Tap Talk: MN-Based Founding Fathers Brewing Co. Aims For National Market

"We really wanted a beer designed -- and we like to say the phrase -- that bridges the gap between the craft market and domestic section."

Those are words of Phil Knutsen, CEO of Founding Fathers Brewing Company. It's a Long Lake-based company that's increasingly finding a foothold in the national market – with a patriot twist.

That "twist" is actually a pretty big deal: The company donates half of its profits to help military families.

It all began when Knutsen decided to leave behind a successful 22-year career in northeast Minneapolis.

"In 2009, I hit a crossroads in my life where I could finish my career doing that or doing something different," he said. "I decided to branch out and do something else on my own."

That's when Knutsen founded Founding Fathers with the mission to take on "Big Beer" by offering a domestic premium lager that they say tastes better – and helps military families.

"We were really interested in the $50 billion a year domestic premium industry that really hadn't had a new competitor in my lifetime," he said.

Knutson soon enlisted the help of brewmasters who knew a little something about the competition: Founding Fathers' head brewmaster is Chris Atkinson, who formerly worked at Sam Adams and Steve Kaplan, formerly of Anheuser-Busch.

"We really have a dream team of brewmasters. These are some of the best lager guys there are and they know how to make it," he said.

So far, the company has had success with its business model. The brewing company recently made an agreement that made its Founding Fathers Light 16oz cans available at the Xcel Energy Center. Another big one is a partnership with Minnesota-based airline Sun Country Airlines – the beer is available on their flights.

Their main three beers are Founding Fathers Light, Founding Fathers Amber and Founding Fathers Pale.

All in all, it's a pretty good deal: help a military family by drinking a beer! I can do that.

For more details on the beer, the company's history and more, check out the interview with Knutson below!

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So, you leave your career of 22 years, what happened next?

That's when I formed Founding Fathers, which is born on a concept very similar to Newman's Own. I really wanted to have a company that made a difference.

But there were a couple things I didn't like about his model. One, he donates to thousands of organizations and I didn't know who they were. Number two, he was a nonprofit and we are a for-profit company.

Why take on Big Beer?

We really tried to find out what product we wanted to come into the market with and it was our viewpoint that with the recent selloffs of Bud, Miller and Coors to foreign entities – and what we believe is an over-saturated craft market, with a new brewery opening up daily -- we thought, "why don't we release a beer that bridges the gap between the Buds of the world and the craft world?" So, that's what we did.

So, you decide you want to make beer, what next?

So, we put together a large tasting panel and started tasting domestic beers across the states, trying to find our profiles that we wanted to hit, went out and interviewed several brewmasters – my head brewmaster came from Sam Adams. Then, we took off running.

We launched into our test market and started filling Publix's 1,200 stores in May and June of 2012.

What was a pivotal moment in Found Fathers' history?

In the fall of 2012, I was in Beaufort, South Carolina with actor Gary Sinise – who was in Forest Gump, CSI New York and is a real active supporter of our military families.

We were doing a concert and before Gary had taken the stage, I got introduced by a FOX correspondent who was hosting and she brought me on stage. I then addressed the 4,000 people at this concert and told them our story and that Founding Fathers was the only company in the U.S. that supports our military families with half of our profits.

I was followed by a lieutenant colonel of the US Marines and he said "they're not asking you to anything that you're not already doing. You're gonna drink beer. We're asking you to drink the better American alternative that supports our military families at heroic levels."

At this concert, there were two beers available: Founding Fathers and Budweiser. When we delivered our message, we sold out of beer in that concert with two hours left in the concert.

Shortly after that, the company stopped the testing phase. What things did you learn from that?

One of the things was getting liquid into people's hands and telling our story. How do you compete against the giants who are running $5 million Super Bowl ads?

We needed to build an infrastructure around Founding Fathers to handle what we wanted to do as far as growth across the United States. So, we brought in a new president, a gentleman named Les Mouser, the former President and CEO of Campbell Mithun.

Our light beer that we initially brought in had more of a European feel to it, like an Amstel Light. We felt we needed to be a bit more mainstream with our light beer and reformulated that.

We needed to better on our signage to tell people what this beer is. You can really get lost in stores. That's what we continue to work on.

So, after the restructuring, what happened?

We launched fully back into the market in the July and August timeframe of 2014. Coming back into the market, we had one of two approaches. One was grab a brand spokesperson to deliver our message. Our other approach was to really hit the grassroots efforts of what we're all about and work hard through our military channels.

We figured until we got it to be a national brand, grabbing a high-profile entertainer was a bit premature.

Who did you look to as far as helping military families?

When we launched our first test market launch, we had one national partner and that was the Armed Forces Relief Society out of Washington, D.C., which is really our active duty troops' first line of help.

Coming back to the market, we thought why not reach out to the largest veterans' organization in the world, which is the American Legion. So, we met with them and went through a nine-month vetting process.

In May of 2014, that was approved by their 2.3 million members and they were our second national partner. That was a pretty big deal for us.

Now, we're opening states and meeting with distribution partners every week. Our most recent state that opened was out in New York.

So, in Minnesota specifically: a consumer buys a six pack of Founding Fathers – where does that money go?

Well, anything sold there's really two avenues. One, any Legion or VFW Post. Any beer sold through a legion post, 50 percent of the products go back directly to their organization. So, at the end of the year, we go through an audit with our distribution network who, for example, says the New Ulm post sold 100 cases of beer in 2015. We send that check to the national organization – we're not able to send directly to a post, that's against the law – so we send it to American Legion's national headquarters. They in turn send half of that check back to the participating post.

What happens with general retails sales, is that's split between our two national partners. Everything sold in a Wal-Mart or Haskell's is split between the American Legions and the Armed Forces Relief Society.

So, let's talk beers: what's the philosophy behind your beers?

I think the philosophy is get the initial products right and build a base off of those. We're targeting the macro section of these beers and also the people who get a little burned out of the overly hopped-up beers.

We really wanted a beer designed -- and we like to say the phrase -- that bridges the gap between the craft market and domestic section. Really what we feel is that we're in our own category. A really smooth drinking, but rich feel to our lagers.

Who brewed the beer?

Our head brewmaster is a gentleman named Chris Atkinson and he was formerly with Sam Adams. We also have Steve Kaplan, formerly of Anheuser Busch, who works on our beer.

So, we really have a dream team of brewmasters. These are some of the best lager guys there are and they know how to make it.

Can you describe the main three beers?

Well, we have our light, which we've tagged as the best light beer on the planet. It's a slightly darker color than Coors Light, not much, but you can notice the difference. It has more malt in it, which gives it a little bit more flavor. It's a very clean, crisp, with maybe a little bit more alcohol than some light beers. It's around 4.22 percent alcohol. It's got less carbs and calories than a Bud Light. Our calorie range is from 100 to 107. It has 5.7 carbs.

Our flagship beer, we would consider it as our Amber lager. It has a slight caramel finish to it. Again, it's malt-based. It looks like a Sam Adams Boston Lager but doesn't drink like one. And it's a really unique beer to the Midwest.

The pale lager is, I would say, is a richer version of Michelob. It's a pale-colored lager with more malt than a typical domestic. That one is currently not in the market, but should be in summertime.

Lastly, what does the future have in store for Founding Fathers?

We're trying to work out a national distribution network as quickly as we can so we can get our brand to be national. That's a key for us.

Turn on more of a national feel with some major chains, whether it be Wal-Mart or Kroger.

When someone sees our logo, I want them to realize that not only is it a high-quality product, but it's gonna be the only brand in the United States that you can help out our military families by only drinking a really good beer.

One more, actually -- this 50 percent-deal is permanent, right?

Yeah. That's our whole company. It's not a one-time deal. It's not for a two-month window. That's what we're all about.