We recently connected with Teddy Benson and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Teddy, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

The Grain Shed was founded by four of us in Spokane, Washington. My brother-in-law, Joel Williamson, and I had been homebrewing since 2010. In 2015, Joel started a malt house in Spokane Valley, Washington called LINC Malt. LINC allowed us something we hadn’t ever experienced before – using locally grown and processed malt to brew beer. It changed everything for us.

Simultaneously, we met our baker, Shaun Thompson Duffy, who was looking to start his own woodfire baked, stone mill produced sourdough. His bread was, and still is, nothing short of incredible. Not only is his bread amazing, but the quality of sourcing and treatment of ingredients is unparalleled. Utilizing locally grown grains of unique variety that have the highest quality makes for bread that reflects the care.

We all met Don Scheuerman, our fourth founder, who is a grain farmer down between St. John and Endicott, Washington around the same time. His dedication to growing “Landrace” grains with unique heritage and history, that also thankfully have incredible flavor and characteristics in baking and brewing.

All of us together had the drive and opportunity to put our interests and passion together into one shared business.

The idea that it was so difficult to access locally produced grains, when we grow in one of the worlds most fertile grain growing regions didn’t sit right with any of us. The percentage of grain grown in the Palouse that is exported overseas is astronomical, so we have set out with the goal to access these incredible grains and connect them directly into products consumers love to consume.

The other major differentiating aspect of our business is that we are a worker owned cooperative. Focusing on empowering workers to take both literal and figurative ownership of their work has been part of our mission since the beginning, and has lead to us having more than 10 worker owners as of September 2024, with more on the way.

Here we are 6 years later.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Teddy Benson, and I am the Brewer-Owner of The Grain Shed in Spokane, Washington. I came in to the food and beverage industry from a career in public education as an Elementary School Teacher. The opportunity to work in a different field and build out a business with friends and family was something I was immediately interested in doing. Now, six years later, I am still doing that work.

The Grain Shed has become something challenging, but extremely rewarding. Not only building a sustainable business, but a business focused on global, environmental sustainability makes this even more interesting. The business landscape is perpetually changing, and working in the food and beverage industry comes with constant challenge that requires us to be agile in how we operate the business, which makes things exciting all of the time. Whether we are figuring out how to scale growth safely and appropriately, or how to clearly communicate our message and values to the larger community we work within, it requires us to work jointly as a team while also taking on tasks independently. It is a fun balance.

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

COVID is the perfect illustration of a pivot in the food and beverage industry. When COVID hit in the spring of 2020, we were terrified, just like everyone else. As COVID fears were rising, we started to develop contingency plans. Almost overnight, when the shutdown order happened, we went from an entirely in person business, to an entirely online and phone based business, in an industry where that is weird. No one wants to order bread and beer over the phone or via the internet.

But, we were able to take stock of what we had, our space, and be able to develop something awesome. With several staff members who are extremely talented food minds, we were able to not only offer our normal baked goods, but packaged meals, side dishes, and grocery style items. We started selling local farm fresh eggs, locally produced cheeses, and many other items that people were struggling to access through the more standard pathways. As the world was dealing with globalizations shortcomings, we were able to keep our small corner of the world stocked through local producers, which was pretty awesome. We managed business in that way for well over a year, not only keeping the lights on, but keeping people employed, and maintaining profitability through the hardest portion of our businesses life to that point.

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

We have a few different things that we do to help stay in touch with our clients and keep brand loyalty.

More traditionally, and what most will expect to hear, we are very involved with our social media platforms. Instagram and Facebook are backed up by a significant emailing list that we started during COVID and continue to use to this day.

More importantly, we have prided ourselves in being an extremely community centered business. We are tucked into a neighborhood in Spokane called the Perry Neighborhood. Our neighbors have floated us through our entire existence as a business, and we do everything we can to know our neighbors. Whether that means we do big things like making donations to local charities or fundraisers, or doing simple things like ensuring people don’t park in the bus stop so our wheelchair bound neighbors are able to safely get on and off of the bus, we look to help those who have perpetually helped and supported us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thegrainshed.coop
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegrainshed/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegrainshed.coop/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-grain-shed-spokane

Image Credits

I am the photographer for all of these photos.