Q&A: Alyssa Hoberer and Jacob Kemple Talk Crowdfunding Their New Beer Project

Jagged Mountain Brewery head brewer Alyssa Hoberer and Our Mutual Friend Brewing lead brewer Jacob Kemple are raising funds via crowdfunding investment platform Wefunder to launch a new project, Full Frame Beer.

Unlike popular crowdfunding platforms like KickStarter, Wefunder goes beyond rewards tiers; it allows people to actually invest money into a prospective business and potentially see monetary returns. As of May 24, the Wefunder page for Full Frame had reached $64,100.

Hoberer and Kemple plan to use the funds to open a brewery with a focus on IPAs and lagers, a side late-night dive-type bar and, eventually, a food program.

We sat down with Hoberer and Kemple to learn more about their vision for Full Frame.
Westword: You've raised $64,100 so far. You've passed the initial $50,000 goal, with an ultimate goal of $300,000. What is the minimum you feel you need to take this brewery from concept to reality?

Kemple: Around $200,000.

Hoberer: That would be us acquiring the equipment, opening the brewery and then also opening the side bar. Not quite having the kitchen, but still having a full bar with cocktails. It would be the bare minimum for us to get in there and do a good job, then start the kitchen later.

Kemple: It would be going through the budget and saying, this is a realistic number that we need to get in and do it correctly.

You have a lead investor who contributed $20,000. What is their role in the brewery?

Kemple: Janet [Shulenberger] is going to be our lead investor. She's going to manage the voting through Wefunder. It's a legal requirement. She was just an obvious choice for us: She really believes in what we're doing, and she's owned and sold businesses herself.

Hoberer: She's the type of person who tells everyone about the business and [promotes] it.

Who else has a role?

Kemple: Janet told us her accountant, Barbra, looked at the business plan that we gave her and decided that they wanted to invest.

Hoberer: She's been another great person to add to our team. She's on our board of directors, and as an accountant, she can help us out with a lot of stuff.
What kind of values do the two of you share?

Kemple: We want to be workers first. We're the people who work these bars, we're brewers. We don't have our dad sponsoring our brewery. We're doing this a certain way for a reason. We want to be in a diverse neighborhood — that's huge for both of us.

Hoberer: Being a queer woman, it's really important to be diverse in that way and welcome everybody into a space. Being a woman in business is also an important thing for us.

Kemple: We're getting a bunch of support from women, which has been awesome. And it's becoming more women-owned as we go.

When did you decide that you wanted to start a brewery together?

Kemple: We had chatted about it years ago, but ultimately, for both of us, we decided that it wasn't the time. Recently, I found out a friend, Gardner [Hammond, owner of Alpine Dog], was closing, and he told us the price he wanted for his assets.

Hoberer: I was like, this is kind of a good deal. Maybe it's time to do it.

Kemple: And I'd already looked at some other breweries. Different places were starting to turn over, and they had equipment and good spaces. Alyssa and I had already talked about it so much that this just lined up.

How quickly did everything come together?

Kemple: It came about pretty quickly. We learned about [Alpine Dog closing] at the end of December. We had to put it on paper quickly. Writing the business plan was also ensuring to ourselves that this makes sense, that it can make money, that it works.

Hoberer: If I want to do this, I want to do it right. I don't want to just get into a space and make beer and have a traditional model of opening a brewery. I want different avenues to make money to ensure that we're going to be successful in some way outside of just making beer. Once we started writing the business plan, I got more and more comfortable with the idea of doing this. Knowing that the numbers lined up, the plan looked really good and our values were in line. After that, we launched.

Why did you decide to use Wefunder to raise the money, compared to a more common friends-and-family-type model that many startups use?

Kemple: I think all of our friends and family are brewers.

Hoberer: Or [not very wealthy] in general.

Kemple: Wefunder is a way that we can spread the word in a central location and talk about it. The Block Distilling are very good friends of mine, and they used this model to create the distillery in the first place.

Hoberer: We talked to them about how they did it, what they did to be successful, the strategy [they used].
How daunting was the Wefunder launch?

Hoberer: Really daunting.

Kemple: I was worried about what Our Mutual Friend would think. I was worried about a lot of things.

Did Our Mutual Friend know?

Kemple: Yes, of course. We had conversations, and they've been supportive.

What was Jagged Mountain's reaction when you told them?

Hoberer: Luckily, they've been really awesome, and they're always super-supportive employers anyway. They're really encouraging everybody to pursue their dreams. They've been great with giving me advice, too.

What do the terms look like if someone wants to invest, say, $1,000?

Kemple: Around $10,000-$12,000 gives you one percent. And that scales, whether you invest $100 or $500.

[Note: Kemple also mentioned a number of perks for investors at various levels of investment. Visit the Wefunder page to view those perks in their entirety.]

How does the potential return look for an investor?

Kemple: Like all investments in a company like this, you would hope that we grow and are successful and you could eventually sell your share or let it grow. We are planning on giving 30 percent of our profit as dividends back in year three.

Your original target space, the former Alpine Dog Brewery, may be leased before you finish your fundraising goal. What is your plan for that scenario?

Kemple: If we have to pivot, that's fine. There will be some changes to the plan, obviously.

Hoberer: Yes, the plan is more than the building.

In what areas would you look for a potential location?

Kemple: We'd like to be in Denver proper.

What type of support has the brewing community given you along the way?

Kemple: Milieu [Fermentation] has been instrumental for us; they helped us out. When they learned that we wanted to do what they were doing, they immediately started helping us. We learned that we could do this a lot faster if we do it a different way. It can be turnkey, the way their [space] was. Chas [Runco] from the Colorado Brewers Guild has also been helpful.

Why did you choose the name Full Frame?

Kemple: As a big camera nerd, of course I liked it.

Hoberer: It meant something to me. It really resonated because I got a huge start in popularity on Instagram through taking photos. My family has always been big on photographs and Polaroids. There's not a whole lot of breweries that have that theme.

Do you plan to carry that through to the taproom?

Hoberer: We'd love to have pictures up.

Kemple: Not only is it Full Frame, but you have the other bar space next door — we want to call it the Dark Room — with red lights. Full Frame is your daytime brewery, bright colors, pastels. Then we have our little Dark Room. It's more the dirty side of it, like a cool hangout spot.

Which one of you will do the brewing at Full Frame?

Kemple: Both of us. I work for a collaboration brewery; all we do is collab. It's how much you learn from other people. So our combined forces, we're just going to make better beer.

Hoberer: We talked about, the first year if we can, we both do all the brewing together. Then start splitting up as necessary. It'd be ideal to [eventually hire a brewer].