Today we’d like to introduce you to Kyle Jones.
LauderAle has gone from a five-gallon bucket to a must-visit treasure, celebrated in Fort Lauderdale and all over South Florida. LauderAle took home a gold medal at the 2016 Best Florida Beer Championships, and a silver medal at the 2017 event. What an adventure that started from a conversation between friends.
Just like every great idea, LauderAle was conceived between buddies over a few beers. Owners Joey Farrell and Kyle stumbled upon this idea one night at a local craft beer bar. While bantering about possible inventions and other business ideas, the one that stuck was how fun and adventurous it would be to own a brewery.
The only problem was they were rookies at brewing beer. At the time, Kyle was a ten-year veteran of the residential real estate game, and Joey was, and still is, a naval architect, working for Resolve Marine, a maritime salvage, and emergency solution group. The backstory of the boys is steeped in South Florida and the sea, something their beer carries over naturally.
Now that they had this risky idea they had to come up with a name. How could they combine where they are from with the bold, new endeavor? Ft. Lauderdale and beer. LauderAle came like a speedboat and just seemed too good to pass up. The hard part is remembering who came up with it. To this day, Kyle and Joey still argue over who came up with the name.
The day after their epiphanic discussion, they ordered a 5 gallon home brew kit. They started brewing on a stovetop oven in Kyle’s apartment. After months of testing and sharing with friends and family, they moved into a garage and upped the ante to a 15 gallon, an all-grain system that they custom built themselves. The new system seemed high tech compared to the stovetop one. It included a digital control panel that allowed them to control temperatures and pumps from a smart device.
Kyle and Joey kept experimenting, refining their recipes, the demand growth within their circle and community. They moved their brewing system into a 3,200 SF warehouse in a small industrial district between Port Everglades and the FPL plant, which seemed like the perfect location for a couple of Ft. Lauderdale natives. Now, three years after opening, they are going stronger than ever, having just upgraded the brewhouse to 3 barrels allowing them to produce roughly 1,000+ barrels annually.
The LauderAle taproom, with its reclaimed wood and recycled materials, plays host to more events than almost any other brewery, from yoga and brunch to live music of all genres, full moon parties with fire-breathing dancers and much more.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Things are only smooth temporarily. Running a small business is like mother nature. Sometimes it’s raining and sometimes the sun is out, sometimes it’s cold and sometimes it’s hot, the tide is high but eventually it will be low only to rise again. The struggle is real and for us, it’s always been about managing the growth.
We’re constantly faced with obstacles and bottlenecks so we have to make decisions about equipment purchase, renovations, people, capital, strategy, etc. We’ve never done this before so we’re constantly learning and trying to make the best decisions and steer the ship into calm waters and blue skies.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about LauderAle Brewery & Tap Room – what should we know?
Established in January 2013, LauderAle is a small batch, an electric fired brewery located just outside of Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Founded by proud Fort Lauderdale natives, LauderAle was the first nano brewery in Southeast Florida. We pride ourselves in cultivating authentic ales centered around local culture and influence. Our beers range in a wide variety of rotating styles from Blondes to Imperial Stouts, along with seasonal and special releases.
For such a small brewery we have a surprisingly large variety of really great beer. We’ve developed proprietary software that facilitates our decisions us with inventory management and operations with very little thought or effort. Without this software, we wouldn’t be the brewery we are today. Besides the variety and software and most importantly people come here for two reasons. First is for the beer and second is for the atmosphere.
I am most proud of creating a community. LauderAle has acted as a meeting place for so many people during good times and bad. Let’s be honest, the world can be scary at times and everyone needs a place to kick back and relax. People come to LauderAle to get away from the norm which has created a really great demographic of people. Everyone gets along, new friendships from here, lifelong relationships are made and that’s why people come back.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
As far as the community and culture of our Tap Room goes, everyone that comes through this places leaves something behind. From the customers to our employees, everyone contributes. On the business side, no one deserves more credit than the Farrell’s. At one point we were brewing in their garage so they frequently saw all the hard work and passion we had for creating something unique and fun.
At the time they had a derelict warehouse that they were thinking about tearing down which is now our current home. Without the opportunity to utilize this property and all their additional help along we’d be a different company, heck it’s possible that we wouldn’t even exist anymore because this business isn’t easy. We’re very fortunate to have them on our side.
Alex Postelnek used to be a brewer at some of the most notable breweries around. When we met he saw all of our new brewing equipment sitting around the tap room and he asked what we were planning on doing with it and how we had planned to install it. We had no clue and asked for his help.
LauderAle was his first consulting job in 2015 and he’s since built and installed over two dozen breweries around the world. Alex is one of the smartest guys I know when it comes to brewing and has taught us so much, We remain friends to this day and have recommended him to other startup breweries.
Right now we’ve got one of the best, the hardest working crew’s in the industry and without them, we’d be dead in the water. At the end of the day, it’s all about the people and we’re really fortunate that we’re surrounded by such a great staff.
So we’ve got the Farrell’s, Alex and our staff. If we didn’t have customers this wouldn’t be possible so I’ve got to really give them a lot of credit. We’re hard to find and we don’t have air conditioning so getting here and staying may be difficult for some people. For those who chose the path less traveled, we are truly grateful for.
Pricing:
- Beers range from $5-$8
Contact Info:
- Address: 3305 SE 14th Ave Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316
- Website: www.lauderale.co
- Phone: 954-653-9711
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauderale
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lauderale
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lauder_ale
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/lauderale-fort-lauderdale
Image Credit:
Jason Lazarus @lazarusfilms, AR Design
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