Exploring Life & Business with Ted Rosenau of Petty Thieves Brewing Company

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ted Rosenau.  

Hi Ted, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I started homebrewing as soon as I realized you could make beer on a stovetop shortly after finishing engineering school. I brewed casually but always wanted to make beer of equal quality to what I could buy off the shelf. I continued working and brewing, making the jump to all-grain brewing and developing my own recipes based on my brewing heroes, such as Sierra Nevada, Dogfish Head, and Bell’s. My fascination continued through reading brewing textbooks and brewer biographies and turned into an obsession. Over the course of ten years, I grew tired of my desk job, and when dreaming of what my next step would be, all I wanted to do was pursue running a neighborhood brewery based on the styles of beers I had been perfecting in the brewing shed-all styles light to dark, hoppy to malt-driven, experimental to traditional. I took the plunge and quit my job to have more work flexibility and time to work on the brewery project, working for myself and learning lessons of entrepreneurship with experience, fully convinced the brewery project would be up and running in the course of a few months. Over the course of 5 years of planning, I wrote the business plan, shopped real estate, gathered a small amount of investment, bought a used brewing system, and collected artifacts and furnishings that we would later use in the brewery. The project waited on real estate the longest-3 years for the space we now occupy-and we were finally ready to build in January 2020. Two months later, the entire world shut down in an unprecedented pandemic, and all we knew to do was continue building. So that’s what we did. We completed buildout and opened doors on September 19, 2020, and immediately shifted to packaging with our first canning run just three months into operation. We’ve been steadily growing since, with live music, art shows, weekly groups, weekend parties, and ever-expanding self-distribution. And we’ve had a ton of help from local breweries and bottle shops who have given us supplies, advice, taproom visits, shelf space, tap opportunities, and recommendations. It’s been a hard and wild ride so far, and we’re excited for the future! 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The brewery opened in the middle of the pandemic in a fringe area of Charlotte. What we had going for us was a following we had cultivated in the years leading up to our opening. And a large patio space. It’s been anything but smooth. Our DIY ethic was tested many times with building projects, maintenance issues with used equipment, creating all the art that comes with can labels, merchandise, social media posts, and advertising. We are the newest of a large number of breweries in a city who have grown somewhat ambivalent about craft beer. We didn’t have the access that other older experienced because tasting opportunities and beer festivals had all disappeared. Finding our audience was difficult because all we had was social media reach to get people to try our taproom. Bars and restaurants didn’t have room in their budgets for anything but the most recognized, cost-effective brands. Having consistent food at the taproom has also been a struggle since our early attendance wasn’t enough to make them want to return. And then, of course, being a startup meant having a lean team where we all do many different jobs working hard hours and late nights. This has been a labor of love for me- and one that has taken so much time and planning with very little financial return. The hours are long, and the stresses are sometimes impossibly big, but there’s nothing else I would rather be doing. Money or not. 

We’ve been impressed with Petty Thieves Brewing Company, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We are a small neighborhood brewery in North End Charlotte, NC. We specialize in keeping 19 taps flowing with a rotating blend of lagers, saisons, sours, IPAs, and stouts- some traditional, some experimental. We have a 7bbl brewhouse that is currently brewing 700bbls annually, servicing our taproom and an increasing list of retail accounts. We are unafraid to make styles that are out of fashion, sometimes being the only brewery in the area with a style represented. And we only have one hazy IPA on at a time. Our brand has evolved from a delicate timeless design to darker gothic and psychedelic overtones as we continue to explore our own brand of weird. We promise that your curiosity will be rewarded if you pick up one of our many different packaged or taproom offerings. 

What do you think about luck?
We are the first to recognize forces outside of our control working for our interests. We held a ceremony before our floors were poured where we placed tokens, charms, and talismans in a box and buried it. We are very aware of folks who gave us a chance when we didn’t deserve one. We wear our black sheep status proudly as we keep digging to find our tribe. I was brought up in the church community and have left it many times. What remains after burning much of it down is the deep knowing that all of this is absurd and is only here because of extremely long odds. It is in this afterglow of a reality that shouldn’t really exist that we all live our very short lives. We are narrative creatures who paint character arcs in a story of self, but largely without the context of being on the thinnest outer layer of a rock hurtling through an ever-expanding universe full of nothing. We all live on borrowed time, and when it’s up, we aren’t here to care anymore. This, more than anything, is the ethos of Petty Thieves- live now because nothing is ever guaranteed. Make the art. Work for yourself. Be the friend. Build the project. Write the book. Take the risk. Eat the cake. Whatever it is you are afraid to be or show or create- that is what you should be doing. Now. Today. Because if it burns, it burns. It is not the critic who counts. Live recklessly because the risk of living quietly unfulfilled is even more dangerous. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pettythievesbrewing.com
• Instagram: @pettythievesbrewing
• Facebook: @pettythievesbeer