Ralph Rapa wanted to open a small craft brewery on his terms. He wanted it to reflect his life in the American railroad industry. He wanted it to be comfortable, unpretentious and fun.

So he enlisted his longtime friend Lisa Henrie to handle marketing, HR and PR, raised some capital and shoveled coal in the engine of Rule G Brewing Company in South Florida.

After a solid start, the brewery was plagued by catastrophe after calamity. Anyone who doesn’t listen to this show would be shocked to hear what they went through. But you’ll hear many of the same tragic tribulations that other guests have shared.

Of the things that make their story unique, Ralph and Lisa faced down their troubles inside of their first year, eventually shutting down just in time to enjoy Easter with a little peace.

Ralph and Lisa both have a full bucket of emotions around their experience fighting to open, run and eventually attempting to save a craft brewery in 2024/2025. And thanks to them sharing THAT story we’re all about to know a little more about how NOT to start a DAMN brewery.

Doug Martin is a guy who has just about done it all.

From working in beer in Germany to opening a brewery in California to pivoting to non-alcohol products, he’s followed many of the playbooks that the craft beer talking heads are claiming will save your business.

But he’s on this show because the many beer-related businesses and non-beer production businesses he had his hands in have all closed down.

Doug has a wealth of experience to share with us about what he tried, why it didn’t work and what he thinks that says about the future of craft beer.

And he was generous enough to share all of what he’s seen and what he knows with us so we’ll know, How NOT To Start a Damn Brewery.

Sam and Sara Kazmer brought great craft beer to a market they felt was underserved - Atlanta, Georgia when they flipped on the lights at Elsewhere Brewing in 2020.

They wanted to produce award-winning beer in a unique, community-event driven taproom. They wanted to create space, community and memories for themselves and every customer that shared in their dream. And, as we’ll hear in the 4th segment, they were successful.

The whole project was an amalgamation of the experiences they had researching craft beer while traveling the world. Drinking, tasting, connecting and experiencing beer when it’s more than beer in other countries and continents.

In the 3rd segment we’re joined by 6 month-old Sofie as she woke up from her nap. And that’s about the time we really get into the struggles they faced at elsewhere Brewing.

As their fan starts to really fill up with shit, Sam and Sara knew that they needed to throw a Hail Mary pass quickly. So in the Spring of 2024 they hired a new ops manager, built a team and a strategy around her and did everything they could to rally the ATL community around the beer and the vision of Elsewhere Brewing. They set a July deadline for profitability and as you may have guessed, they are a guest on this podcast because it didn’t work.

We learn a couple of handfuls of lessons in this episode, including whether you can change the culture of your community/city/region around how, why and how often they enjoy craft beer as part of a healthy lifestyle. To do or do not to do in regards to having a restaurant in your brewery. The management of multiple tasting rooms. And why you can’t find someone to do the owner’s job for 20K/year.

This was a moving episode and a special one for me. So open up your hearts and ears and maybe you’ll learn something about How NOT To Start A Damn Brewery.

You can reach the Kazmers at

Sarakazmer26@gmail.com

Samkazmer@gmail.com