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“ You always have to have one foot on the ground and one foot in the clouds.”
— Jeff McCabe
Hard Truth’ s Welcome Center. dedicated to brewing in the former Brown County Historical Society building( originally a bowling alley) where their beers are still brewed today. The brewery was branded Quaff ON! after the team discovered they couldn’ t secure a federal trademark for beer with the Big Woods name, McCabe said.
The company brought in Jim Dunbar, who used to fly helicopters with McCabe, as a fourth partner to get the new beer brand off the ground.
McCabe recalls plenty of industry“ No’ s” in the beginning and countless barriers trying to keep the hometown brewers from evolving into a distributed brand.“ Thankfully,” he said, grinning,“ we like a good fight.” The team would load up Dunbar’ s pick-up truck bed with kegs of beer, and the newest partner would drive from bar to bar until the kegs were all sold.
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