GADSDEN, Ala. — Alabama, like the rest of the nation, has seen a massive increase in the number of craft beer breweries over the last several years. Festivals, breweries, and new bars devoted to the product have seemingly sprung from nowhere to meet the increasing demand for something more than the mass-produced beers of the past.
The Yellowhammer State has begun to catch up with the rest of the nation with its demand for craft beer. Birmingham is the fastest growing craft beer market in the country by volume and percentage dollar share, both great indicators of economic growth.
At the forefront of the Alabama craft brewing revolution is Back Forty Beer, a Gadsden-based company that tapped into a neglected market almost six years ago.
In 2009, fifth-generation Gadsdenite and Back Forty CEO Jason Wilson, a graduate of South Side High School and Auburn University, founded his brewery as a small operation dedicated to quality and consistency.
At the time, Wilson set up shop in historic downtown and what is now the oldest bottling brewery in the state was at one point only one of two in 2009.
“The company name came from the idea of the back 40 acres,” Wilson, now also President of the Alabama Brewers Guild told Yellowhammer. “They are the furthest from the barn, hardest to maintain, hardest to irrigate; It’s where the tractors go to die. For that reason most farmers choose not to farm the back forty just because it’s so difficult, so taxing.”
But, Wilson wanted to work that back 40. “Alabama is kind of the back forty of the craft beer world in the United States. Most people said ‘why bother? Those folks down in Alabama are just drinking their light beer and that’s all they’re ever going to drink.’ It was seen as a soft market. But the irony of the back forty is when you go in and do the hard work, you actually get a larger yield than you do on any other acreage on the farm.”
Tapping into Alabama, a market that most people believed wasn’t worth the trouble, has paid off for Wilson’s company. In their six year existence, Back Forty has won the Main-Street Alabama Award for Economic Development, Small Manufacturer of the Year Award from the Business Council of Alabama in 2014, the 2015 award from the World Beer Championships for Innovation in Packaging Designs, and most recently the brewer was named a 2015 Top-100 Small Business in the Country by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Because of his demonstrated business acumen, Wilson also now sits on the Business Council of Alabama’s board.
What started off small has expanded to a multi-state and multi-national operation.
Its numerous successes attracted a feature in Inc. Magazine to talk about “the story beyond beer”.
“It’s great to win awards for your beer, but when you start getting recognized for your business accomplishments and manufacturing practices, it’s a different level,” Wilson explained.
But Back Forty did not get to where it is today without significant obstacles. The CEO cited numerous hurdles that might have been the reason why Alabama’s thirst for craft beer went unquenched for so long.
“We are operating in one of the most legally regulated environments in the country for craft beer and we also pay the highest state excise tax on our product, but we knew the challenge going in,” Wilson said. “We’ve built a business model to overcome those obstacles.”
Not all of the challenges were legal; some were cultural.
“So often when you’re dealing with a gourmet product in the deep south, it’s presented in a fashion of ‘put down your old redneck ways and come on over to this finer way of life.’ And of course southerners reject that wholeheartedly, including myself,” Wilson told Yellowhammer. “But being from Alabama as long as I have been, I know that southerners have a very rich cultural base. They have an appreciation for the culinary arts and so much of our culture is based around the kitchen table. The Southerner just doesn’t care much for the pomp and circumstance that comes with a gourmet product.”
As a response to craft-beer’s perception problem, Wilson emphasized that Back Forty has “made a conscious effort to brand our product in that Southern light.”
He also noted that Back Forty is different from many other emerging craft beers in that it is not in the business of heavy experimentation. In the words of their CEO, the Alabama company makes “Great interpretations of classic beer styles.”
Yellowhammer’s Alabama Business Spotlight is a new series highlighting some of the state’s most successful businesses working to perfect their craft and share it with the rest of the nation.
