Today we’d like to introduce you to Kevin Carr.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I’d travel the country as owner of a software company and saw that many cities had a growing craft beer scene. But at the time, Dallas proper did not any craft breweries. After many years of home brewing, I decided to research the viability of opening a brewery in Dallas. I visited many breweries in Colorado and Oregon, almost looking for a reason NOT to open a brewery. But I didn’t find one. So, in 2011, I began the process of opening what would have been the first production brewery in Dallas in decades. The initial location we picked fell through, which cost us a year. By the time we secured our existing location and opened our doors, the North Texas brewery scene was heating up!
We brewed our first batch in December 2012, and sold our first keg in January 2013. Growth has been straight up ever since! And along the way, we’ve won some prestigious awards, including back-to-back Gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival and a Gold medal at the World Beer Cup.
We continually focus on brewing the highest quality beers we can by using high-end ingredients, propagating our own yeast from our lab, and hiring intelligent, hard-working and friendly people.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Many people readily feel that being in the beer business has to be the greatest job ever. It is indeed fun, but it is also an extremely challenging business as well. Community Beer Co. is my 5th business I’ve started, and I can say that this one is definitely the most challenging for many reasons. This is a very capital-intensive business, and requires constant hard work and dedication from all our team to put out a consistent product while quickly growing. Also, in the beer business there are no term account contracts for draft taps or retail product placements that you can rely on to project your growth. Our sales reps are constantly working hard to ensure we keep – and grow – our tap handle placements and packaged product sales on retail shelves.
However, we are thankful to have been very well received in the market, and our dedicated team is very passionate about our beer and our company.
It all pays off when you have customers tell you how much they love your product and your brewery. And let’s face it … beer makes everything better! So there’s that!
All in, I’ve really enjoyed the experience we’ve had so far, and am grateful for the support and success we’ve had! It’s all due to our incredible team!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are an award-winning Dallas-based craft brewery, and distribute our product throughout Texas. We have a solid lineup of year-round and seasonal offerings. Mosaic IPA is one of our most popular beers due to its aromatic hop-forward profile and well-balanced finish. Texas Helles, a crisp German lager, is our fastest-growing style which easily caters to those wanting a solid sessionable beer.
Our brewers are very technical, we use high-quality ingredients in our brews, and are unique in that we have our own yeast lab where we propagate a wide range of yeasts for our brews. Most breweries use one or two yeasts strains for all their beer, regardless of style. We use 5 yeast varieties for our 4 core beers, and upwards of 12 different yeast strains across our entire portfolio. We take the extra effort and expense of such a yeast program because it allows us to not only brew our beers true to style, but also to ensure the highest quality possible with each and every one of our brews.
I am most proud of the strong response we’ve received from the market to our beers. Folks constantly compliment us on our brews. And it never gets old walking into a bar, restaurant or store across the state and seeing our beers on tap or on the shelves. The other thing I am most proud of is the people associated with our brewery. This includes our incredible staff, but also includes the folks who come to the brewery to connect with us. On any given Saturday at our Open House and Tours, I love seeing a large, diverse crowd of people having a good time with one another and enjoying our beer. Truly a slice of the community in which we live!
What were you like growing up?
I have lived most of my life in the Dallas area. As a kid, my mother and I lived in some pretty impoverished and rough neighborhoods. Add to that, my mother is deaf, and for as long as I can remember, I had to help her interpret many things and find ways to make money to provide financial support, which gave me early education on life. These things taught me the value of hard work and motivated me to improve our situation to someday live a better life.
I loved sports and played just about every sport I could. If it involved a ball and/or running, I played it! I also loved music early on, probably due to mom playing her music super loud so she could hear the vibrations! So, I saved up money to buy a guitar and a set drums, which did not please our neighbors in our apartment community!
We moved out to Irving when I was in middle school in favor of a better neighborhood. There, I continued my love of sports and played quarterback for my high school team. I guess I am still playing “quarterback” today as founder and President of Community Beer Co.!
Contact Info:
- Address: 1530 Inspiration Dr.,
Suite 200, Dallas, TX 75207 - Website: www.CommunityBeer.com
- Phone: 214-751-7921
- Email: info@communitybeer.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/communitybeerco
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/communitybeer
- Twitter: twitter.com/CommunityBeerCo
Image Credit:
Community Beer Co.
Tyler Malone
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