Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Carly Brango . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Carly , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

Being PA natives, we have family and friends who cannot physically support our business often. Although we have made local friends, and customers who have become great family/friends, we are constantly asked how our loved ones back home can support us. We simply ask them to spread the word, interact with our social media posts, and when they do get to come down and visit share their experience (and maybe beer) with their friends/family back home too!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My Husband Nick and I started home brewing in College, and took a leap of faith in opening a brewery in NC. We loved being able to create something of our own for others (and ourselves) to enjoy! Our industry is booming with tons of great breweries, but we felt we had something great to add to the area. We specialize in Flavor forward ales and lagers, our specialty being in Hazy IPAs and Smoothie Sours.
I would say we are most proud of adapting to the worldwide pandemic, and coming out stronger than ever. We started as a husband and wife duo working endless hours, to now a mom and pop brewery producing some of Raleigh’s finest brews!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

We have always been a small operation, tailored to creating fun, unique, popular styles of beer. After our rebrand, we quickly gained traction for our two popular styles- Hazy IPAs and Smoothie Sours. Not many people in the area were doing them- at least didn’t have quite the selection we had. At most times we have 16 taps stacked with those styles, which (most) people love! That alone got people in the door, who then learned we made other styles like lagers, Germans, and stouts. We also have beer integrity whereas we will not release a beer we don’t enjoy ourselves. We take our jobs very seriously in providing you the best quality product we can make! If a beer does not fit that standard, we will pull it back and make it right, no matter the cost.
Our reputation is everything to us, and we want to provide nothing but the finest brews we can make!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

As most small businesses had experienced, the pandemic was a trying time, and at times it still is! Shortly before the worldwide pandemic hit, we rebranded with a new logo and artwork. Lucky for us, we already had packaging in cans in motion for 2020. As our rebrand really elevated our brand and we gained traction- BOOM- the shutdowns begin.
We went in full panic mode, how would we survive? We were ready to add more employees to our team, but was it worth it to potentially lay them off? There was so many questions and not enough answers. Nick and I buckled down, powered through and adapted to the new changes the pandemic put on the world. We started with every batch went to cans, then as taprooms opened up we slowly added draft back into the mix. It was a constant run around of spending money to make money, but we were grateful for the opportunity to pivot our business plan, and ESPECIALLY grateful for the outpouring of love and support from our locals and regulars.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://funguysbrewing.com/
• Instagram: funguysbrewing
• Facebook: Funguys Brewing

Image Credits
NAP Media (for some wan which ones)