NORWOOD, Ohio - The mad geniuses at MadTree Brewing have something they want you to do -- try more interesting beer.
That they happen to brew more interesting beer is just a happy coincidence.
MadTree is the beer lab (brewery) run by Kenny McNutt (The Beerded Baron), Jeff Hunt (Beer Cannoisseur), and Brady Duncan (Secretary of Beer Defense), just off Duck Creek Road, at 5164 Kennedy Ave. in Cincinnati.
The trio got their start as homebrewers and their dedication to making unique, independent beer dates back to those beginnings.
When McNutt and Hunt first got interested in brewing in 2005, they were holding a beer of the week club amongst friends. Everyone would get together each week and bring a six-pack to try different brews they were interested in.
Initially we were homebrewing, so it was What brews do you love, what brews do you enjoy? McNutt said.
Like many homebrewers, their first beer was an extract recipe. However, while many brewers continue to make extract beers for a while, Hunt and McNutt ramped up production after their first and immediately went to all-grain brewing, piecing together equipment as they could.
After about a year of brewing independently for a year, the pair met Duncan and they joined forces. The group then started to brew beer like crazy, according to McNutt. The team would try out 20- to
25-gallon batches each weekend as they perfected their recipes.All throughout this period, the trio was sneaking their homebrew in among the beers at their club meetings to see how their beers stacked up against the pros. Pretty soon they were getting good feedback from family and friends, and were even taking requests. Their first order was to brew a beer for a friends wedding.
During that time they also started writing their business plan and after 16 months of perfecting it, thought they had one that was solid. Business happens to be a specialty of the group as one of the most well-educated brewing teams in the Tri-State: McNutt and Hunt have engineering backgrounds with an MBA each and Duncan started in public relations and has an MBA in project management/IT.
From there it was on to fundraising, and while their friends and family might have enjoyed their beer, actually investing in a brewery was harder sell than just getting people to try a new brew.
The biggest glaring question was, How much have you raised so far? That moment took a while to get going, but once we really got that ball rolling -- its the laws of cumulative advantage, right? -- all of sudden we had all this momentum behind us and we exceeded by far what we planned to raise, McNutt said.
The extra money helped because they initially didnt plan to buy as big a building or have a tap room at first. Having a tap room wasnt legal when they opened but thanks to some recent changes to Ohios legal code, the tap room is packed on weekends.
The second biggest question was, Why cans? And we had a slew of statistics to throw out there, McNutt said. We truly believe in cans and what it does for product and the package. Its for the active lifestyle. We all believe that cans are going to be on the forefront of the craft beer industry at some point.
MadTree happens to be one of the only breweries in Tri-State that is canning its beer. Besides protecting the beer in what many brewers say is a better format, cans come with fringe benefits such as allowing the beer to be served in more places and being easier for people to buy and store.
We were fortunate to ride the waves of some of the big guys -- Sierra Nevada and New Belgium -- and even people like Avery -- and kind of ride their skirt tails into the market and convince Cincinnati and the Midwest that cans are the right answer. We ended up as the first can craft brew in the state of Ohio. Wait six months and youll see, Id guess, four to six more in the state of Ohio if not more, McNutt said.
Once MadTree had a facility, the brewhouse and the production line was up and running, it was time to hit the streets and get people drinking their beer. McNutt said they decided not to self-distribute even though thats allowed in Ohio.
Instead, Cavalier Distributing handles MadTrees account. Beer fans can find MadTree in just four counties right now -- Clermont, Hamilton, Butler and Warren -- but there are plans to expand into Dayton and Northern Kentucky.
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