We were lucky to catch up with Eric Johnson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Eric , thanks for joining us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

When we formed our business plan, starting small and growing organically were always our goal. We have been producing beer for just over 4 years. Here is what our first year looked like. In August 2018 we began producing beer for the first time. We had a very small (3 barrel / ~125 gal) brewing system with 4 inexpensive plastic fermentation tanks. For the first 9 months or so of operation, we did not even have an official store front or taproom/bar. We had a handful of accounts in town that we distributed beer to while we finished building out our bar space. We also did a vast majority of the construction ourselves, as one of our partners is an extremely skilled carpenter. Our “Grand Opening” for our seating space was in June 2019. Our initial space was still, very small, and we had an occupancy of only 25 for inside seating. Luckily, for the warm months, we have considerable patio space and a large event space in our back “Atrium”. During this time we were quickly able to upgrade some of our equipment so that were were now working with professional stainless steel fermentation tanks, as well as a few other upgrades. Our first official summer with seating available as well as a few big events, was so successful that we had no problem asking for more money to finish “the rest” of our building for additional seating. So as fate were to have it…our financing for doing the expansion came through in the very earliest months of 2020.

At the time, when Covid really began to impact business, I was obviously panicked. Like I know probably all small business owners were. In the time since then, however, I have actually come to appreciate the timing of everything. Since we had already secured our financing for our expansion, what Covid actually did for our business in particular, was to force us to really focus on COMPLETING the expansion in a timely manner. We have always operated as a small crew who are a jack of many trades. Because of this, historically our construction, while done very well, took lots of time. Due to the fact that we were doing it ourselves, as well as trying to work on keeping the business running at the same time. With Covid, for Atypical Brewery, it was simply a forced pause. Which allowed us to complete our expansion in a timely manner.

That expansion, which was completed by the Spring of 2021 allowed us to celebrate our “Double One-Year Anniversary” since our actual One-Year was cancelled due to Covid. When we reopened with the expanded seating we had almost quadrupled our seating capacity. We also expanded our keg inventory in order to reach new accounts.

In the post-Covid scene, things continued to go really well for Atypical. As the brewer I was constantly feeling behind, or able to produce JUST enough beer to satisfy both our new, expanded bar seating as well as our new distribution clients. So it was, that in November of 2021 we received our “big boy” brew system. A full 7 bbl (275 gallon) as well brewing capacity that was approximately 3 times what we started at. We now had 4 full 7bbl stainless fermentation tanks, as well as several smaller 3 bbl stainless tanks.

This brings us essentially to today where we are once again looking at expanding our keg fleet as well as implementing a full canning line. Our eventual hope is to be found a most liquor stores across the state of North Dakota. So far it has been a crazy ride.

Eric , 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?

Atypical Brewery & Barrelworks is the brainchild of myself and one of the Atypical partners Nick Holwegner. Nick had experience owning a brewery prior to Atypical. At the time I was a High School Science teacher and an avid homebrewer. Through the years as a homebrewer I began to garner some recognition and win some awards. I was lovingly given the name Eric “the Sour” after my affinity for both brewing and enjoying sour beers.

Nick would host our monthly homebrewer meetings at his previous business and this is how we got to know each other. We eventually ended up collaborating on some of my recipes at this location. Nick, however, was not entirely happy at this other establishment as he ran EVERYTHING….the Kitchen, the Front of House, and was the Brewer. He was fortunate enough to find some individuals willing to take on that business to run as a brewery/restaurant. Shortly thereafter Nick approached me about opening a Brewery that did not have a restaurant/kitchen. With very little convincing needed of my wife, I decided to agree.

I actually worked as both a Teacher and Head Brewer for two years. Doing everything needed at the brewery either in the evenings or on the weekends. Eventually the brewery was going well enough I felt confident enough to give up teaching completely to focus on the brewery.

Atypical Brewery & Barrelworks itself, if you cant guess based on the name, focuses on beers that are outside of the norm. While you can still find staples like a solid IPA or Stout you can also enjoy our flagship London Fog, which is a Cream Ale with Earl Grey & Vanilla. Some of the other wild and crazy stuff we have done include things like running hot wort (unfermented beer) through the trunk of a hollowed out juniper tree, which was lined with its boughs. This was an attempt to recreate the Scandinavian beer known as Sahti. We have done spontaneous fermentations, where hot wort is allowed to cool overnight exposed to the air, and is fermented in a barrel with only the microbes that landed in it as a fermentation culture, as opposed to lab grown yeast.

However the beer that we’re proudest of, that is “out there” is our Gin & Spruce. We were gifted two gin barrels by a local distillery (Proof Artisan Distillers, Fargo ND), when we purchased some of their bourbon barrels. We decided to attempt making a beer loosely inspired by gin drinks. Well, we figured everyone knows lime goes well with gin, so we decided to add some lime zest. Next we wanted to be sure everyone knows that it is indeed a gin barrel they’re tasting, so we added extra juniper berries. Lastly we wanted an additional “herbal” quality to round everything out. The final ingredient we landed on was Spruce Tips. I actually decided to forage for the spruce tips, with the help of one of my daughters, since there are plenty to be found in our climate. So our final beer ended up consisting of this beer that had been aged in gin barrel for about 9 months. Then spent an additional 6 weeks on the Juniper, Lime Zest and Spruce Tips. The beer ended up tasting so good we felt like it had a chance to competed in some of the national an international beer competitions.

Gin & Spruce was submitted to the World Beer Cup 2022 competition in the “Experimental Wood Aged” category. This is the most prestigious competition that exists in the world of beer. The awards ceremony, as well as the corresponding Craft Brewers Conference travels around the country every time it is held. This year it happened to be in Minneapolis, and I knew it probably wouldnt ever be nearer to me. So in May 2022 I traveled to Minneapolis with friends to attend the awards ceremony. Where, out of the 11,000 entries into the competition, Gin & Spruce was chosen for the gold medal in its category. An award only given to 100 other beers out of those 11,000 entered. As a brewery that calls itself Atypical, to win gold in the “Experimental” category, was also a very affirming feat.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

One of the biggest pieces in building brand loyalty for us, I believe, is our investment in our community. We do a multitude of different things to stay closely connected to the community we live in. We do this by sourcing whatever ingredients we can, as locally as possible. Whether that be locally grown fruit, whenever possible, to partnering with a local bakery for some other fun and crazy beers. We have actually made several noteworthy beers by partnering with Prairie Sky Breads: Feast Yo Ryes was a rustic “bread beer” that we put 30 loaves of Prairie Sky Rye bread into the mash. This beer was brewed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the local Minot Chamber Choir. Another, similar, rye based beer (Ryes Above) we brewed in 2021 as a memorial to a devastating flood that Minot had suffered from a decade prior. A large portion of the downtown, as well as our own building, were affected by that flood. These things are prime examples of how I believe our heavy involvement in the community builds brand loyalty.

Some other beers that we have done partnering with members of the community:

Berried Alive – Raspberry Lemon Sour – Partnered with Midwest Murder podcast and a portion of proceeds went to local Domestic Violence Crisis Center

P-51 Pilsner & Parachute Porter – Partnered with Dakota Territory Air Museum to commemorate the 50th anniversary of D-Day. One keg of each beer was also attached to a P-51 fighter plane and flown over the brewery. This was a traditional practice where kegs were strapped under the wings of planes during the war. Flying them at high altitude for a short time, chilled the beer quickly.

Tree’s Company – Sahti style beer – This is the beer where we hollowed out a juniper trunk and lined it with the boughs. The tree was damaged and dying already. A portion of proceeds were donated to “1,000 Trees For Minot”

Fido Club – “Fit Beer” Brewed annually. Centered around a “Dog Centric” 5k. This is another big partnership that we do with Run with Heart & Sole, as well as multiple vendors, along with different animal rescue shelters. Doubles as an adoption drive.

Pink Drink – Aronia Berry Sour – Partnered with “Double-D Haw” Breast Cancer Awareness event. Portion of proceeds donated to the cause.

Because of the multitude of things we do involving the community we have recently even been nominated as “Minot’s Best Entertainment Venue”. This reinforces our belief that the best way to build the community around us is to give back.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

The biggest part of our business model was starting slow and organic growth. That definitely doesn’t mean you are immune to scraping by on money sometimes. Early on in the business I was working as a full time teacher and doing all my brewery work on the side. Even so, during the slow months during our first real “winter” open, there were some tight moments. Some of the ways we had to deal with those times were brewing more strategic beers, ones that use less costly ingredients. There were a couple times where Nick and I, as owners, skipped paying ourselves for a payroll period or two, just to make sure we could get ingredients for future batches. These are also the times where we were both the brewers and bartenders. It felt like a massive accomplishment when we hired our first official bartender and we weren’t doing it all ourselves and with our spouses and friends. Eventually our first employee became our manager as we hired other bartenders. Another year or so after that, I was finally able to quit teaching.

Don’t get me wrong, as a small business owner, nothing is ever guaranteed either. We are now looking toward the future as flood protection in the future will be affecting traffic and access to our building. This seems to be the nature of small business. But we are definitely in a better position to deal with future disturbances, having grown fairly slowly and carefully the way we have.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @atypicalbrewery
• Facebook: Atypical Brewery & Barrelworks @AtypicalBrew

Image Credits
Kellie Sink