We recently connected with Steven Fuller and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Steven, thanks for joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

We are the only brewery in America to start at a VFW. We began at post 6461 in Fountain, CO.
We are the only Brewery in America that donates 100% of our profits each month to 14 different nonprofit charities, 9 of which are Veteran Nonprofits.
I am a lifetime member of the VFW, the American Legion, and The Retired Enlisted Association. They all have great mission statements and advocate for helping Veterans but many fall short and end up just being a dark place to drink cheap beer for older Veterans. I wanted to make a place that any Veteran of any age felt welcome, could get help, and offer training for a career path in brewing if they chose by offering free brewing classes for any Veteran or family member of a Veteran that walks in our doors. We are also a true vehicle for events/fund raisers/charities by never charging for any organization that wants to use our taproom. This is also open to active duty units who want to do a promotion party or retirement ceremony. The average cost in our area for a brewery is $250-750 an hour! We never charge a dime.

Steven, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I began brewing over 8 years ago professionally working at a couple different breweries here in town and then 4 1/2 years ago started my own brewery. 6 days before Covid… I sold literally everything I owned except my clothing and bought some used equipment to get us going. I absolutely love craft beer and everything involved in creating beer. There is always more to learn, more to try and experiment with. I have kept my ego out of the game and whenever someone asks who the “Master brewer” is I tell them I am the head brewer, I am not a master. I believe that title is for someone with 20+ years brewing and has truly become a master in their field. I want to share my love with the community, and show them that places can be better. Unfortunately there are some in the industry that use “Veteran Owned” as a tag line, and not as a means to help others. All of my staff are Veterans or direct family members of Veterans as well. We have the largest flight (sample) board in the state serving all 20 of our beers on tap at a time. We are the only brewery in Colorado Springs that serves our own in house made non alcoholic beer, and we keep 20 beers on tap at all times. Everything is made right here in the brewery and we do not use artificial flavors or syrups. Everything is all natural ingredients.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Since day one I was told by friends and others in the industry that opening a brewery with $17,000 was impossible, that doating 100% of our profits every month to charity was a unsustainable business model, that if I kept working 80-100 hours every week for free I would burn out and fail within a year. 4 1/2 years later I still work as many hours and have only ever taken 8 days off and never paid myself a dime. Last year we donated over $25,000 to the different nonprofits we work with and more already this year.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

The first winter we moved into our new location was the hardest so far, we had spent everything we had to move and expected to be open April of that year. The city inspectors for our permits drug their feet, kept changing what they wanted us to fix or change and we did not get open until October. Additional building costs, plus 5 more months then planned in operations expenses without any money coming in got us desperately close to closing before ever getting the new location open. In our area November-February are the slowest months, so only had 3 weeks of good sales once we got open before moving straight into the slow months with much less revenue coming in.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://wackadoobrewing.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wackadoobrewing/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057590043711
• Youtube: www.youtube.com@wackadoobrewing850