Craftlab: The Podcast Episode 10 With Tim Barnes, Black Tooth Brewing
For this special mini-season of episodes recorded at CBC, we’re excited to have Tim Barnes, co-founder of Black Tooth Brewing Company, on the podcast.
Black Tooth is a three-location brewery that Tim co-founded in the state of Wyoming on Black Friday in 2010. Because of this, the Black Tooth community now knows that day as Black Tooth Friday!
When the brewery first opened, Tim had his eyes set far away in states like Idaho with the hope of growing into a great regional brewery. However, he quickly realized that no matter the money, no matter the business relationships, he couldn’t get his beer to sell far from home. After learning this “expensive lesson,” the brewery decided to lean into its strength: locality. Tim says being a brewer down the street is what they were meant to do; he’s “just the fool who decided to do it in the least populated state in the country.”
In this episode, Ekos CEO Josh McKinney and Tim talk through that challenging journey for Black Tooth, finding your strength and purpose in brewing, and how thinking locally powers Black Tooth day in and day out.
Show Notes:
About Black Tooth Brewing: Sheridan, Wyoming’s most highly awarded brewery sits in the heart of the Wild West, at the base of the majestic Big Horn Mountains. Inspiration for the name for the company came from Black Tooth Mountain, standing tall at 13,014 ft. elevation. Black Tooth Brewing Co. creates noteworthy, quality craft beer and has been doing so for the last 11 years.
Tim’s Book Recommendations:
- Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out: Goose Island, Anheuser-Busch, and How Craft Beer Became Big Business by Josh Noel
- Quench Your Own Thirst: Business Lessons Learned Over a Beer or Two by Jim Koch
Tim’s Audiobook Recommendations
In the hundreds of empty miles (“nothing but wind and truckers”) between his locations, Tim also spends a lot of time listening to audiobooks, and he specifically recommended these reads in that format.
- Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
- The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl
