Our Inspirations
The story of Limitless Brewing didn't come by accident. We learned so many lessons along the way. These are just some of our inspirations.
Chris Bayne, Bayne Brewing
Here is the Q&A with Chris and why he inspired us.
Last October, I visited Bayne Brewing in Cornelius, NC. I was on my own personal brewery tour of the area and just stopped in for a beer. The owner was working the tap room that afternoon, and then his sister came for the evening shift. Chris was one of the most customer-focused people I had run into on the trip. He knew everyone that walked in the door by name. My wife loved the Hefeweizen, but being the responsible drinker that she is (ha), she asked if she could just have half a beer. He obliged, but then told us the story about the reason that he even serves half beers. Of course, at first, you have your mind made up about how your brewery is going to operate and he was set against offering half beers. Unfortunately, on opening night, his mom (not a beer drinker) asked for half a beer and are you really going to tell your mom no? So he has been serving them ever since.
While we were there watching the Royals in the playoffs, Chris made us feel right at home in his space and that is everything he was going for. After leaving and even three months later, it was one of those places I just couldn’t get out of my head. So I asked Chris to do a remote interview and he was happy to.
G&S: How did a hobby that you started to kill time turn into a passion to open a brewery?
CB: From the first time that I drank one of my homebrews, my desire to open a brewery was there. For me, the more I brewed, the more I realized that I should stop doing what I didn’t enjoy, which was working in the corporate world, and do what I loved.
G&S: What was the moment you knew to start your own brewery?
CB: I had been kicking the idea around for a while, but the real catalyst that helped me jump was my day job. I performed really well and saved them millions of dollars, and at the end of the year I got a raise that didn’t even cover the increase of insurance cost. That gave me the incentive and the guts to finally say that it was time for a change.
G&S: It seems like you have been strategic with your process, you got a degree with a focus on entrepreneurship before opening. How do you feel that helped you in the actual opening or running of the brewery?
CB: Taking those classes helped provide me with a foundation of knowledge to help me understand some of the processes that would be necessary to get the business off of the ground. I definitely think it was helpful doing that in advance and it also gave me some fundamental skills that have been critical in practice.
G&S: The first six weeks, you kept your day job. Even though you were getting ready to have a child, you decided to go all in, what was the driving force behind that?
CB: As much as I love this company, it’s never going to be on the level of the love of my family. It became apparent that there wasn’t going to be a way for me to work 100 plus hours a week and still be a good father and husband for my family. I had to make some sacrifices in order to better balance my work and my family life.
G&S: One of the advantages you possess is that you planned on taking advantage of the flexibility that a small business has. How have you succeeded in doing this?
CB: I think that we have been able to be more flexible in some ways, and not so much in others. Being small allowed us to brew over 20 different flavors in the first year of business. It’s allowed me to test and retest certain things without the fear of losing our shirt in the process. It’s also allowed us to be more customer friendly. In our taproom we’ve been able to host private events, where we’ve opened on days that we’re normally closed, to host things like fantasy football drafts and corporate meetings. From a distribution standpoint, we are able to get customers just by being able to deliver beer quickly. We have a customer that carries us on 3 of their 6 lines because I’ll deliver to them same day. That kind of flexibility helps set us apart.
G&S: Bigger isn’t always better you say, you are most likely going to see you in the brewery. Do you feel that is still true?
CB: For us, I’m always around. Most people know that we’re family owned and the majority of the time someone from our family will be there. I think that our customers appreciate our passion for what we do and that we are smaller. People want to see everyday people do well and succeed.
G&S: In which ways do you feel that you have been able to be more successful than a larger brewery?
CB: For many of the larger breweries, it can be very sterile. Every company is obviously different, but many times, there isn’t a face or a name to it. It’s just the higher ups making corporate decisions.
G&S: The customer experience is huge for you, at least it seems. Do you still feel that your passion shines through after a year of being in business?
CB: I think it does. We’re always looking for ways to create a fun environment for our customers while they enjoy our beer. We’ve done things like add wine to our menu for those that aren’t interested in beer but might be with someone that is. We do family friendly events where we bring in face painters or bounce houses or balloon twisters. We had Santa Clause come in for one of our events. I think that our customers appreciate that we’re trying to be fun and creative and that we’re not leaving their kids out of the mix.
G&S: Is it just up to you to determine the style of beer to brew?
CB: I would like to say that the brew style is up to me, but I would say that it’s even more dictated by our customers. There have been plenty of instances where a beer style just started selling really well, and that has forced me to change my production schedule to stay in line with what our customers want.
G&S: You had planned on brewing 30 different beers the first year, did you succeed in doing this?
CB: We weren’t able to brew that many different styles, unfortunately. For me, that was a down side. The upside is that I wasn’t able to because of our growing wholesale business. I’ve had to try and balance the launching of new flavors of beer with the demand for particular staple flavors. Not necessarily a bad problem, though.
GS: You have had multiple family style events, as well as yoga, runs and other events. What do you feel has the most impact to your business?
CB: The family friendly events have definitely been the most positive for us. Most people that talk to me long enough know that I have 2 boys under 3 years old and I’m also the oldest of 7 kids. Family is the most important thing to me and if I can find a way to have an event that I can bring my own kids to, then plenty of other people will do and have done the same. People appreciate that part of our business.
G&S: You are a mostly family run business, what does this mean to you as a business owner and a family person?
CB: It means everything to me. I’m in business with all of the people that I love and I trust. Our opinions aren’t always in line with one another, but the general respect and support that we show to each other are paramount for running this company. It’s also great knowing that when we succeed, we’re doing it as a family as well as a company.
G&S: You are on a 2 barrel system now, do you think that has been a hindrance?
CB: I wouldn’t call it a hindrance. It just means that we have to work harder sometimes to get beer out.
G&S: Do you plan on upgrading?
CB: We’re working on plans for short term upgrades as well as long term upgrades. We intend to add another carbonating tank in the near future, but hoping within the next 12 months that we can increase the size of our brew house. I don’t put too much emphasis on this stuff anywhere near as much as developing a good product and nurture a growing customer base.
G&S: How much did you produce your first year (I saw a goal of 400 barrels)?
CB: We wound up brewing around 250 barrels in the first year. It wasn’t quite what I was hoping for, but all in all, we’re pretty happy with where we’re going.
G&S: Highest quality beer with the best ingredient, how do you judge the ingredients?
CB: A lot of it is trial and error. I’ve been home brewing for years and have found a good base of what I look for. Sometimes, especially when buying on a larger scale, it’s about bringing it back to the test batch size. If I want to try something that I’m unfamiliar with, I will brew a small batch and test the ingredient to make sure I’m getting the flavors that I’m looking for.
G&S: What is your favorite style of beer to drink, is it the same to brew?
CB: For this time of year, my favorite is stout. For the rest of the year, I prefer brown ales. For brewing, I don’t really see much of a difference in the process between many of them. Some of the flavored ones like the coffee porter or the vanilla oatmeal raisin porter require some additional steps, but nothing too burdening.
G&S: When you were two months in, you had 2 accounts to distribute, now it seems like you have quite a few. What is your goal for distribution for your second year?
CB: I think from a wholesale perspective, we’d like to see about 100% growth for 2016. If we could double our output, that would help us in building our brand without completely maxing out our production. We’re up to about 25 accounts now and we can still comfortably accommodate double while maintaining a good selection in our tap room.
G&S: What sets you apart from other breweries?
CB: Being a family friendly, family oriented business sets us apart. We hear all of the time from customers that they appreciate that we care about their whole family and that we accommodate them. We’re obviously not selling the kids beer, but we normally keep juice boxes for them. We also have crayons and coloring books and games for them. We try and incorporate as much of our home lives into the tap room and part of that is incorporating the entire family.
G&S: What has the biggest change been?
CB: Adding wine has been a big addition. We understand that not everybody drinks beer, and that’s ok. We didn’t like seeing beer drinkers leave our taproom because we didn’t have something for the non-beer drinkers. We’ve also recognized the power of family. I obviously am family-oriented and have a family run business, but seeing how customers have positively responded to us encourage families to come in has really been eye opening and has caused us to shift our focus to the entire family.
G&S: Its been a year. In your reflection, what has been the best part of opening a brewery?
CB: For me, the best part is the progress that has been made. In a year, we’ve been able to start developing a brand that people are beginning to know. We’ve developed a core group of loyal customers that support us, spread the word, and continue to buy our beer. We’ve also learned some things that have worked for us and the public. Those things are our foundation for 2016 and beyond in growing our business.
G&S: I know you don’t consider it work, but there has to be something that is your least favorite thing to do?
CB: Cleaning kegs is the worst. We don’t have a keg washer, so the process is hands on. The time and work that it takes to clean kegs by hand is tedious and not very exciting.
G&S Follow Up: After sending Chris the original questions, I saw that he had starting offering a free Sunday dinner in the brewery for families. I had to follow up on that to see what that was all about.
CB: The Sunday dinner idea was for a couple of reasons. First, I was looking for something unique that we could do that would set us apart from the other places. I was also looking for a way of bringing home to the brewery and I figured that there isn’t a better way than my wife making a large pot of tomato sauce. I got it after our 1st anniversary party. We put out a spread of dips and hot dogs and things like that and people really seemed to enjoy it and they stayed longer because of it. If I can help build a loyal customer base by letting our customers taste the cooking of my wife that I’ve been talking about, then why not?
Here is the Q&A with Chris and why he inspired us.
Last October, I visited Bayne Brewing in Cornelius, NC. I was on my own personal brewery tour of the area and just stopped in for a beer. The owner was working the tap room that afternoon, and then his sister came for the evening shift. Chris was one of the most customer-focused people I had run into on the trip. He knew everyone that walked in the door by name. My wife loved the Hefeweizen, but being the responsible drinker that she is (ha), she asked if she could just have half a beer. He obliged, but then told us the story about the reason that he even serves half beers. Of course, at first, you have your mind made up about how your brewery is going to operate and he was set against offering half beers. Unfortunately, on opening night, his mom (not a beer drinker) asked for half a beer and are you really going to tell your mom no? So he has been serving them ever since.
While we were there watching the Royals in the playoffs, Chris made us feel right at home in his space and that is everything he was going for. After leaving and even three months later, it was one of those places I just couldn’t get out of my head. So I asked Chris to do a remote interview and he was happy to.
G&S: How did a hobby that you started to kill time turn into a passion to open a brewery?
CB: From the first time that I drank one of my homebrews, my desire to open a brewery was there. For me, the more I brewed, the more I realized that I should stop doing what I didn’t enjoy, which was working in the corporate world, and do what I loved.
G&S: What was the moment you knew to start your own brewery?
CB: I had been kicking the idea around for a while, but the real catalyst that helped me jump was my day job. I performed really well and saved them millions of dollars, and at the end of the year I got a raise that didn’t even cover the increase of insurance cost. That gave me the incentive and the guts to finally say that it was time for a change.
G&S: It seems like you have been strategic with your process, you got a degree with a focus on entrepreneurship before opening. How do you feel that helped you in the actual opening or running of the brewery?
CB: Taking those classes helped provide me with a foundation of knowledge to help me understand some of the processes that would be necessary to get the business off of the ground. I definitely think it was helpful doing that in advance and it also gave me some fundamental skills that have been critical in practice.
G&S: The first six weeks, you kept your day job. Even though you were getting ready to have a child, you decided to go all in, what was the driving force behind that?
CB: As much as I love this company, it’s never going to be on the level of the love of my family. It became apparent that there wasn’t going to be a way for me to work 100 plus hours a week and still be a good father and husband for my family. I had to make some sacrifices in order to better balance my work and my family life.
G&S: One of the advantages you possess is that you planned on taking advantage of the flexibility that a small business has. How have you succeeded in doing this?
CB: I think that we have been able to be more flexible in some ways, and not so much in others. Being small allowed us to brew over 20 different flavors in the first year of business. It’s allowed me to test and retest certain things without the fear of losing our shirt in the process. It’s also allowed us to be more customer friendly. In our taproom we’ve been able to host private events, where we’ve opened on days that we’re normally closed, to host things like fantasy football drafts and corporate meetings. From a distribution standpoint, we are able to get customers just by being able to deliver beer quickly. We have a customer that carries us on 3 of their 6 lines because I’ll deliver to them same day. That kind of flexibility helps set us apart.
G&S: Bigger isn’t always better you say, you are most likely going to see you in the brewery. Do you feel that is still true?
CB: For us, I’m always around. Most people know that we’re family owned and the majority of the time someone from our family will be there. I think that our customers appreciate our passion for what we do and that we are smaller. People want to see everyday people do well and succeed.
G&S: In which ways do you feel that you have been able to be more successful than a larger brewery?
CB: For many of the larger breweries, it can be very sterile. Every company is obviously different, but many times, there isn’t a face or a name to it. It’s just the higher ups making corporate decisions.
G&S: The customer experience is huge for you, at least it seems. Do you still feel that your passion shines through after a year of being in business?
CB: I think it does. We’re always looking for ways to create a fun environment for our customers while they enjoy our beer. We’ve done things like add wine to our menu for those that aren’t interested in beer but might be with someone that is. We do family friendly events where we bring in face painters or bounce houses or balloon twisters. We had Santa Clause come in for one of our events. I think that our customers appreciate that we’re trying to be fun and creative and that we’re not leaving their kids out of the mix.
G&S: Is it just up to you to determine the style of beer to brew?
CB: I would like to say that the brew style is up to me, but I would say that it’s even more dictated by our customers. There have been plenty of instances where a beer style just started selling really well, and that has forced me to change my production schedule to stay in line with what our customers want.
G&S: You had planned on brewing 30 different beers the first year, did you succeed in doing this?
CB: We weren’t able to brew that many different styles, unfortunately. For me, that was a down side. The upside is that I wasn’t able to because of our growing wholesale business. I’ve had to try and balance the launching of new flavors of beer with the demand for particular staple flavors. Not necessarily a bad problem, though.
GS: You have had multiple family style events, as well as yoga, runs and other events. What do you feel has the most impact to your business?
CB: The family friendly events have definitely been the most positive for us. Most people that talk to me long enough know that I have 2 boys under 3 years old and I’m also the oldest of 7 kids. Family is the most important thing to me and if I can find a way to have an event that I can bring my own kids to, then plenty of other people will do and have done the same. People appreciate that part of our business.
G&S: You are a mostly family run business, what does this mean to you as a business owner and a family person?
CB: It means everything to me. I’m in business with all of the people that I love and I trust. Our opinions aren’t always in line with one another, but the general respect and support that we show to each other are paramount for running this company. It’s also great knowing that when we succeed, we’re doing it as a family as well as a company.
G&S: You are on a 2 barrel system now, do you think that has been a hindrance?
CB: I wouldn’t call it a hindrance. It just means that we have to work harder sometimes to get beer out.
G&S: Do you plan on upgrading?
CB: We’re working on plans for short term upgrades as well as long term upgrades. We intend to add another carbonating tank in the near future, but hoping within the next 12 months that we can increase the size of our brew house. I don’t put too much emphasis on this stuff anywhere near as much as developing a good product and nurture a growing customer base.
G&S: How much did you produce your first year (I saw a goal of 400 barrels)?
CB: We wound up brewing around 250 barrels in the first year. It wasn’t quite what I was hoping for, but all in all, we’re pretty happy with where we’re going.
G&S: Highest quality beer with the best ingredient, how do you judge the ingredients?
CB: A lot of it is trial and error. I’ve been home brewing for years and have found a good base of what I look for. Sometimes, especially when buying on a larger scale, it’s about bringing it back to the test batch size. If I want to try something that I’m unfamiliar with, I will brew a small batch and test the ingredient to make sure I’m getting the flavors that I’m looking for.
G&S: What is your favorite style of beer to drink, is it the same to brew?
CB: For this time of year, my favorite is stout. For the rest of the year, I prefer brown ales. For brewing, I don’t really see much of a difference in the process between many of them. Some of the flavored ones like the coffee porter or the vanilla oatmeal raisin porter require some additional steps, but nothing too burdening.
G&S: When you were two months in, you had 2 accounts to distribute, now it seems like you have quite a few. What is your goal for distribution for your second year?
CB: I think from a wholesale perspective, we’d like to see about 100% growth for 2016. If we could double our output, that would help us in building our brand without completely maxing out our production. We’re up to about 25 accounts now and we can still comfortably accommodate double while maintaining a good selection in our tap room.
G&S: What sets you apart from other breweries?
CB: Being a family friendly, family oriented business sets us apart. We hear all of the time from customers that they appreciate that we care about their whole family and that we accommodate them. We’re obviously not selling the kids beer, but we normally keep juice boxes for them. We also have crayons and coloring books and games for them. We try and incorporate as much of our home lives into the tap room and part of that is incorporating the entire family.
G&S: What has the biggest change been?
CB: Adding wine has been a big addition. We understand that not everybody drinks beer, and that’s ok. We didn’t like seeing beer drinkers leave our taproom because we didn’t have something for the non-beer drinkers. We’ve also recognized the power of family. I obviously am family-oriented and have a family run business, but seeing how customers have positively responded to us encourage families to come in has really been eye opening and has caused us to shift our focus to the entire family.
G&S: Its been a year. In your reflection, what has been the best part of opening a brewery?
CB: For me, the best part is the progress that has been made. In a year, we’ve been able to start developing a brand that people are beginning to know. We’ve developed a core group of loyal customers that support us, spread the word, and continue to buy our beer. We’ve also learned some things that have worked for us and the public. Those things are our foundation for 2016 and beyond in growing our business.
G&S: I know you don’t consider it work, but there has to be something that is your least favorite thing to do?
CB: Cleaning kegs is the worst. We don’t have a keg washer, so the process is hands on. The time and work that it takes to clean kegs by hand is tedious and not very exciting.
G&S Follow Up: After sending Chris the original questions, I saw that he had starting offering a free Sunday dinner in the brewery for families. I had to follow up on that to see what that was all about.
CB: The Sunday dinner idea was for a couple of reasons. First, I was looking for something unique that we could do that would set us apart from the other places. I was also looking for a way of bringing home to the brewery and I figured that there isn’t a better way than my wife making a large pot of tomato sauce. I got it after our 1st anniversary party. We put out a spread of dips and hot dogs and things like that and people really seemed to enjoy it and they stayed longer because of it. If I can help build a loyal customer base by letting our customers taste the cooking of my wife that I’ve been talking about, then why not?