​The Strategy Jackalope Uses to Build Up its Crew​

​Using a baseball term, Jackalope isn’t afraid to develop its talent by bringing in taproom regulars to work for them​. To co-founder Bailey Spaulding, there are “farm league call-ups” all over the 50,000-square-foot Nashville brewing facility.

“I feel like we bring people into the fold, then find a place for them,” she told Brewer during the July/August cover story interview in late May.

Spaulding touted how Packaging Manager Andrea May was an ER nurse that stopped from time to time at the tap room and eventually asked if she could help out on the canning line.

“So she’d help pack out when we were canning,” Spaulding recalled. “She just has amazing attention to detail and a work ethic. She learned it all herself and is a pretty amazing person.”

Head Brewer Tim Ryan came from a local homebrew store, and Quality Manager Brian Gordon moved to Nashville from Texas in 2018 and joined the team.

“I’d say we have pretty good retention here,” Spaulding said.

Jackalope tries to build from people like that. Fans of the brand that already understand the culture and don’t need that initial first lesson “who we are and what we are.”

“You just need to know how people will work in the space,” Spaulding said. “Especially with brewing, if they’re people who are just getting into it — like it’s a very romantic notion — and then you’re like, actually … it’s a lot of hard work and mostly you’re cleaning, you’re on your feet and it’s 1,000 degrees and you’ve got to do everything right.

“We kind of have canning helpers and like Matt, who was a canning helper now he’s just moved into the cellar. Same with Brandon who’s been a keg washer, he moved into the cellar this spring as well.”

Spaulding ​wanted to open ​the brewery to be a community center and to bring people in and ​she’s doing it that way.

​”Especially with craft beer, that’s really helpful, because the message of what we’re sending out is important, and you need people who believe in it,” she said.

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