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When Jeremy Joerger moved to Sarasota to start a craft brewery, he had a meeting with prominent Tampa entrepreneur Joey Redner, founder of Cigar City Brewing.
Joerger confidently told Redner his brewery, JDubs Brewing Co., was “going to happen.” After the meeting, Redner stood up, gave Joerger a hug and said, “welcome to the fraternity.”
Now Joerger aims to expand the fraternity — an industry where small guys, says Joerger, have to “fight for every penny.” One big move: the brewer has taken a leadership role and organized Florida's first craft beer summit. It's scheduled to take place March 14-16 in Sarasota. The summit will feature distributors from other states and panels and classes led by industry leaders.
Joerger says he's been to similar summits in other states and always returned with a plethora of information to help his business. The ultimate goal is to build business relationships and bring craft beer professionals together.
Despite organizing the summit, Joerger doesn't define himself as a leader. He wants to do for others what Redner did for him, and what industry stars such as Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada and Jim Koch of Sam Adams did for others. “I'm just trying to do right by the people that made it possible for me to be here,” he tells Coffee Talk.
Here hasn't always been an easy road for Joerger, an Army veteran and former federal agent. He gave up his $140,000 annual salary, cleaned out his 401k and forfeited his top-secret security clearance all to start the craft brewery in February 2014. “I don't have many nights full of sleep,” Joerger says. “This is the most challenging thing I've ever done in my life by a landslide.”
Sales started slowly at JDubs. But in year two, the brewery is gaining success, doing in volume what he hoped to be doing in year four.
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