By Greg Doering – Kansas Living Magazine
People generally don’t look to the drink in their hand for advice about life but if they happen to be drinking Life Coach Lager they’ll receive some worldly wisdom.
The tagline for Kansas Territory Brewing Company’s flagship beer is as much a marketing slogan as it is timeless guidance for a multitude of life’s woes. The can shouts at customers to “SUCK IT UP!” in the same way a parent tries to prevent the cries of a child with a minor scrape.
Kansas Territory Brewing also produces large quantities of a pineapple version of Life Coach and Bradford Light.
Ales have long dominated the craft beer industry because they’re relatively easy to make and take about two weeks to produce. Lagers on the other hand, take up to a month to make and require more resources to produce.
Life Coach has a mild flavor and pale color. It’s similar to the big beers it’s modeled after, though it’s more bespoke than off the rack. Bradford Light is rice-based and is nearly identical to a Busch Light.
Leading with a trio of lagers isn’t a traditional route for a craft brewery, but for owners Brad and Donna Portenier, in a nod to the Life Coach slogan, chose a different path.
“Microbreweries make delicious stouts, but it’s like eating a turkey dinner,” Brad says of the decision to make a lager. “They make fantastic sours and Imperial IPAs. They’re all great, but sometimes you just want a beer.”
Anheuser Busch, Miller and Coors were the inspiration behind Life Coach. Something that’s easy to drink on a hot day after mowing the yard. It didn’t hurt that most Americans already had a taste for it.
“It’s the light lager that everybody in the United States drinks,” Brad says. “At least everybody that I know of.”
A TEAM OF BUILDERS
Though they’ve been brewers since 2015, the Porteniers have been builders for far longer. Brad and Donna started Bradford Built to build heavy-duty truck beds near where they both grew up in Washington County. The couple, who first met in Sunday School, were two-thirds of the initial workforce for the company that now employs more than 70 and sells truck beds across the country.
“I love manufacturing. I’m addicted to it,” Brad says. “I’ll do anything to keep from getting a real job.”
Brad adds that he’s the idea guy, while Donna handles dotting all the Is and Ts with the same attention to detail she had when she led the paint shop at Bradford Built. Or rather she was the paint shop.
LIFE DECISION
While teamwork helped Brad and Donna grow a company together, it could only do so much to help their community remain vibrant.
“Driving through Kansas and Nebraska, we were always discouraged at how all the towns were dying,” Brad says. “We wanted to do whatever we could do to have jobs and keep the lights on in town while offering something to do. Bradford Built offered the jobs and the brewery was something for people to do in town.”
Kansas Territory Brewing was actually born in downtown Washington, but it moved to a newer, larger facility in 2020 next door to Bradford Built’s manufacturing facility. In addition to equipment capable of producing 60,000 barrels per year, the new brewery also includes a restaurant, the flagship beers and seasonal varieties of those “turkey dinner” stouts, sours and IPAs.
There’s also experimentation with a margarita and raspberry-jalapeno beers.
“We like to try different stuff to keep it interesting,” Donna says.
BEYOND BEER
While the brewery has become a community focal point, the Porteniers aren’t satisfied with just suds. The extra space at the new location is also home to a distillery that will soon offer bourbon in addition to other spirits like rum and vodka.
A small distillation run at Territory Brewing’s downtown location yielded an initial batch of Cattleman’s Club, an 86-proof bourbon that was aged for three years. Unlike Life Coach, it’s meant to be savored. When sipped neat, it has a smooth taste with notes of vanilla and caramel though Brad says he enjoys it most with a sprinkle of water on the rocks.
“I kept it another year because I just didn’t think it was quite ready,” Brad says, noting bourbon has to be aged at least two years in charred oak barrels. “By golly it turned out good. I’d put it up against a lot of them.”
HIGH SPIRITS
The 3,000-bottle run will pale in comparison to what’s coming. The Porteniers have built a barrelhouse that can accommodate more than 4,300 casks. Patrons will be able to watch the barrels roll on an elevated track from the distillery to the barrelhouse along an elevated track that runs over Territory Brewing’s patio. In addition to the brewery, the patio offers access to a small gift shop and a barbershop, both are behind a façade that feels a little like a town in the Old West.
Currently, Cattleman’s Club is only available on site for $38.95 a bottle since the initial production run was so limited. Distribution will start in a couple of years once full barrels have aged and met Brad’s taste standards.
“I think we’ll probably run out before we get our next batch, but I guess there’s worse things,” he says. “I guess worse than running out would be if we still have 3,000 bottles when two years goes by.”
GROWING COMMUNITY
Since starting Kansas Territory Brewing, the Porteniers have discovered a new community (and a couple of cousins) through the people they’ve met.
“The nice thing about the microbrewery community is if you need help, people will help you,” Brad says. “Everybody’s just super easy to get along with.”
They’re hoping to foster a similar atmosphere at what’s become a cluster of social spaces. Or, as Brad calls it, “a group of sheds” where the brewery, distillery, barrelhouse and event space are.
“We bring in quite a few outside people and then there’s always the local group that shows up on weekends,” he says.
It hasn’t always been easy. The move to the new brewery coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, which “was the absolute worst time to start a new project,” Brad says.
“That transition from the old brewery to the new brewery was rough,” he said.
The larger brewery means there’s plenty of capacity to expand the reach of Life Coach and Bradford Light beyond their current distribution in Kansas and Missouri. Or better yet, continue drawing people to Washington to enjoy the lagers, the stouts and even bourbon available from Kansas Territory Brewing Company.
“It could turn into something really good,” Brad says.
To learn more about Kansas Territory Brewing, visit www.kansasterritorybrewingco.com.
