Craft Beer Has Soul

Clay started brewing in 1999, and in 2005 met and started brewing with Dave, who would end up being the other co-founder of Sun King. Because Clay has been brewing for about 20 years, he has witnessed the growth of craft beer in Indiana.

“20 years ago, there were probably 15 breweries in the entire state? And back then, pretty much everyone knew everyone. And when we started in 2009, it was the turning point for Indiana.”

Craft beer in the country has seen an explosion in the last decade. He describes to me how, back then, there were about 2,400 breweries in the country. By 2020, he estimates, there will be about 10,000.

“Historically, with beer in America, pre-prohibition Indiana had a large number of breweries, and beer was the preferred beverage of most people. We just drank a lot more beer at the turn of the 19th century than we do today.”

“I talked to a marketing group today, and somebody asked about the climate, and he described it as ‘co-opitition’ which means we’re pretty cooperative as a group, but we all happen to be in competition with each other.”

“Craft beer culture as a whole has definitely expanded. There are more people into craft beer. When we opened this brewery, we pretty much assumed our taproom would be what had already been our fan base: guys in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, most of them balding or bearded.”

But that wasn’t exactly the case for Sun King. Having opened in a downtown location, he describes to me, they saw a lot of diversity.

“And not just gender, but age and ethnicity. Just all various walks of life. And it’s just interesting. I think craft beer has become a lot broader mix of people, particularly in the last 10 years. I’m continually amazed, because people get so excited about beer and brewing, and new breweries and new beer.”

“The industry itself is still really collaborative, and we all tend to get along fairly well. That’s a pretty unique element. But we all do something different than way the rest of the world does. We are makers, and we make a product. It’s a fun industry.”

“Our goal from the beginning was to make really well balanced, very accessible beers. There are a lot of breweries who they want everything to be in your face. We have a very broad palette of beers that we make, and I think that draws to having a more diverse audience.”

“It’s actually something that gets talked about in the industry. There’s a whole untapped audience, and we want to reach out.”

“We strive to be inclusive because we want to encourage a broader community.”

And that’s something that has seemed to strike a chord with Clay. He tells me how important community development and involvement has been to their company, and how they’ve made it a keystone to be involved in all types of community events — across all religions, ethnicities, and sexualities.

“When the whole RFRA thing came out, we made our pride t-shirts. We wear proudly that we feel like people are people, and we don’t care who you love. We want to be open and inclusive. We had people through Facebook and Instagram and they were like, ‘I’m never coming to Sun King again!’, and it’s like, well great, that’s one less close-minded asshole that we have to deal with.”

“Breweries tend to be cultural centers in general.”

Clay describes how overall, breweries tend to have a culture, attitude, and identity, that emulates out of the people that work there.

“All of the different breweries have their various different personalities. So I don’t know that all of craft beer is open and inclusive because the world just isn’t like that. But there is a broader base of people in the craft beer industry, and craft beer lovers, who are very open and inclusive.”

But on the other side of things, Clay explains to be that there is this perception in craft beer where breweries have atmospheres that are not necessarily accessible to some people. And sometimes it’s just that people aren’t used to beer being at a certain elevation, but Sun King makes the attempt the make beer that anyone can drink as well as beers that are more unique.

“I don’t really know how to market or break down those barriers, because some people have walls that are just really hard to break down.”

He brings up community again-- where bridging the gap into the community can be really helpful in getting non-craft beer drinkers. That just by having someone at community events who is willing to take them time to talk to someone about what they like or dislike can make the difference.

“I’ve said THIS for years: craft beer has soul.”