Beer Soap!
I love beer. I would love to take a bath in beer. Every day. At the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) in Portland, I suddenly learned that this dream could come true. Beer soap. I sniffed the different varieties and every one of them really did carry the tempting fragrance of beer, alongside all sorts of other fine aromas. I spoke with the dynamic owner of Swag Brewery, Maxwell Arndt. I wanted to know how he came up with the idea of making candles and soap from beer – and Max was more than happy to oblige, with a jovial attitude and a very big wink.
When did you start Swag Brewery?
We launched the initial Swag Brewery concept in 2012, when it was primarily apparel-based.
Where does the “Brewery” in the name come from?
All of our products are beer-themed and we like to think that we appeal to brewers and drinkers. Plus we love to confuse people and have them ask what kind of beer we brew. 🙂
- How many customers do you have?
Hard to say – we are currently in more than 700 stores across the United States and we also have retailers in Australia, Canada, and France. We sell in multiple outlets online as well. But either way, our customer base is much larger than we ever could have imagined!
- How do you get the ideas, the recipes for your candles and soaps?
Lots of tasty beers lead to lots of ideas – mostly bad, but the occasional good one!
- Where do you produce the products?
In multiple places across the USA, including California, Georgia, Florida, New Jersey, and Ohio.
- When did your Craft Beer love start?
No sooner than my 21st birthday, of course!
- Do you feel the rise of the craft brewing industry in your business?
Definitely. When we began, most of our customers were buying products for people that could probably be categorized as “beer geeks”. Now, we serve a much larger customer base, including people who have just scratched the surface of the craft beer world.
- How was your first CBC?
It was great! So many friendly people who all share a common obsession – no lack of conversation topics.
- Last but not least: Tell me something about you. Has it always been your dream to found a business?
My first true entrepreneurial venture was selling candy on the playground in grade school but the scalability was limited (and regulation was high). So, I think it’s a good thing I moved on to other ventures. Perhaps it was indeed destiny.
- What are your next steps?
Right now, I plan to go have a beer. After that, we will continue to scale Swag Brewery and expose our products to new customers. We have a handful of exciting products in development – all heavily soaked in beer. We may be launching an organic line, and we also plan to pursue international distribution. Cheers!
