You’re pretty much the OG Queen of Beer in Green Bay. Can you explain a little bit about how Hinterland Brewing got started?
Bill and I were newly married and living out in San Francisco, getting our feet wet in our careers. He was working at the San Francisco Chronical and I was working at a high-tech marketing firm. He found himself in a weird position, as the Chronical was going out on strike. He had only been there for a year and a half and didn’t want to strike. He wanted to work, so he started to look through some of his homebrew magazines- he had been a homebrewer for a couple years since college- and he found a publisher in the Bay Area so he decided to pivot into the magazine industry. He got hired at American Brewer and Beer, The Magazine, and actually ended up becoming editor pretty quickly.
Then Bill realized that he really loved the science of brewing and wanted to learn more about it. We were in such close proximity to UC-Davis, and it was too good of an opportunity not to take the classes, so he went through the Master Brewer Certification program.
We both knew that if we wanted to start a business, we’d really probably need to come back to Green Bay where both of us were originally from. Everything was very expensive in northern California, and the brewery market was already well underway. We knew we would be one of the first to market here, and we knew we could make something cool.
So we moved back in 1995 and started Hinterland (in an old cheese factory in Denmark). It was just the two of us: he brewed, and I did the book-keeping, I did the marketing, I sold beer… until we were able to hire our first employee, Joe Karls, who’s still here with us as our head brewer. Yeah, it was kind of a rocky start. We were young and we were super under-funded, so we bootstrapped everything. We didn’t take a salary and lived hand-to-mouth for a long time. It was a very slow growth period- we didn’t do anything fast back then. We kind of built the business beer by beer.
What has been the most rewarding part of owning and operating Green Bay’s oldest functioning brewery?
Well, it’s been interesting. We’ve had a lot of really great people working with us over the years, which is wonderful. It’s kind of exciting to run into people in different places who are drinking your beer, wearing your merchandise, and not knowing you have anything to do with it, so it’s kind of fun to see it out in the wild. But really, it’s just been a long process of Bill and I, and our family, growing up with it. And now it’s obviously quite a bit bigger than it was in the beginning. I think the single most rewarding thing is when we moved here and built this (across from Lambeau Field). Bill got to design a brewery, and design a restaurant, and be affiliated with the Packers- that’s probably been the coolest.
What’s been the hardest part?
It’s hard to make money in brewing. It’s an incredibly capital-intensive manufacturing process. We can make great beer and have great people, but ultimately we also rely on other people to sell; wholesalers, retailers. It’s a really tough business to make it in.
Your role at Hinterland has no doubt changed numerous times over the years- what have you enjoyed doing the most?
You know, what I’m doing now is what I absolutely enjoy the most. I think I mentioned I started out selling and doing all the bookwork. I really didn’t love selling, because back 25-plus years ago, it was not the easiest place for a woman to walk into. It wasn’t the most comfortable selling environment. But I kept everything in line, did the books, did the busywork. My role now has gone completely away from all of those things. For many years I focused mostly on marketing, and just the last couple of years I’ve taken on more of a strategic role. I actually read a lot, I do a lot of corporate culture and leadership stuff, and I’m really trying to create a strategy for a people-centered business. I’m hoping that culture translates into our values, which in turn will translate into our products. Right now I’m really enjoying mixing a lot of my interests into one integral position.
What are you glad to have help with now?
The last couple of years, I was also managing parties and special events. Just in the last couple of months I’ve passed that on to one of our managers, and it’s a big relief. In 2019 we hosted hundreds and hundreds of events- we have three distinct spaces in the building. On any given week, I could have two to three a night and one or two during the day, so there were sometimes five special events a day at our busiest point, 365 days a year. We almost never close, except for some holidays. It was a grind- any incoming lead, you had to respond to it or you lose it. I’m relieved to step away from that to focus on some more strategy stuff.
That your kids have flown the nest, do you envision your role evolving over the next couple of years?
I think I’m going to continue with the strategy and culture training stuff that I’ve been doing. I may pivot and do some things outside of the business as well; I do have a lot of interests outside of Hinterland and now that my kids are grown I’ll definitely have more time. You never know! I’ll always be a part of this, but I may add some other things into my life as well.
I hear you have a big birthday coming up… anything special in the works for that?
No plans… I really want to travel again. I would love that! I have no idea… we’ll see. We’ve got the Packer season this year, so we do have some weekends in the fall we could scoot away, but nothing big.
I did ask for a beer! Kind of a woman-centered, female-centered beer. It wasn’t scheduled for the year, so the brewers have to kind of work it in for me, and so I asked it to be for my 50th birthday. I told them it can be their present to me.
Outside of the beer world, what do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I love my dog, I read a ton, I volunteer and advocate for a lot of issues in the community. I keep myself busy.
What’s your favorite beer style? What’s your favorite Hinterland beer on tap now?
I still love my IPAs- session IPAs, I love those. Definitely Citra IPA is my favorite drinking beer, but I LOVE Space Breakfast. We don’t have it on right now, but it’s one of my favorites.
Do you have a favorite beer-cation destination to recommend?
Definitely Belgium. We did an incredible beer tour in Belgium in 2019- unbelievable. I would highly recommend that tour for anyone.
Now is the hour. If there’s ever been a moment where the brewing industry is waking up, first of all to its own issues with the misogyny and harassment that’s gone on, but the industry is having a bit of an awakening. The way to help correct this moving forward has to start with the number of women in representation. If we can get more women into the brewing business, not to excuse the old guys’ club behavior, but if there’s more females actually brewing – we’re strong, assertive women – this idea of us not belonging there is just silly, and we can prove it. Representation matters. We need numbers. Beyond that, there needs to be training; sensitivity training, diversity and inclusion training, soul-searching in the industry.
But in the meantime, as a woman, now is the hour! If you want to do it, everyone I know in the brewing industry is looking for more women. There are organizations that offer scholarships for women going to brewing school so there can physically be a greater number of women with training. You don’t have to have training though, if you’re willing to start in the cellar or do some other stuff. For the first time that I can remember, the industry is saying “we desperately need more women”… I say go for it!
