{"id":125411,"date":"2025-03-11T02:26:29","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T02:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/recipes\/category-a-b\/beer\/where-theres-smoke-theres-smoldered-society-hop-culture\/"},"modified":"2025-03-11T02:26:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T02:26:29","slug":"where-theres-smoke-theres-smoldered-society-hop-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=125411","title":{"rendered":"Where There\u2019s Smoke, There\u2019s Smoldered Society \u2022 Hop Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Smoldered Society Brand Manager Cameron Frank once almost burned his mom\u2019s house down. While watching his mom\u2019s dogs, Frank says he had left the house and later an ember popped out of the fireplace and landed on the ottoman, sparking a small fire. \u201cI came back, and the house was filled with smoke because it had been smoldering for hours,\u201d he shares. \u201cI pissed my pants.\u201d Running inside, Frank says he grabbed the dogs (everyone was fine). Years later, when he had the opportunity to run his own beer brand, Smoldered Society rose from those ashes. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe house is still standing, by the way,\u201d Smoldered Society Art Director and Director of Sales & Marketing Peter Cahlstadt points out. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just my mom\u2019s great-grandmother\u2019s ottoman,\u201d laughs Frank. \u201cThe dogs were fine.\u201d <\/p>\n

Smoldered Society, an offshoot brand of Community Beer Works, which also includes Thin Man in its portfolio, has been on fire, landing on our list of \u201cThe Best New Breweries of 2024.\u201d <\/a><\/p>\n

Pulling any of their beers off the shelves takes us back to one of those underground raves we went to in Chicago in our early twenties, where people stood around drinking PBR, dancing, and watching folks skate on a homemade ramp set up in some empty warehouse. <\/p>\n

That sort of f**k-the-man attitude, captured in this brand, from the labels to the beers, has been turning heads and setting shelves on fire. <\/p>\n

We\u2019re following the smoke to Smoldered Society. <\/p>\n

Rising From Day-One Employees to Start Smoldered Society<\/h2>\n
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Smoldered Society Head Brewer Ryan Zacarchuk (top left), Brand Manager Cameron Frank (top right), and Art Director and Director of Sales & Marketing Peter Cahlstadt (bottom) | Photograph courtesy of Smoldered Society Director of Social Media, Sarah Potter (@sarahpotterphotos<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Frank, Cahlstadt, and Smoldered Society Head Brewer Ryan Zacarchuk met while working at Thin Man Brewery in Buffalo, NY. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny because all three of us were essentially day-one employees,\u201d says Frank, who started there nine years ago as a busser before \u201cweaseling\u201d his way into a sales position and eventually becoming brand manager. <\/p>\n

The PR and advertising major says he \u201cwas a horrible college student\u201d who didn\u2019t know what he wanted to do with his life, so he got behind the bar. \u201cI started to fall in love with beer.\u201d <\/p>\n

A former barista and bartender, Zacarchuk says he felt bored and wanted to do something more creative. Considering going back to school for brewing, Zacarchuk says his boss, one of the original owners of Thin Man, had a different idea. \u201cWhy don\u2019t I just give you a job at the brewery,\u201d Zacarchuk says he told him. \u201cYou can wash kegs or whatever.\u201d <\/p>\n

Zacarchuk eventually took over running the small-batch system before becoming the head brewer at Smoldered Society. <\/p>\n

At the time, Frank lived around the corner from the brewery and would pop in four to five days a week just to talk to Zacarchuk and ask him, \u201cWhat the f**k are you doing?!\u201d <\/p>\n

Similarly, Cahlstadt found Thin Man a wayward home. <\/p>\n

\u201cI dropped out of art school and just drove around a lot with my buddies, going up to Vermont and all the beer places,\u201d he says. Cahlstadt originally applied at Thin Man to be a bartender, but they told him he wasn\u2019t qualified. \u201cBut we need someone to make a bunch of ads for us, and we see this art school shit on your resume,\u201d Cahlstadt laughs as he retells the story. \u201cI told them I definitely graduated and could totally work on all that!\u201d <\/p>\n

All three collided at Thin Man, which Community Beer Works acquired last year. <\/p>\n

Looking to utilize an unused seven-barrel tank space, Community Beer Works tapped Frank, Cahlstadt, and Zacarchuk to start Smoldered Society. <\/p>\n

Garage Bands, Skate Decks, and Small-Batch Beers<\/h2>\n
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Photograph courtesy of Smoldered Society Director of Social Media, Sarah Potter (@sarahpotterphotos<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If Community Beer Works is your honor-roll-student big brother, Smoldered Society is like your\u2026well, art school-dropout kid brother\u2014extraordinarily creative and talented and unbound by any rules. <\/p>\n

Drinking something from Smoldered Society warps you back in time. <\/p>\n

Punctured 9-volt batteries, three-eyed monsters, dancing skeletons, and \u201890s analog TV sets with knobs are common fixtures on Smoldered Society\u2019s cans. <\/p>\n

\u201cSmoldered goes back to the early days of startups and the guerrilla-ness of starting a small-batch brand,\u201d says Cahlstadt. <\/p>\n

Fueled by passion, creativity, and an almost lets-do-whatever-the-f**k-we-want attitude, Smoldered doesn\u2019t hold back. <\/p>\n

For example, when Zacarchuk wanted to make a beer resembling ambrosia salad. For all those folks who didn\u2019t grow up in the Midwest, salad is a very loose term for this dish of pineapple, mandarin oranges, mini marshmallows, coconut, and whipped cream. <\/p>\n

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Photography courtesy of Sarah Potter (@sarahpotterphotos<\/a>), Director of Social Media, Smoldered Society<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the marshmallow fruit salad all the old Polish ladies bring to parties,\u201d jokes Cahlstadt. <\/p>\n

To mimic the \u201csalad\u2019s\u201d coconut flavors, Zacarchuk added Sabro, a hop with coconut-like qualities, on the hot side. \u201cIt\u2019s crunchy and chewy,\u201d says Zacarchuk. And for the pineapple, the most tropical fruit-like hops Zacarchuk could think of was Nelson and Azacca. <\/p>\n

For the marshmallow, he added a Nature\u2019s Flavors powder. \u201cIt tastes like marshmallows and feels like marshmallows,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s super weird!\u201d <\/p>\n

The IPA, Weaponized Incompetence, came out as close to Ambrosia as possible\u2014a statement in itself that is pretty wild. <\/p>\n

The philosophy at Smoldered isn\u2019t necessarily bigger is better, says Zacarchuk, \u201cbut bigger is better!\u201d <\/p>\n

Like using \u201cunapologetic pounds of hops per barrel,\u201d says Cahlstadt. <\/p>\n

Zacarchuk says it\u2019s not uncommon for Frank to tell him to push the hopping rates slightly next time. \u201cIt\u2019s a game of inches right now,\u201d says the head brewer, who has gotten some of Smoldered\u2019s beers up to five pounds per barrel on their tiny seven-barrel system. <\/p>\n

Yet for a brand built on Godzilla-like flavors, the brewery\u2019s restrained pilsner is perhaps everyone\u2019s favorite. <\/p>\n

The Crown Jewel<\/h2>\n
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Photograph courtesy of Smoldered Society Director of Social Media, Sarah Potter (@sarahpotterphotos<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Smoldered Society\u2019s Strike Anywhere has become the unequivocal and somewhat surprising favorite in the brewery\u2019s portfolio. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s our pride and joy,\u201d says Frank, \u201cDespite everything else we\u2019ve said, I feel like this is unabashedly different but cool.\u201d <\/p>\n

Wanting to appeal to a domestic consumer, Frank says Strike Anywhere struck that perfect balance. <\/p>\n

Essentially a Czech-American lager mashup, this pilsner gets an infusion of corn (for that American inflection). Zacarchuk also drops the final gravity a bit to make this beer more drinkable. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can drink like f**king three of them,\u201d says Cahlstadt. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just meant to be a super extra drinkable Czech lager,\u201d Zacarchuk piggybacks. \u201cIt\u2019s something living in my brain for a while\u2014this combination of where American beer came from and combined with the tradition of [the style].\u201d <\/p>\n

For perspective, while Smoldered brews all its hoppy stuff and fruited sours in its seven-barrel fermenters, Strike Anywhere goes through the twenty-barrel system. <\/p>\n

For practical reasons\u2014the lager isn\u2019t tying up a tank for too long\u2014but also because people have responded so well to the quaffable bottom-fermented beer. \u201cThis is our permanent line beer, our permanent package placement beer,\u201d says Frank, who was shocked at first that this beer shot to the top. \u201cThis is the crown jewel of Smoldered for me.\u201d <\/p>\n

Fed-Up Garage Punk Fun<\/h2>\n
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At Smoldered Society, it all comes back to having fun, whether designing beer recipes, coming up with beer names, or illustrating quirky graphics. <\/p>\n

Cahlstadt, who approaches Smoldered\u2019s art with a notepad instead of a digital vector-based program, calls it \u201cfed-up garage punk.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels almost primitive,\u201d says the former art school student. \u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019m doodling on a notepad instead of taking notes during class.\u201d <\/p>\n

While other brands Cahlstadt has worked on feel precise and clean, Smoldered Society is very much handcrafted through \u201cpencil and paper.\u201d <\/p>\n

Like Illusion of Society, a double IPA series with a bushy-eyed banker on the can holding up a birdcage with a globe inside it that looks almost like an early 1900s political cartoon. <\/p>\n

Frank went to Cahlstadt with the idea, and \u201che just threw together this incredible design,\u201d says Frank, admitting he has these crazy ideas that Cahlstadt always seems to execute. <\/p>\n

Like Balrog, the brewery\u2019s double-dry-hopped triple IPA with Citra Cryo, Nelson Savuin, Citra-licious Hop Oil, and Nelson Hop Oil. An ardent Lord of the Rings fan, Frank wanted the label to touch on the darker side of Smoldered. For those who don\u2019t know, Balrog is essentially a demon of the ancient world and a servant of the first dark lord, Morgoth. \u201cI sent [Cahlstadt] a shitty JPEG from a Google search, and four days later, this beautiful label hit my texts,\u201d laughs Frank. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all possible,\u201d says Cahlstadt, who calls these monster- and character-like doodles \u201cbrain barfs.\u201d <\/p>\n

This is unapologetically Smoldered Society, and people have been eating it up. <\/p>\n

Keep Eating<\/h2>\n
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Everything Smoldered touches possesses an absurd authenticity. You know when you stand in front of a campfire, and your clothes still smell like smoke the next day? Something about Smoldered Society permeates our fabrics, latching on and refusing to let go. <\/p>\n

Frank, Cahlstadt, and Zacarchuk won\u2019t ever apologize for their DNA. In fact, they believe that\u2019s what makes this brand so authentic. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an expression of who we are,\u201d says Frank. \u201cI get shit every once in a while, but I love to eat and will keep eating it!\u201d <\/p>\n

Smoldered is big, Smoldered is brash, and Smoldered is in your face. But they wouldn\u2019t have it any other way. <\/p>\n

The only piece missing is a brick-and-mortar where they can see their fans\u2019 faces every day. <\/p>\n

For the self-distributing trio, a taproom is essential to growing the brand. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a channel of creativity we haven\u2019t had yet,\u201d explains Frank, who believes the extra space will allow them to branch out with the brewery\u2019s crown jewel\u2014Strike Anywhere\u2014brewing new variants. <\/p>\n

But Frank assures that he will always go to Zacarchuk with \u201ceven more f**ked-up pitches on pounds per barrel!\u201d <\/p>\n

And make some taproom exclusives that are \u201cpretty f**king weird.\u201d <\/p>\n

That\u2019s the goal here. \u201cJust keep pushing and pushing and pushing,\u201d says Zacarchuk. <\/p>\n

We\u2019re not sure Smoldered Society knows how to do it any other way. <\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it strange that just a little spark, a smoldering ember, can create so much smoke? <\/p>\n

And where there\u2019s smoke\u2026there\u2019s Smoldered Society. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n