Beer Barrel Brotherhood

Alex Evans’ conversation with his childhood best friend Zak Koga was taking a familiar turn.

“Dude, we aren’t doing that,” Alex recalls Zak saying over the phone as he drove toward his hometown of Appleton.

Alex was spitballing yet another business plan. That is not to say Zak was the voice of reason — throwing a scheme of his own right back.

The duo knew they would become business partners, but despite writing business plans together since high school, they lacked a foundational trade to build their passion. Little did they know, the X-factor they were always missing was closer than they expected.

Brewmaster Ryan Koga was the final piece to the puzzle. The entry of Ryan, Zak’s older brother, turned what started as boyish, whimsical fun into the hard-and-fast reality of craft brewing. The product of this fraternal bond, Karben4 Brewing, opened its doors in 2012.

“We always had a missing link,” Alex says. “We didn’t necessarily have a craft or talent, we just knew that our talent and our passion was the business and creating business models … And Ryan, here he was, this talented brewer, brewing in Billings, Montana.”

Their reverie finally came full circle. These against-the-grain business owners no longer startled their parents into saying, “Wow, these crazy kids.” Four years later, with thriving sales and distribution, the three partners demonstrate day in and day out that trust, passion and family are able to prioritize empowerment and minimize the fear of failure.

Located on the east side of Madison, Karben4 Brewing has infiltrated the Madison, Milwaukee and Fox Cities craft-brewing markets over the past four years. Independently owned and fully operated by Zak, Ryan and Alex, Karben4 Brewing blends the malt-centric heritage of Midwestern brewing with West Coast influence, presenting a variety they describe as “English-style malt bombs and perfectly balanced hop grenades.”

Without even sipping an ounce of beer, you can tell that this trio isn’t afraid to push the boundaries. Eccentric paintings coat the walls of the taproom and fantasy-like scenes envelop the beer packaging. The case of one of Karben4’s most popular brews, an India Pale Ale denoted Fantasy Factory, pictures an eccentric cat character riding atop a gleaming, red-eyed unicorn spitting a flame of fire, with a luminous rainbow and stream of smoke engulfing the background. The name Karben4 Brewing is a play on the element carbon being the foundation for life. Don’t be fooled by the puzzling feeling that much of their branding portrays. It’s intentional, and is very much telling of the three compelling personalities behind the brew kettle.

Striving for Fulfillment

To see where it all began, you must look back on Alex and Zak’s senior year at Xavier High School in Appleton, as a teacher assigns each student a position in entrepreneurial class. It’s no surprise that Alex and Zak are nominated as the two co-presidents. Establishing their natural leadership ability early on set high expectations for Alex and Zak’s futures. And so their journey as business partners began.

The duo went to work prepping for the annual rivalry football game ― Xavier versus Fox Valley Lutheran. Flexing their responsibilities outside of class, Ryan and Alex rallied their fellow pupils with T-shirts and other “swag” at the pre-game tailgate. As their natural partnership bloomed, the two companions got their first taste of what it takes to have a profitable business — and how to have a little fun at the same time.

“We always knew that we didn’t want a normal life, we wanted to do something different and be different,” Alex says.

Post-college as Zak pored over project plans in his office at J.H. Findorff & Son, and Alex labored through a career in commercial banking, it seemed as if their entrepreneurial partnership was only a fanciful musing.

Meanwhile, toiling behind the bottling line at Yellowstone Valley Brewing Co. in Billings, Montana, Ryan was hoping to make next month’s rent as he worked his way through graduate school at Montana State University Billings. As he pursued a career in sports medicine, Ryan remained at the brewery and rigorously worked his way up to production manager.

“That’s not to say that I backchanneled to brewing, and it was my consolation prize,” Ryan says. “I loved what I was doing, I loved what I was seeing. And once I really started applying myself there, you know, I would go home and read, and I would see it in action and application the next day.”

As Ryan’s creativity flourished and his passion for brewing intensified, he felt as though he was bumping against a glass ceiling for too long. His brewing ambitions began to extend beyond the craft, flirting with the idea of hatching his talents into a brewing company.

“I was trying to find somewhere that I could actually grow my own career,” he says. “And it was like, ‘Well, if it’s going to be brewing, we need to open our own place.’ That’s the only way we can write the destiny, the future that we want for ourselves in particular.”

The aggregation of aligning aspirations, and their complemented strengths and bonds as brothers and friends, spawned the three-way business alliance.

“[Ryan] leaned on us to kind of backfill that business acumen, and we leaned on him to backfill the talent,” Alex says. “And we all came together from there and created Karben4.”

The Homebrewing Ethos

Wisconsin has always been a hotbed for brewing activity, according to Mark Garthwaite, executive director of the Wisconsin Brewers Guild. Charting back as far as 1879, with an ideal agricultural climate for growing cereal crops such as barley and hops, Wisconsin had as many as 226 breweries, as compared to the 120-some that exist today.

After the number of breweries plummeted during Prohibition, Wisconsin was eager to reinvigorate the brewing culture and soon became one of the largest beer-brewing states in the country. Yet, as the 1950s crept in, so did the massive consolidation of breweries, and once again the number of breweries in the United States dipped under 100. The industrialization of breweries, mass production and distribution parented a beer palette that was largely the same across breweries such as Pabst, Miller and Blatz.

The legalization of homebrewing in the late 1970s spurred a new wave of brewers who were ready to scale up not only the taste of beer, but the art of brewing as well, leading to the invasion of craft brewing in Wisconsin’s culture.

“The people that tend to start up small breweries are people that are very passionate about what they’re making,” Garthwaite says. “And they’re eager to share it with people. That’s kind of that homebrewing ethos.”

Doubling down on theory and research, Ryan found his passion at the crossroads of art and science — brewing beer.

Familiarity: A Blessing or a Curse?

Going into business with family or close friends can be a gamble, and often times trusted relationships are bruised.

All three of Karben4 Brewing’s owners willingly concede that they have butted heads multiple times and agree that their relationships could be easier if they were still just tinkering around. Yet, simultaneously, Ryan resolves that his biggest fear going in was not about their relationships as friends and brothers ― and not even the fear of a feeble business ― but rather making a mistake that could lead to the brewery’s demise.

“I also have to stop myself and say, ‘Is my ego more important than making sure the brewery is successful, so that my family is taken care of, so that Zak’s family is taken care of, so that Alex’s family is taken care of?’” Ryan says.

Brothers separated by four years, Zak and Ryan knew they could never lose sight of the working respect they held for each other. Ryan explained that the downfall of family business comes from familiarity.

Ryan distinctly recalls a defining moment, which he had while sitting in the pews of his church, when he understood the relationships behind Karben4 Brewing. “Our father posed the question, ‘How different would the world be if you showed your loved ones the same courtesy you show perfect strangers in an elevator?”

Ryan continued by emphasizing his regard for his younger brother as a man, a professional and as his best friend.

Karben4 Embodiment of Wisconsin Craft Brewing Culture

On a micro scale, Karben4’s Zak, Ryan and Alex embody the craft brewing culture of Wisconsin today.

Craft brewing, seemingly a glamorous profession, is often unlucrative. Restaurants and pubs only have so much room on their tap lines, and retailers lack endless shelf space. Breaking into the brewing business is accompanied by a vast monetary outlay and expenses, including stainless steel equipment and packaging machinery, according to Garthwaite.

Since the days Alex and Zak tossed around business ideas five years ago, Karben4 Brewing’s bottled brews now line the shelves of thousands of Wisconsin retailers with dozens of sales personnel and serve the majority of the state’s population.

Garthwaite explained the zeal for art, craftsmanship and imagination drives small breweries. You would think that bitter competition would accompany such earnest passion, yet Garthwaite points out that Wisconsin’s craft brewing culture is more a community of collaborators working collectively to share ideas and encouragement.

“A lot of these [brewers] are learning as they go, and they really enjoy opportunities to learn together,” says Garthwaite. “They enjoy each other’s beer, too, and are inspired by what they all do.”

This is something Karben4 Brewing’s three owners can easily agree on: Their product has not only given them the opportunity to deliver their community craft beer and launch their creative passions, but most importantly, it has empowered each of them to find meaning in their lives and deepen their relationships as brothers and best friends.

It’s March 2012, and once again Zak and Alex are breathlessly chatting over the phone at the bleak hour of 1 a.m. The scrabbles over lease signing, bank financing, equipment and business strategy have long passed. Now, filling that space is laughter.

Reflecting on that time, Zak’s voice accelerates in pace, and he explains that this was what he cherished the most out of this journey of opening Karben4 Brewing ― developing a product that would accurately merge Ryan, Alex and himself.

“We really had to just sit there and figure out who we were so that we could create this authentic product or experience,” Zak says. “So all that time just disagreeing, fighting, loving it, laughing, it was just every emotion imaginable.”

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