We recently connected with Ryan Sather and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ryan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

The idea started when the homebrewing hobby we picked up turned into an obsession. My best friend and I got into homebrewing around the same time, and quickly turned the hobby into a full time passion. We joined a homebrew club, started entering competitions, and left our jobs for entry level positions at local breweries. Once we realized we wanted to open a brewery, we began writing a business plan and researching all the challenges that went into such an endeavor. Writing that business plan really helped bring the idea to life. It allowed us to analyze a lot of facets and avoid pitfalls that might have kept the business from ever getting off the ground. For example you can’t apply for a TTB license until you have a signed lease, but you can’t brew a beer until you have a TTB license. It was an 8 month turn around on average to get that license, so we knew we had to factor in a least a year of eating rent before we could produce a single product to sell. It took a year to forge that business plan into something cohesive, a year to find the right location and get funding, and a year to get all the licensing and do the build out. So three years from inception, we forged our dream into reality and BattleMage Brewing opened to the public in May of 2017.

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 name is Ryan Sather and I opened BattleMage Brewing with my best friend Chris Barry in May of 2017. We have been best friends for over 25 years and grew up playing video games and sharing a lot of the same nerdy hobbies. We started as homebrewers and when we decided to open a brewery we knew we wanted it to have a theme that resonated with who we were. Medieval modern wasn’t a theme you really saw in the 170+ craft breweries in San Diego, but it described us well.

We brew a variety of beer styles, and provide an environment where people can share adventures amongst friends and a few pints. One of the things that sets us apart is our diversity of styles and unique theme. We try to have a good spread of light, malty, and hoppy beers, because we like variety and we want something for everyone. It also allows us to flex our creative juices because we can be constantly learning and trying new things to create the best product and experience for our customers.

We have a group of friends that run an in house DnD campaign that has over 200+ people on the discord. I think over the years we have helped provide a space where a unique community has come together to share passions and pints that’s a little different than just your standard bar.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Every industry was affected by covid, but bars and restaurants took a massive blow. Our business model was primarily sales out of our tasting room, and all of a sudden we had to close that storefront. We didn’t have a big distribution model, and our online sales were minimal. It triggered a fight or flight response and we completely pivoted the business to be 100% distribution through cans. We stockpiled an army of aluminum, started shipping cases throughout the state, and opened the tasting room 3 days a week for pickup at the door of online orders. We filled those cans 1 single can at a time until we eventually got a nano canning machine.

It was endearing to see how many customers shifted with us. People chose in that time which businesses they wanted to see survive this thing, and our customers bought enough cans to keep us afloat.

We came out the other end with the business intact, and one step closer to being able to supply retail accounts with cans. You can now find our cans in Total Wine and Whole Foods and more stores soon to come.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The first beer we ever entered in a competition as homebrewers got a horrible score. They pointed out multiple flaws stylistically and during the execution of the brewing process. No one is innately amazing at brewing though, like anything else, practice is the master of all things. Taking that feedback from the competition and honing in that recipe over the years, that same beer won gold at World Beer Cup last year. World Beer Cup for reference is the largest competition in the world and had over 10,000 entries from breweries in 52 countries this last year. When you get negative feedback don’t just give up, use it to learn and grow.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: battlemage_brewing
• Facebook: Battlemage Brewing Company
• Other: Our medieval modern castle (tasting room and production facility) is located at: 2870 Scott Street, Suite#102 Vista, CA 92081

Image Credits
Ryan Sather Chris Barry