Bewilder Brewing Interview
Bewilderbrewing.com
IG: @bewilderbeer
Bewilder Brewing, the brainchild of Cody McKendrick and Ross Metzger, is one of the newest breweries to hit the scene in Utah coming online right at the beginning of 2020. Located at 445 South 400 West, they’re perfectly situated downtown to grab a beer after work, before a Jazz game, or meeting friends for a night out. The pair is also responsible for two Salt City Brew Supply stores occupying Midvale and Ogden.
We got a few minutes with Cody to sit down and have a beer to find out how things are going and what makes Bewilder special. If you’re already downtown looking for a beer, or just looking for a new place to visit that has plenty of space to socially distance, go check ‘em out. Beyond just supporting local businesses, you’ll be supporting great people who are passionate about their product.
Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune
Chris: So what’s the origin story of the beWilder name?
Cody: I wish we had a cool origin story. We were originally toying with a couple of different names and we had an art concept built around a different name. After some searching on that name, we found there was a beer that's regionally distributed that there was some crossover with, so we reached out to that brewery and they were not on board with us using it. So we had to change, and “Be Wilder” or “bewilder” kind of fit with the artwork we had already prepared, so we spent the next month passing it around with a few other different ideas. We kind of kept coming back to bewilder and how it has an open-ended meaning. It can be, you know, intentionally non-cohesive. So down the road, if you want to do something that seems to be off-brand, it can be a little bewildering why we would do that, but it kind of goes with it. And then over time if we start releasing spontaneously fermented, or wild beer, or sour beers, you know, we can kind of brand that as the “be wilder” line.
Chris: What came first, Salt City Brewing or Bewilder?
Cody: Salt City Brew supply came first, but it was always kind of meant to be a stepping stone for other things. The idea was, if we can get a business off the ground that allows us to step aside a little bit and have some time to focus on, you know, building other verticals or other types of businesses like a brewery, we'd be able to do that.
What we didn't expect is the home brewing industry to be growing so rapidly, so the brew shops grew way faster than we expected them to grow. We kind of rode the wave and put opening a brewery on the back burner, and as the home brewing industry plateaued, we found ourselves with some time. And really, it was the best opportunity for us to take that time and try and get something else going. I first went to the Craft Brewing Conference and then the Siebel Institute for brewing school in 2013. So we didn't really start kicking the tires here until probably late 2017 early 2018 when we started putting the pedal to the metal a little bit.
Chris: So what made you settle on this location for Bewilder?
Cody: We originally wanted to put the brewery next door to our brew shop in Midvale and even had a letter of intent for the space, then almost literally the same day that we were supposed to sign the paperwork, a bigger fish came in and essentially bought the entire building out from under us.
So at that point, we went from looking at places in Midvale to seeing what else is out there. Browsing around commercial real estate listings, I stumbled upon this building. It almost seemed too good to be true. It wasn't terribly expensive, it was bigger than we wanted, but the cost per square footage wasn't crazy. It had parking, it had a pre-existing kitchen, and a lot of stuff going for it. We put a lot of money into renovating the space to get it to where it is today. We wanted to make sure it fit the image of what we wanted our brewery to look like. Being downtown has a lot of advantages, and we hope that as we move past COVID, this will be a space that people gravitate to after work or before a Jazz game.
Chris: What is the hardest part of doing business during COVID?
Cody: Mainly, we all have to wear way more hats and work way more hours. The extra restrictions as far as sanitation aren't that different from what a restaurant or brewery does anyways. We have to sanitize tables and glassware anyway, and in a brewery, everything has to be sanitized and sterile essentially. Now it has to be a little more documented and more visible to people.
But it's just tough being downtown right now. You have to give people a reason to come downtown and without any conventions, tourism, jazz games, plays, ballets or any of that stuff going on downtown, it's not as busy as we would like it.
Chris: After a long day at the brewery, whats your go-to drink?
Cody: Most of the time I’m just too exhausted, but generally I drink a lot of Pils from the brewery. I like to bring home the Kolsch or ESB to enjoy. If I’m feeling like a stronger drink, a couple fingers of whiskey is real nice.
Chris: What is your favorite spirit-based drink?
Cody: Generally I like bourbons. I've never got real into the smokier whiskeys, and the sour mashed stuff, or scotch. I like Irish whiskies, I like bourbons, those are kind of my go-to. I'm not much of a cocktail maker, but you know, I don't mind a Moscow Mule here and there. My wife loves vodka tonics, so we would drink a lot of vodka tonics.
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Chris: What's something unique about BeWilder you think the public doesn't know?
Cody: Theres a lot about us that we think is unique, but the thing I'm most proud of is our connection to the brewing community. Having been in the home brewing world for the last 10 years, we know so many different people that are really passionate about beer. As consumers, home brewers, beer judges, and commercial brewers, we just know a lot of people in the community and I think that's probably our biggest advantage — just having that tie into the community.
Chris: If I was a first time customer, what beer would you recommend I try?
Cody: Ah, I love the German style Kolsch and the English Strong Bitter (the ESB). You know, those are both beers that are really highly drinkable. The Kolschs are super light — they showcase a very specific type of German malt and yeast and it just has a unique profile. It has kind of a white bread honey maltiness to it and it's just so easy to drink. The ESB is called a strong bitter, but it's neither strong or very bitter. It's very balanced, and pairs well with spicy food. Both those beers are beers you can sit around the table with your friends with. Ultimately beer should be something that brings people together.
Chris: Speaking of bringing people together, what events do you have coming up at BeWilder that you want people to know about?
Cody: We have Oktoberfest coming up from September 19th - 28th. We're going to have our Munich style fest-beer, we'll have our Schwartz beer, it's a German black lager, a Kolsch, and we're going to have a guest tap from Bohemian doing their Martzen Oktoberfest beer. We'll have a refrigerated cart to put on our patio out front to do beers out there. We'll have not only our main space of about 5,000 square feet of pub space, but we have two patios. We should be able to get quite a few people in here enjoying the beers and be able to continue to have some distance between other people. Plenty of space to social distance so people are comfortable.
We're going to discontinue our entire menu for that period, and have a completely German menu. We’ll have six different German sausages prepared and presented in the traditional way and we’ll have pork knuckle. In the morning on Saturday, we'll have traditional German pastries for people to enjoy so that'll be a lot of fun.
We did also just get approval to have what they call type five package license, so we can sell higher alcohol styles to go. We don't have a bar license yet, so they'll have to be taken to enjoy at home but probably in the next four to six weeks we'll start to roll that out. The plan is at least one a month of a higher alcohol can release that people will be able to come and get to go.
Find out more about Bewilder Brewing by checking out their website and Instagram. While you’re at it, be sure to follow Simplicity on Facebook and Instagram. Stay in the loop and get first notice of new products and the progression of our new location (The Lab) by signing up for our email newsletter today.
