Q&A WITH QUENTIN WILLARD
Owner/brewmaster, Fort Smith Brewing Co.
Q. How long has your brewery been in business? A. Since September 2017, so 2 1/2 years
Q. How did you come to start a brewery?
A. When I lived in Rhode Island, I saw the positive influence breweries had on communities. Breweries bring people together better than any other entertainment I know of. Also, the industry itself is very collaborative and not as competitive as other industries. I enjoy a more collaborative environment professionally than a competitive one.
Q. What got you interested in brewing beer?
A. Brewing beer is like cooking. You can be very creative, and the world is your oyster. If you can dream it, you can make it into a beer. Plus, the pleasure of seeing customers enjoy your product is the best.
Q. How does the booming craft-beer craze benefit Arkansas?
A. The first and most tangible benefits breweries bring Arkansas are the jobs and the economic strength. People drink beer, and there’s a lot of industry that supports the drinking of beer. If that beer comes from Arkansas, then we’re keeping more money and jobs in the state. If we continue to buy [big-name beer brands], we’re losing a portion of our dollar to those companies headquartered out of state. Due to the fact that so many people drink beer, we can have a huge economic impact in Arkansas if we can get customers to drink Arkansas beer. In addition to the economic impact, I can’t stress enough the breweries’ ability to create community. A sense of community is what will keep people in a city and attract new people to your city.
Q. What makes Arkansas a great place to make and drink beer?
A. Thanks to the Arkansas Brewers Guild, Arkansas has the friendliest laws when it comes to breweries. We are allowed to serve beer seven days a week in any size container. We are able to self-distribute. We are able to sell any liquor in our tasting rooms without having to take out additional permits. We are currently able to deliver beer directly to consumers’ doorsteps. We can have multiple tasting rooms under one permit. The list goes on and on for why Arkansas is a great place to open a brewery legally. Arkansas is also a great place to make and drink beer because of how natural it is. Good beer is very dependent on the ingredients, and water is the main ingredient in beer. We just happen to have some of the best water in Arkansas. And it’s a great place to drink beer for the same reason. There’s nothing better than going to the great outdoors in Arkansas and enjoying the nature that brought us this wonderful way of life and the wonderful beer we’re sipping on.
Q. What is something people might find surprising about your brewery?
A. It is located on an old military base. Our brewery used to be the Post Exchange for the base, and we are surrounded by lots of other World War II-era barracks. It is also serendipitous that I myself am a West Point graduate and a current Reserve officer teaching ROTC at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. There are a lot of military ties to the brewery. To keep things historic, we are brewing on the very first microbrewery system in Arkansas. Weidman’s Brewery was opened in Arkansas in 1992, paving the way for other microbreweries in our great state. They shut down in the late ’90s, but we were fortunate enough to get our hands on their historic equipment, and now we are brewing on it.
Q. What’s your favorite type of beer?
A. I truly like every style of beer. I’ve had great beers from every style. The trick is finding the brewery that makes the style the way you like it. You’ve got to go to lots of breweries to find a beer you like from every style, but they exist.
Q. What do you enjoy most about owning a brewery?
A. The best part of owning a brewery is creating community. We’ve only been open for 2 1/2 years, and we’ve already started to make a positive impact on our community and promote collaboration among other businesses. The sense of community is definitely the best part of owning a brewery.
Q. What’s one piece of advice you would give someone planning to start a brewery?
A. Find a location that you can grow into. The industry is growing quickly, and it’s difficult to keep up. For any new brewery, there will be plenty of room for growth, so you don’t want to limit yourself to a smaller space and get stuck with it when it comes time to grow and keep up with demand.
Q. What gave you the idea to start a drive-in theater during the coronavirus epidemic?
A. My reaction when I heard we had to shut down was the same as everyone else — how am I going to pay the bills and keep my employees? I spent a lot of time the first week trying to understand all the rules and guidelines that would keep people safe and still allow them to consume our product. The first opportunity to stay fiscally healthy came from the Arkansas Brewers Guild, which lobbied for us to be able to deliver our beers to our customers. That prevented us from completely going under. But if we wanted to truly succeed, keep our employees employed, potentially hire more and still do our part to create the tax revenue, we needed to do more. We normally host game-show nights at the brewery on Wednesdays, and some of the customers were asking if we could do the game shows in the parking lot, so that got the wheels turning. To do a game show in the parking lot, we would need a big screen. Where do we get a big screen? One thing led to another, and it made more sense to use the screen for a drive-in movie instead of our game shows. We will likely use the screen for game shows in the future, but while movie theaters are shut down, we’ll keep filling that gap and serving the community the best we can. And we reached our goal; we are generating revenue to stay financially healthy and looking to hire more people.
Q. How have people responded to your drive-in so far?
A. The response has been overwhelmingly supportive. That community support is what makes owning a brewery so special. Kids, teens, adults, seniors — everyone can come out and enjoy sitting in their car and watching entertainment on the big screen with a group of people. Even though no one is interacting with each other, just by being in the same vicinity makes people feel like they are still part of a community. The response and support were way more than we could have ever expected. We have also had the opportunity to help other companies and breweries set these up in their communities. That brings me a lot of pride and joy to have people coming to Fort Smith to help make their communities better.
Q. Is there anything else you would like to add?
A. I just really want to reiterate the importance of supporting your local breweries. Every brewery is doing events and activities like we are to keep their community together. No matter what the world throws at us, you can depend on your local brewery to be there and keep the community strong.