect your brand? We will brew and package this for you. Uh we will even design your label uh and if you have brand guidelines, we can uh uh take those into account. This is not in our mind, it's not a bad dad beer.
We want you to get the most value uh out of it that you can by having your branding, not bad dads all over it. Now, there are some legal um things that you have to do like uh above the surgeons general warning. Uh you need to have brewed and packaged by Bad Dad Brewing Company uh in Fairmont, Indiana because you need to know where it came from. Basically, a lot of the extent of what we have as far as our branding on it, but I mean that's more just legal disclaimers. Yeah. I I'm just thinking through from your perspective and if you're taking your liquid and putting other people's branding.
I just didn't know if that affected like you guys like the reputation and brand of I picked my partners. Ah there we go. So um when I when I mailed these out um to these golf courses uh obviously there's some synergy between dads and golf if anyone is aware of that. you know, being able to be available at golf courses um through these private labels. Um I think synergy-wise it it only helps us. Yeah, that's super cool.
What's your like dream partnership for Bad Dad? Uh can the Colts or the Pacers do one? Yeah. Uh I was going to say, yeah, that uh takes time, right? And like but just keep working through that. That would be super sick.
Like a like a father of the year Colts one. Another one I would love to do, uh, so I I I wear my hat when my hair is wet to style my hair. My favorite hat to do that with is uh the zoo up in Fort Wayne. I love the zoo and and when uh I have my little one in the next month or so, that is going to be something that we go to all the time. So Fort Wayne, they actually just rebranded. I don't I think it's no longer It was the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo.
Now it's just the Fort Wayne Zoo. Okay. So, the Fort Wayne Zoo, if you want to do a private labelled Bad Dad Brew for uh for all the Fort Wayneians up there, hit them up. Come on. We'll be at Zufari here in the next couple months. Let's go.
I love it. When you think of like the rise of canned cocktails, seltzers, RTD cocktails, all the stuff. And like even now THC infused drinks. How does craft beer in the industry continue to catch up to some of that or keep up with uh with the rapidly changing industry? We actually had a meeting with our uh distributors uh yesterday um to kind of talk about what our goals are going forward. And to be completely honest, the the industry is down.
Um it is down one because I think the craft beer industry cycle is kind of in that plateau uh going back down. But just like bell bottom jeans, um they they come back up. Beer's been around for 6,000 years, just like bell bottom jeans. Amen. Yeah. When it comes to like those competitors, uh definitely seeing some impact with that.
Uh young people just don't drink beer and it's not, you know, uh they're not drinking as much. Young people just don't do that a lot. So, it is a lot of those THC drinks. Um if it is alcohol, uh we're seeing a lot of RTDs, uh canned cocktails. Seltzers, um they had their big boom, um a few years ago. the brands that are out there now.
I think they're the ones to stick around. Um that that uh share of the of the the pie is probably established and we're experiencing that with the canned cocktails and the THC drinks and things like that. It's all about just figuring out what this new industry looks like going forward, weathering this storm right now, uh adapting to it and you know, I think we're doing pretty good job doing that. So yeah, absolutely. and you know continue to add on new partnerships and you're thinking about it in innovative ways which I think is I mean for any business owner and entrepreneur is a great way to do it. This next question is brought to you by our friends or fellowship.
They're a great organization here in Indiana helping develop young business leaders across the state. So Patrick, what advice would you give to your 22-year-old self? Be honest. If you want to spare yourself a lot of heartache working with family is really hard. But I'll tell you this. Um I have learned so much more about myself, my dad, uh being a man and you know soon to be a father working with family.
Um and that is one of the things that I really appreciate is uh my dad and I were very different people. Uh we approach things in very different ways. Um if you ever met Barry, he's he's very analytical. He always says, "I like my puzzles. I like my puzzles." And I I am a people person.
Um I do not like puzzles. I like to talk about the answer rather than find the answer. And that's one of the things like you know we had to work out uh when we work with one another. The thing that I've realized my dad is the hardest working person in the world and he is a role model of mine. Um it is someone to really emulate. He's the hardest person work working at our brewery every single day.
You know wanting the the truth working with family. If you don't want to go through those lessons and come out a better person don't do that. Yeah. You can't fire your son. Yeah. I always joke when you're not getting along with your boss.
Uh at least you don't have to go to dinner with him then. Yeah. Right. It's like you guys get in a big argument or whatever and you still got to show up at like 6 p. m. for family dinner on Thursday nights.
I mean, are there moments where it's like it's hard because you're I mean, you're business partners, but you're also father and son. Yeah. And how do you how do you manage that? All three of us uh my myself, my dad, and my brother, we all have very different skill sets. My brother is an analytical wizard. If you have him in front of people, he's not going to be the one to talk first.
Uh my dad uh he's he is a he's a good talker, but uh he he likes to create systems. He likes to work within systems. He has a very uh engineer uh oriented mind um in operations. Uh me, I don't have either one of those skills. I'm working on it. Um and that's something that they've had to teach me.
Uh but I I uh I talk to people. We stay within our lane. uh we defer to one another. Um we uh we set up those boundaries of, you know, this is where I do my job and this is where you do yours. Um and that's what you have to learn, you know, over the last eight years. And we've gotten really good at it.
So, heck yeah. I love that. Yeah. Working with family, I mean, it's part of it, but you do have extra incentives to figure out how to make it work. And I mean, you know, you kind of have to, right? I I I did want to mention I did see a fun a fun piece of uh a customer once proposed inside the brewery with a ring hidden in a beer flight.
Is that a true story? I think I did hear that but I wasn't there for it. Oh, you weren't there? All right, fair. We were doing our internet sleuththing and I was like that is awesome. If so, like imagine dropping.
I want to know if it was like in between or like actually in a beer. Like if if the ring was actually in a beer and imagine like your potential fiance almost like swallows the ring. Yeah. I I I thank God you uh you uh proposed to the the uh woman instead of the other way cuz I would have just drank the beer. Yeah. Just like slugged it down, right?
Or it's like And I mean a brewery might actually be the best place to propose cuz if you win, you celebrate. And if you win, if she says yes, you celebrate. If she says no, you just stick around and order another beer, right? Sweet. Well, we come to the lightning round where we ask some fun questions. First question for you, right?
So obviously you have a restaurant. Ron has a restaurant. Brother operates a pizzeria. That's like an award-winning pizza. Like it's been featured in Pizza Today and in Forbes. This is an insane pizza place.
Yes. So, what's the best beer food pairing? If you're going to get one of our pizzas, I would get a deep dish. I really like the Buff Chick, which is a uh a buffalo sauce, chicken, bacon, um, and ranch. Uh, it's a Detroit pan pizza deep dish. And I would pair that probably with I'll turn this car around, our hazy IPA.
The the combination between spicy and bitter IPA I think is just it's so good. That is a good that is a great not even good. Great food pairing. A little spicy buff chick pizza. All right. What's your best dad joke?
My grandpa's favorite joke that I always really appreciate. Two men are out in the woods. Uh they appro get approached by a bear. Uh one man starts taking his shoes off. The other guy says, "Why are you doing that?" He says, "I can run faster."
Says, "You think you can outrun that bear?" Says, "I don't have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you. I knew where that one was going and I was like, "Yep, dude. Taking my My grandpa would tell me that at least once a week and it was always funny." That's a good one.
Okay, talking about pizza, what is the most underrated topping for pizza? Arugula, lemon juice, and uh and mushrooms. That is called our fork green. So, arugula, lemon juice, and mushrooms. Yes. Okay.
And it's a it's a white pie with a white sauce. Oh, I can't remember what the what the um the cheese on it is. If you want to eat it and feel like you're eating really healthy, if you want to eat pizza, but feel like you're being healthy. There you go. Uh what's your favorite obscure ingredient to brew with? Ginger.
So, we were talking about the sodfather. I really like the ginger that we put into it. Made it super refreshing. Um nice and crisp. Uh we added honey and lemon to it. It was just like a Moscow.
Have you ever experimented and uh the beer just turned out horrible? Thankfully, we haven't had anything that just turned out horrible uh production-wise. We've had some like oopsy daisies where um you know, something wasn't fermenting at the right temp. Uh and when we tasted it, we were just like, "This is not what we want." And down the drain it goes. Dang.
And you just have to like eat that. It It is more expensive to build back up your reputation after a bad batch. A that's great great piece of knowledge right there. Do you ever like micro brew to test how something might taste to then before you take it all the way to production? Uh we used to so we still have our five barrel system. Um, but after a year of brewing that for like our small batch, um, and like testing things, five barrels, it just it we brew it and it goes out the door and and there's just no ability to really like figure out, um, how it's received, how well it is, or if it's something that we want to scale up.
And so, how do you decide when you're bringing a new beer to market? Like, how do you decide like, oh yeah, this is how we want it to taste. And I haven't been brewing for the last five years, and the beer's never been better. Um, so I direct correlation. Unsure. Yeah, maybe the the brewing team, I mean, they're they're much more skilled than me.
Um, they are able to craft those recipes and and uh know approximately what it's going to taste like. Now, another thing that we do is uh my my family, we uh travel quite a bit. One of the things that we have on our our cans is um we've traveled uh all over the place, uh big cities, New York, uh uh New England area, um to get inspiration and bringing those styles back. Um so what we enjoy out in the field, uh we try to replicate and uh you know, if we can uh make better. Heck yeah. I love it.
Well, these are the same three questions I ask everyone who sits in the chair. First one is, what is something the world needs to know about Indiana? lot more than just corn and and uh and fields. We have a rich culture of entertainers, obviously a fair amount. We have James Dean. He's Jimmy Dean to the people who knew him there.
Um not not to be confused with the breakfast office. Yes. But he's Jimmy there. We have a a great outdoor scene. Um, I lived in Tennessee when I was going to college, uh, in East Tennessee, and I loved hiking. And, uh, growing up here, I didn't do any hiking down in, uh, uh, Brownsburg.
Uh, great parks. Brown County. Yes. Brown County. Yeah. It's, uh, it's amazing.
And everyone comes on and, and again, it's one of those things where a lot of people know about it, but do they actually go? It's like, you got to go. Go down to Brown County, hit the trails. It's awesome. Y, what is a hidden gem in Indiana? Pays.
uh fish and chips up in Gas City. Has anyone else mentioned that? No one has mentioned it, but I just put it in the the Gas City video, but it's legit. Someone texted me about it like three weeks ago. It is the best fish and chips in the state, bar none. Um Steven uh he he uh obviously a native to the UK.
Um came here I I think because he loved James Dean, stuck around and opened up a fish and chips school. Wait, how old is Steven? In his 40s or so. and he just came to Gas City and said, you know, I'm gonna start this restaurant. And you'd be surprised by how many expats there are in Fairmont from the UK. What?
How interesting. Uh I love it. I'm I'm here for that. Uh I've heard lots of people say Pays is is legit. bangers and mash, like fish and chips, all these like, you know, traditional UK style food that you have to go get up there, which I don't know, never really looks that appetizing to me, but like I got to go do it. It's just like part of right of passage there.
They were one of the first places in uh in in Grant County that actually started pushing craft beer. Um we would go up there to get all sorts of Three Floyds when no one else even knew what it was. And he always had such great selection. and he was an early supporter of us to the point now where we even have a section on his menu that says bad dad beer made in Fairmont, Indiana. I just love that. I always I I can't sing his his praises enough.
Amazing. I love that. Well, then you get to share a little bit more of the love. This is the final question of the day. Who is a Hoosier that we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things.
I am very aware of Clayton Clark's position here in the state right now. Now she's just driving people interest into the the Indiana fever. Caitlyn Clark is legit. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And like the uptick up and to the right that she has done for women's sports, Indiana fever, Indiana in general, like there is she might be the best billboard for the state of Indiana, the city of Indianapolis, women's basketball, basketball in general, like you cannot sing enough, you cannot say enough good things about Caitlyn Clark.
Any So when we get Indiana in the headlights and people are able to come here and visit and see all the great things that we have, that's always a positive in my book. Amen. Well, hey, Patrick, thank you so much for coming on today and telling us a little bit of the story of Bad Dad Brewing Company. Uh, I'm excited to uh to be a fan and potentially, who knows, there may be a a co-branded beer in the works. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for all the hard work and and everything you guys are putting into putting helping put Fairmont on the on the map, baby.
I love it. We're still there. Come on. All right, take it easy. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of Get In.
If you like what you heard, make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at sweetwater. com. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok, Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being part of what makes the Hoosier State great.
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