Two D.C.-area friends and entrepreneurs who share a love for craft-brewed beers, but feel they’re aging out of the high-octane punch many craft beers pack, have launched a brewery to bridge the gap.
“Craft beer seems to be inextricably woven with really high alcohol, which also starts kind of like looking like an arms race. It’s seven, eight, nine, 10%,” said Ryan Kutscher, a public relations executive and founder of boutique ad agency Launch Party, referring to a beer’s ABV, or alcohol by volume.
Kutscher, and Craig Carey, a restaurateur who founded burger chain Big Buns Damn Good Burgers, have launched Dad Strength Brewing, with a goal of producing mid-strength beers. The first is a West Coast-style IPA brewed with El Dorado and Mosaic hops, with an AVB of 2.9% and 94 calories.
The name “Dad Strength” is a nod to their own experiences as new parents. Kutscher has a one-year-old toddler. Carey has a two-year-old and a five-year-old.
“I cannot metabolize alcohol like I used to,” Kutscher said. “And when you have a kid, when you throw a kid in the mix, a teething one-year-old who wakes up at 3 a.m., being hungover, that’s a form of misery.”
The two hatched the idea for Dad Strength Brewing after commiserating about how they still enjoyed a hefty, hoppy craft brew, but found themselves increasingly in the “one and done” corner. Both also discovered they had been doing something that raised bartender eyebrows: diluting a full-strength beer with a nonalcoholic version.
The idea is theirs, but the recipe is not. They have partnered with D.C. brewer Atlas Brew Works to produce Dad Strength beers. It was not an easy pitch.
“They said, ‘No it can’t be done,’ and we said ‘Are we crazy?’ And then we kind of kept the conversation going. And we said, ‘Well, let’s give it a try and see,'” Kutscher said.
They have also partnered with D.C. Brau for a second beer, a 2.8% ABV Apricot IPA, that will launch in the coming weeks.
In both cases, Kutscher and Carey are contract brewing through a partnership with both breweries. Kutscher did not disclose financial terms of their partnership. But he said if the time comes where they need to purchase a brewery to scale production, it is something they would explore.
Dad Strength Brewing’s inaugural IPA is currently available at more than 40 D.C. bars, tap rooms and liquor stores, and is sold online.