Crafting Community: The Power of Women Supporting Women in Brewing

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios, it’s time for Women In Motion. Brought to you by WBEC-West. Join forces. Succeed together. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Women In Motion and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC-West. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Women In Motion, we have Karen Hertz, who is the Chief Brewista and Founder of Holidaily Brewing Company. Welcome.

Karen Hertz: Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Holidaily. How are you serving folks?

Karen Hertz: Holidaily is the largest gluten-free brewery in the U.S., so we make all entirely certified gluten-free beer.

Lee Kantor: So, what’s the backstory? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Karen Hertz: Really, it was a combination of my education and my work life, and then some things that happened in my personal life. I have an MBA in entrepreneurship and worked for another brewery a lot of people have heard of called Coors here in Colorado, and so I had beer industry experience. And then, I ran into my own health issues. I’m a two-time cancer survivor. I first was diagnosed with melanoma and then second was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and I had surgery and radiation for both, and then was told that I had a high gluten intolerance and I needed to cut gluten out of my diet as part of my treatment for that.

Karen Hertz: And I worked in the beer industry, and Colorado is really a huge craft beer state, so it’s a part of our social life and social fabric around here. And there were no great gluten-free beers to enjoy, and so, ultimately, came up with my own and launched Holidaily in February of 2016.

Lee Kantor: So, how did you go about kind of creating the recipe?

Karen Hertz: Part of figuring out how to make good gluten-free beer was exactly that, it was the ingredients that go into beer. So, every beer is made with grain, water, yeast, and hops. There’s just those four ingredients, and water is gluten-free and hops are gluten-free, and I can get yeast gluten-free, but grain is the real issue. So, most beers are made with barley or wheat, and we couldn’t use those grains.

Karen Hertz: And I started looking for what gluten-free grains could I use to brew with and essentially did a Google search of gluten-free grains to brew with. And in a serendipitous moment, the only company in the world that was producing gluten-free grains for brewers was about 40 miles from my front door in Colorado, another woman-owned company, and, really, they malt and roast gluten-free grains so that brewers like me can produce beer. And we source all of our grain from this company. It’s called Grouse Malt House. And what we utilize in our beer rather than barley and wheat is millet and buckwheat, which are just naturally gluten-free grains from the beginning. And then, it was just a matter of experimentation and figuring out how to make them work in beer.

Lee Kantor: So, what was that process like? Was it just kind of, you know, coming up with a recipe, trying it, and having a bunch of your friends taste it, and kind of rinse and repeat until you got something you liked?

Karen Hertz: Kind of, yeah. Exactly. I mean, first I started, I knew there were going to be some challenges with this grain. The process is very similar to traditional brewing, but the grain is unique and there were challenges. So, Colorado State University has a fermentation and science school. I went up there and did a couple practice brews with them and we tested some things out.

Karen Hertz: And then, I started brewing, really exactly to your point, in my kitchen. I hired a brewer pretty early on because I knew that I was not going to be the head brewer. My specialty, I like to say, is in selling beer and drinking beer, not brewing beer. So, I knew we needed a professional because we needed the quality of the liquid just to be the absolute best it could be. And he would brew every day in my kitchen while I was getting the brewery built.

Karen Hertz: And then, we had what we called Beer Sample Fridays, which you’ll love this. I had little kids, at the time they were, I think, around eight years old. And every Friday morning we’d come walking up the street with pictures of the different beer he had brewed in the weeks before and all the parents could try out beer and it was like 8:00 a.m. on Friday mornings. And so, it became a neighborhood tradition and that was my test panel. So, we started having Beer Sample Fridays every Friday morning and then dialed in the recipes as we liked and didn’t liked things.

Lee Kantor: But those grains are kind of at the heart of all of the beer that you brew?

Karen Hertz: Yeah. So, every beer is a combination of millet and buckwheat. Really, the difference is maybe different percentages or different roasts. So, the millet comes very, very dark coffee, you know, chocolate roasty all the way to a very, very pale, light roast and everything in between. So, we can really make any style of beer.

Lee Kantor: But the first objective was to get a quality product, but while you were building that, you had confidence you’d be able to do that, and then the equipment needed to have the company that you have is similar to all kind of microbreweries? Like you didn’t require a special equipment because of that?

Karen Hertz: We had to customize one piece of equipment. And, really, when you brew, you put water in grain, essentially, in a big pot, and then you drain it at the bottom of that pot. And what we did to customize our system is that the size of the grains are physically different than barley or wheat. And so, when you went to drain it out of the bottom, it would either go all the way through or kind of all clumped together and you were getting no liquid out. And so, I customized a screen to fit the size of grain that we were using rather than the traditional brewing screen, but otherwise it really is the same equipment.

Lee Kantor: Now, are there a lot of women that run breweries like you?

Karen Hertz: There are not. So, about 3 percent of breweries are women-owned, however we’re the only certified women-owned brewery in the country.

Lee Kantor: And did you know that going in or was this something that you discovered while you were in your journey?

Karen Hertz: I mean, I knew there were very few women-owned breweries. Fifteen percent a woman is involved, meaning it’s husband and wife or brother or sister, or whatever that might be. Three percent are majority owned by women. And I’ve been in the industry a long time, so I knew that this was very much a male dominated industry. It did not bother me or frighten me or anything. I didn’t even really think about it, to be honest. And then, I found out about the WBENC certification and that program, and I think we were probably in a year or two before I realized there was no other brewery that was women-owned certified, and that’s still the case.

Lee Kantor: Have you been able to form some sort of community with the other women-owned breweries?

Karen Hertz: Absolutely. I mean, especially here locally. But as I go places and we distribute our beer now, so we have our original taproom and then we have a production brewery here in Golden, Colorado. But we distribute now to nine states in the Western United States, so I do a lot of traveling, and when I’m there, I go find those breweries a lot. We sit down, lots of networking, great support group, and it’s some of my favorite conversations, absolutely.

Lee Kantor: It seems that just people in general that run breweries are collaborative. You know, they want to help each other, kind of collaboration at least what I’ve run into. Is that the case?

Karen Hertz: I think it’s what draws people to this industry is it is very collaborative. And people help with everything from creativity to problem solving. And it’s just such a great way to build community.

Lee Kantor: Now, are you finding that more and more brewers are kind of at least having some gluten-free product?

Karen Hertz: Yeah. So, really, what’s happening is, to your point, they have one product, it’s usually a seltzer because they can brew that on their own equipment, which there’s risk in that, too, because there can be cross-contamination. Sort of like when you see snacks produced in a facility that has peanuts, there’s always a risk of cross-contamination in a facility that has gluten in it.

Karen Hertz: What we do here in Colorado is something that’s really unique is we actually distribute to about 82 craft breweries in Colorado. And that’s because, to your point, they want to carry a gluten-free option, but they don’t know how to brew it, or they don’t want to deal with brewing it, and they are worried about the cross-contamination piece. So, rather than dealing with any of that, they carry Holidaily and we’re the gluten-free option for them.

Lee Kantor: Now, what percentage of beer drinkers are gluten-free? Is this a large group of the population?

Karen Hertz: Yeah. You know, a lot of people think, “Oh, it’s just celiac,” which is really 1 percent of the population. But over and over, research is showing about 30 percent of the population is reducing or eliminating gluten from their diet. And so, those are numbers that get people’s attention, for sure, and it seems to be growing.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you started, were people coming out of curiosity for the gluten-free angle, and then, oh wow, this tastes good too. Like that’s a bonus because, you know, not every gluten-free product is the best tasting.

Karen Hertz: Exactly. And that’s why I said, you know, the challenge for us was it had to be good because we get one chance. The expectation is that it’s going to be bad. So, it had to be good or they’re never coming back. So, high demand on very high quality was part of, really, what I came out with. But I’ll be honest, when we opened in February 2016, we were open three days a week with three beers on tap because I was like, I don’t know if people will come to an all gluten-free brewery. And by the end of the first year, we were open every day of the week. We had ten beers on tap, and I was distributing two beers out of the back of my car.

Karen Hertz: So, it turned out people did want to come and check it out and try it. And we’re the only gluten-free brewery in Colorado. So, we get people that travel from different states, all over this state. We’ve had a customer fly in with an empty suitcase, sit at the bar, load up their suitcase, fly home, because there’s just not a lot of really world-class beer options that are gluten-free.

Lee Kantor: So, what was it like kind of building out the culture of the business and your employees and your neighbors? Did you do that in a mindful way? To me, culture is one of those things you can do it proactively or not, and either way, you’re going to have a culture, so you might as well be a little proactive to build the business you want.

Karen Hertz: Yeah. I mean, I would say for me, the rewarding piece of doing this is pleasing these customers that haven’t had a beer in a long time and they are so happy. And we get full tears, hugs, everything, because they just want to have a beer and feel normal with their friends.

Karen Hertz: But in terms of the work culture, the other piece I love is actually building the work culture and making it a place where, if we’re all going to be away from our family and our friends and our pets, or whatever it may be, for 40 plus hours a week, it better be for something that we enjoy and we believe in. So, I am very intentional about our work culture and the team that we’ve built. We have core values that we really determine hiring, firing, promoting, everything on. We award people for presenting those. And so, it’s absolutely intentional and one of my favorite parts of going on this crazy adventure.

Lee Kantor: Now, how well did that MBA and entrepreneurial studies from University of Colorado prepare you for this? Did they do a good job of giving you the foundational skills you needed to execute?

Karen Hertz: The beauty of entrepreneurship is you are the master of nothing. I know a little of finance, and a little of marketing, and a little of operations, and I felt like it gave me a really great foundation in just a couple of years of each of those pieces of the business. It also informed me about just how you write a business plan and setting goals and and that piece of it. So, all of that was very, very valuable.

Karen Hertz: That being said, you only really learn how to do this by doing it. It’s just one of those things that the lessons you learn and the experiences you go through, you are not going to get in a book. But I definitely felt like I had a little bit of a leg up just in some of those foundational skills and that foundational national knowledge.

Lee Kantor: Did it help you with a network that could help you at least answer questions or give you some tips about how to handle maybe tricky situations?

Karen Hertz: A thousand percent. And I still am engaged in that network. I speak at classes. I just hired somebody from a CSU program because of it. It’s everything from other consumer packaged goods entrepreneurs to maybe, like, a connection to a buyer at a chain to investors. So, yeah, it’s been a ton of help just in terms of the network that it provided to me and that I utilized. I mean, you got to take advantage of it if you have the opportunity as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, why was it important for you to become part of the WBEC-West community?

Karen Hertz: So, I learned about WBEC-West, and, really, it was for a couple of reasons. You know, one was I knew that we were going to be packaging our products and distributing them out, and I wanted buyers to know they were investing in a women-owned brand. And getting the actual certification, I think, that logo on my packaging, it makes people feel confident that they’re doing exactly that.

Karen Hertz: Again, the network piece, WBENC has been absolutely pivotal in my networking. People I’ve met, whether it’s similar entrepreneurs to introductions to the buyer at Kroger or the buyer at Disney, so that avenue was really, really important for me. And then, the other piece about WBENC and WBEC-West, in particular, are the programs they put on. So, I did a traction program, I did a platinum supplier program, and they were some of the best courses I’ve done in my career.

Lee Kantor: So, what is next for Holidaily? Is this something that you’re looking to get distribution through retail at grocery stores, or are you partnering with more brewers around the country to get the gluten-free product on their shelves? What’s on your roadmap?

Karen Hertz: So, we’re in the nine states really here in the Western U.S., including lots of chains, grocery chains, grocery stores. And the ultimate goal is we want to be the obvious choice for gluten-free beer. You think stout, you think Guinness. You think gluten-free beer, I want you to think Holidaily. And so, that’s our ultimate goal, I like to say world domination is the goal. But getting this distributed and out to people that just want to have a beer at a sporting event or with their family is really my ultimate goal.

Lee Kantor: So, it’s possible to distribute it all over the country, you just haven’t gotten there yet? You’re just going to organically grow and expand from the states that you’re in?

Karen Hertz: Liquor distribution is very tricky and complicated. And liquor licensing is also tricky and complicated. We can ship beer to about 32 states that allow it, and then sometimes a state will allow it, but a county won’t. But on our website, people can go out and see if they can get it shipped to them. Shipping is not cheap, as we all know these days. Otherwise, it’s just in stores.

Karen Hertz: And as we want to add territories, then there’s a whole process around that where we have to get the licensing in every state individually. We have to get a distributor to carry us. A lot of time a distributor also wants a chain commitment already. So, there’s a lot of moving pieces and parts, and it’s very hard to just, you know, turn on the whole country. It really takes time and strategy in terms of doing it well.

Lee Kantor: And that’s why people show up at your taproom with suitcases.

Karen Hertz: That’s very true. Yes. That’s why Coors bootlegged across the country forever because it’s always been complicated, and it’s just not as easy as – I don’t know – bread or chips or something that’s not alcoholic. There’s a lot of hoops to jump through.

Lee Kantor: So, what do you need more of then? How can we help you? Are you looking for more contacts in the states that you’re in to carry you? Are you looking for funding, you know, maybe other people want to invest and help you grow? What do you need?

Karen Hertz: We have a couple of things going on. For us, one of our biggest challenges is just getting the word out that there’s an awesome gluten-free beer out there, and Holidaily is there to fill that gap. We just won the gold medal at the Great American Beer Fest, so the quality of the beer speaks for itself. So, really getting the word out is very important.

Karen Hertz: We’re also in the middle of a crowdfund right now. So, we just launched a crowdfund exactly three weeks ago and have raised about $700,000 in three weeks, which is it’s through StartEngine and we’re one of the top two companies on their platform right now, which is awesome and very exciting. So, if anybody’s interested in that or wants to share that with people, that would be great.

Karen Hertz: And then, I would say, yeah, I mean, the more people we know in the industry, whether it’s buyers, and it can be restaurants, it can be bars, it can be chains, liquor stores, we want to be available to people.

Lee Kantor: And if somebody wants to connect with you, is there a website or socials? What’s the best way to connect?

Karen Hertz: So, we’re on all the socials, @holidailybrew. And then, our website is www.holidailybrewing.com. And a way to remember the name is Holidaily stands for make every day a holiday or every day is a holiday. So, make the most of every single day, and that’s how you spell Holidaily, so H-O-L-I-D-A-I-L-Y.

Lee Kantor: Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Karen Hertz: Thanks so much. You, too. Thank you for promoting all these awesome women.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor, we’ll see you all next time on Women In Motion.