Zaftig Brewing Celebrates 10 Years
Earlier this year Zaftig Brewing celebrated 10 years of serving full-bodied beers to Worthington and central Ohio.
Zaftig started small in a production space on Schrock Road, operating as a small-batch brewery and a rustic taproom before moving into its current home on Huntley Road. It’s become a hub for the community, a place to enjoy excellent beers, taste local food trucks, and hang out with live music and more fun events.
We chatted with Jim Gokenbach, one of the founders, about how the brewery started and where it is today!
Nick: So, tell us how Zaftig Brewing came about!
Jim: It started basically with a good friend of mine that lived in my neighborhood. We started home brewing in the kitchen, on the stove top. I’ve always had a passion for cooking, but at the time I didn't really care for craft beer. I went to Purdue, drank a lot of macro beers. We started home brewing back in 2010. And it quickly got to where we're kind of like Tim the Toolman Taylor, like go big or go home. I think we only brewed once, maybe twice, on the stovetop. And then the wives kicked us out to the back patio. And then we basically reconfigured my buddy's garage into a brew space. We home brewed for almost two full years, and every two or three months we'd have a party. It started with just some friends and then it turned into friends and coworkers and coworkers’ friends.
The last event that we ended up having was in December, I believe, of 2012. And Jason Blevins, my business partner, came to that. He worked with our previous business partner. We had three or four beers on tap and we were accepting donations, obviously. It only ended up being like $200 bucks, but the very next week, Jason said, “You guys, that beer was amazing. Like really, really good. Have you guys ever thought about starting a brewery?” And we were like, “We are, we’re kind of dragging our feet as far as going to the next step.”
We already had the name Zaftig, which worked because at the time we were brewing all high-alcohol beers. It was different than what others were doing, like our Heavy Hearted amber, Shadowed Mistress, BamBaLam breakfast stout, Two Cans IPA. Those were all big beer names, which really coincide with what Zaftig means, which is ‘full-bodied’ or ‘voluptuous.’
So Jason came into the picture and really pushed us. A year and a half later we sat around my kitchen table and said, “Do we want to do this?” So we decided to start a brewery. We signed our lease over in Worthington off Schrock in May of 2013 and we started building it out ourselves.
Nick: And this wasn’t a full-time gig for you at the time?
Jim: Me and Jason and Brent all had full-time jobs. So we were working on it on the weekends and nights. We were trying to see if it works and kind of expand organically, and it did. We started off small and it was working really well, but the families were getting run down. We were working full-time jobs. That's a lot to ask. We were at the brewery a couple nights a week after our jobs or before mine. I worked third shift as an operations manager at the time. And then every Saturday from 5 a.m. until eight or nine o'clock at night, we were at the brewery and so it was getting taxing on the family and so we were like, “We're either going to grow or we're not.” And you know, at that time Brent decided that that wasn't going to be for him, which was fine, but Jason and I wanted to move forward and so we signed this lease [on Huntley Road] in November of 2015 and moved over here in May of 2016. So technically we're almost 11 years old.
Nick: I remember the early days when taprooms could start serving beer directly to the public! In your Schrock Road facility you guys had a big chest freezer with holes drilled in the top for your taps, and a bunch of couches and a Nintendo.
Jim: Yeah, we had hoses running underneath your feet. Usually Saturdays were a complete shit show between brewing and then the brewers drinking with the patrons. It was kind of the wild west. We had Nintendos because we all had kids, like young kids. Some of the first ugly sweater parties we had tents set up in the parking lot and brought heaters in and people loved it. And then as soon as we could start pouring pints, people started coming in by the droves. When we had our first Zaftig Bourbon Stout, we advertised a little bit on social media. And we only had like a third of a keg and we were only going do it in five-ounce pours. And 150 people showed up and we sold out of it. Like in that little space over the course of a day!
Nick: A lot’s changed in 10 years!
Jim: Ten years is a long time. It's been challenging, but it's also been fun. We've definitely had some big highlights for sure, like being partnered with the Crew. But the beer industry has changed too, right? When we started all the way back on Schrock and then even when we moved over in here in 2016, everything was still bombers and 16.9 ounce bottles and beer shares and people lined up for releases. And now the only beer that we make specifically that has a big line like that is Ol’ Rugger. We still have some heavier beers that we make, but that's probably a third of our portfolio.
Nick: Do you have a favorite memory or something that you guys have done over the past 10 years?
Jim: You know, we have some great friends here at the brewery that are very skilled, as far as tradesmen go. One of my favorite memories is the Ohio Craft Beer Association had a 6-1-Pour event back in 2015. They had the Tallest Tap Handle contest. We won that with a big tap handle that was 100 feet tall, I believe. It was crazy tall, but it poured beer, it was a functioning. So that was a fun early memory.
From a beer standpoint, I would be remiss if I didn't say I mean we're super proud of Ol’ Rugger. It's won awards against the best beers in the country. The Ol’ Rugger release days are a lot of fun.; it's non-stop for an hour and a half until we're out of bottles. And that's what the brewery is built on, those big full-bodied beers.
Nick: So then how have you changed your approach to beer over the years?
Jim: People are going back to their loyalties and wanting their light, easy drinking beers, in a place you can hang out for a while. So that's changed our marketing strategy. Probably a third of our portfolio is over 8% ABV. You think back 10 years ago the market was way different and craft beer was just starting to boom. But the new people, some don't drink alcohol at all. So we as a company are trying to cater to all of that as well. Guests can either have a soda or non-alcoholic beer. We have seltzers, or if you’re a bourbon drinker, we have a great bourbon selection. We don't make sours, but we carry some of the DankHouse sours.
Nick: Any other big changes coming soon?
Jim: Not crazy new, from a beer perspective. We're following the market trends and making some of the old recipes and stuff, like Two Cans, Three Socks, or our tropical hazies are getting ready to come out again.
What we're really focusing on now is transitioning this space into a local bar, like a local hangout with community-oriented events, whether it be private or public. We’re continuing to let the taproom evolve to even a more comfortable space to hang out in. That's something that's important to us.
Nick: I know you just updated a bunch of the furniture in the taproom. Anything else?
Jim: Hopefully the other big thing is remodeling the back room, to drive business by holding events here. We’ve had book clubs, we’ve had some weddings, some receptions. People are really looking for an affordable, nice space to host parties, so they don't have to worry about their house being cleaned up and holding 50 or 75 people. And you got drinks right here.
The plan is to elongate the bar as well, and then redo the furniture to match the new stuff. So I have bar stools and some new tables where the old long tables are, and cool, soft seating. So there are some fun updates coming.