Matthew Shipp sits down with Dan Saettele, owner of Foeder Crafters—the only U.S. company dedicated to manufacturing foeders full-time. Dan shares how he transitioned from banking into running a specialized manufacturing shop, taking on the complexities of production, supply chains, and team leadership. They talk through the unique challenges of making large-scale oak vessels, why Missouri White Oak matters, and how Dan has approached continuous improvement across every part of the business. It’s a grounded conversation about buying a niche company, adapting fast, and learning how to lead from the shop floor
What does it take to buy a niche manufacturing business in the middle of a pandemic—and make it thrive? In this episode, Matthew talks with Dan Saettele, the former banker who now runs Foeder Crafters, the only U.S. company manufacturing foeders full-time. These massive Missouri White Oak fermentation tanks are turning heads in taprooms and changing the way craft beverages are made.
Dan opens up about the transition from finance to the shop floor, the operational overhaul he led, and the mindset that keeps the company evolving. This is a story of continuous improvement, smart leadership, and rethinking how tradition meets innovation.
✅ What a foeder is—and why it’s different from a barrel
✅ How Dan navigated supply chain, staffing, and process redesign
✅ The philosophy of “nothing is sacred” in product development
✅ Common misconceptions about American oak and how Foeder Crafters challenges them
✅ Global trends in fermentation—from Korea to natural wine
✅ Advice for anyone thinking of buying a niche business in craft beverage
Dan Saettele
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Foeder Crafters
Matthew: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Harvest to Pour. I'm your host Matthew Shipp, and today I am here with Dan Saettele, owner and CEO of Foeder Crafters. Dan, welcome to the show.
Dan Saettele: Thanks. Thanks for having me, man.
Matthew: Great. So let's start a little bit telling you, tell us about yourself and, know where you are now with Foeder Crafters.
Dan Saettele: Yeah. Yeah. So I'm, I, I've owned Foeder Crafters for five years. I. Came out of a completely different industry, fell in love with this place and, wanted to kind of do it full time. And, and here I am five years later running a, a woodworking shop. Never thought I'd be doing that.
Matthew: A woodworking shop. So, before we get too deep into this, and so you, you, you've bought this company and such. I'm really, really curious if you could, this may be the first time. Anybody has ever heard of a foeder as, and it's even spelled differently. F-O-E-D-E-R. So it looks like foer, but it's called pronounced foeder.
So, give us a [00:01:00] quick definition of what a foeder is and what it's used for.
Dan Saettele: Yeah,
Matthew: I.
Dan Saettele: a foeder is basically a big oak vat or big wooden vat. it's how all beverages were made before the industrial revolution when, when stainless steel came along. think of a barrel except on a much larger scale. We go anywhere. We start our smallest one's about five times the size of a barrel, and you know, we go all the way up to swimming pool size.
Matthew: Oh wow. And, and they're made out of,
Dan Saettele: Ours are made of Missouri White Oak.
Matthew: okay. And, so this is, And is there anything else, like, so you typically use for, is it, is it just general fermenting or is it aging or what's the
Dan Saettele: both. It just depends what product you're making. But we have customers who ferment in them. We have customers who blend in them. We have customers who age in them, souring beers, all kinds of stuff.
Matthew: All right.
Dan Saettele: use cases that we didn't even know existed.
Matthew: Oh, really? Okay.
Dan Saettele: calls us up and we're like, oh [00:02:00] yeah, okay, yeah, you can do that.
Matthew: Oh, neat. Okay. So, what really, so you said you, you, you purchased food or crafters, you, you bought the business. so what motivated you to buy it and, you know, what were your biggest, concerns and surprises, kind of making that transition into, this industry?
Dan Saettele: Sure. it was. It was a kind of a wild change. It was beginning of COVID wild time, but so I, I, I was a banker in my prior life and this was one of my customers at the bank and I, the first time I came into the building, I just fell in love with the place like this. The product is amazing.
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: to look at, smells incredible in the shop. I did woodworking as a hobby, kind of on the smaller
Matthew: Hmm. Okay.
Dan Saettele: Loved beer, all this stuff. The, the owner at that time, the guy who founded Food or Crafters, has this electric personality and just kind of brought me in. And I found myself spending way too much time here.
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: then, COVID came. [00:03:00] He was ready to do something different.
I was ready to get out of bank. and so we, I raised my hand when he said that and, you know, said, let's, let's make this happen. Bought the
Matthew: All right.
Dan Saettele: right at five years ago.
Matthew: All right. So, what did you,
okay.
Dan Saettele: would say, I mean, operationally were, that was like the busiest, busiest we had ever been. So, I
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: much had process of, of making our product down pretty well.
Matthew: Mm.
Dan Saettele: but I, I am well aware of the. The problems that came prior to me buying it that were worked through, and we still had a few when I bought it, but, the biggest one was our, our supply chain. It's, it's pretty, a couple in a couple areas. It's tough. The, the big one is wood. we have a very specific species.
We, it has to be cut a certain way. Basically. You can't just go buy off the shelf
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: a foeder out of it. It's not gonna work well. but they had that figured out. A couple [00:04:00] years before I bought the place, when I came it was the smaller things, like manway and, you know, what do we fabricate in house?
Where do we fab, you know, send out some somewhere else.
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: we were bringing in Manway from France or, or Italy I guess. And you know, sometimes they have have to be reworked, like how do we work with that? So there was some of that kind of process that we had to figure out. but that was pretty easy.
That's the stuff I'm good at. I think. the biggest change for me was being a, a manager and dealing with the people side of the business. 'cause I had
Matthew: Ah.
Dan Saettele: done that before.
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
So.
Dan Saettele: you know, managing a shop with, with, at that time, 10 guys working in the back. Everybody's, you know, long days.
It's hard work. There's attitudes, there's all kinds of stuff. That was all new to me and it
Matthew: Oh, okay.
Dan Saettele: mean, it was fun. I, I like all the guys, but it was a definite change.
Matthew: So did you have to adapt your expectations coming into it A little bit.
Dan Saettele: Oh yeah, for
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: I mean, part of that was that when I was in due diligence, [00:05:00] COVID didn't exist.
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: And then, when I bought the place, we were, you know, we had to have the shop kind of cut up into spaces everybody around, not around other people. You know, our customers were dealing with their own problems. was supply chain problems, all
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: So. the plans I had going into it kind of got scrapped
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: to kind of start from scratch.
Matthew: Okay. So what were you, did they get scrapped or just set aside? Have, have you got to a place where you're kind of returning to that?
Dan Saettele: some of them got permanently scrapped
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: of 'em did just get set to the side and brought back, you know, a year or two later. like like, I was gonna hire salesman like the first
Matthew: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: The salesmen can't just go knock on doors in the middle of COVID, no one's gonna let 'em in.
So we
Matthew: True.
Dan Saettele: on hold, that kind of stuff. but then when stuff started to open back up, we, we picked that up and kind of moved on.
Matthew: Okay. All right. And so you, we, we talked about some of the other changes you made. What were your [00:06:00] kind of the most significant changes to like, you said a supply chain and some other things. What were, and also just the process of getting the, food footers finished and, and stuff. So what were some of the major, changes you made?
Dan Saettele: So the biggest one was wood. they had the supplier figured out I bought the business. but we still just didn't have enough and. So injecting a bunch of cash. See, with our product, we have to buy our, our raw material two years plus in advance, which is
Matthew: Wow.
Dan Saettele: pain and a lot of capital.
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: and it, it took not only the cash, but the right partner to trust us that, hey, we're gonna be around in two years to, to take this, take delivery of it.
This is what we think our sales are gonna be, and kind of lay it all out and be a, have a really good relationship with, with that guy. so that was the first thing we dealt with. it took about a year to get us up to the level of inventory we needed. but luckily we had already had the right guy, so we didn't have to [00:07:00] totally start from scratch.
It was just kind of building on what we had.
Matthew: Okay. Okay, so you already had No,
Dan Saettele: sorry, go ahead.
Matthew: no, go ahead. I was internal process. Go ahead.
Dan Saettele: Internal processes. The shop was kind of laid out a little funny. nothing that really hampered us too much, but definitely a few months in. Like when, when we hit a slow time for a couple weeks, I'm like, okay, this is the time to do it. We're gonna move stuff around. And we just kind of laid stuff out so that, you know, it goes, it comes in one door, our raw material does, and then it just laid out around the shop like a circle, the same way our, our product is built. So then it goes to another door and it's ready to leave.
Matthew: And.
Dan Saettele: once we got it all, moved around the right way, it just, everything flowed a lot better.
People weren't tripping over each other. It. You know, it was so
Matthew: Okay, so what did that look like, kind of balancing that? Was it just you standing back and saying, we need to move things, or was it talking with the team and getting some of their suggestions?
Dan Saettele: I was definitely talking with the team,
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: of them. you know, I asked the question, I'm like, why is the [00:08:00] saw this saw over here? And somebody would be like, oh, I'm so glad you asked. I've been trying to get this moved for years. And like, okay, tell me what you think, where you think it should be. And then we would draw out a plan. And then I'd say, well, it needs, if it needs to be over there, you know, what does that guy
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: think about that? And so we, we ended up, I'd go to each guy and then we'd all sit together. You know, I say all of us. There was 10 of us in the shop. It wasn't a big deal. We'd sit in morning meeting, what if we move things around this way?
What are the problems? I'm not thinking of, how would this work for everybody and get kind of everybody's buy-in. and it took a few months to get everything worked out, but it, it really, it flowed a lot better.
Matthew: Okay, cool. Talk a little bit about some of the, there were some new innovations, you showed me with the crafting of the footers that you make versus the ones that are made in Europe. And, I guess most of that was already set. Have you done any more? To advance the innovation of these foeder since you've, owned [00:09:00] the company?
Dan Saettele: yeah, there's not a single piece except that joint that I had
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: that hasn't been touched. We've tried to look at every single thing.
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: the innovation of the joint was, that's the biggest one. So for the listeners, a whiskey barrel is put together in the sides of a stave. The, the wood
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: it's just held together with tension and you just pray it doesn't leak and it always does. Ours actually has fingers that lock into each other and makes it way more stable, way more airtight and watertight. And we basically have near zero problems with them. and that's, that was. Innovated because Matt Walters, the, the guy who started foeder Crafters had no experience. He was just, he was an innovator, an inventor.
He, he just liked making new stuff. And he, like, well, if I had to make a foeder, this is how I would do it. And, and he did. but there is not another single piece of the, OR that we haven't identified. I mean, even the past two weeks, we've started changing a [00:10:00] little thing on our welds. it's been from. You know, we've, we've gotten a new cooling plate supplier, that are just much more robust work, a lot better, have better flow, all that. lumber suppliers for our stands. We've changed glue suppliers, we've changed silicone suppliers,
Matthew: Geez.
Dan Saettele: kind of over the past five years. We've tried to just take one at a time and see what's wrong with this piece.
We've gotten new jigs in the shop, we've gotten all kinds of stuff. but. I think we're really kind of now, in the past year, we're, we're so honed in on, on every little piece that I, I'm confident our footers will last way longer than me.
Matthew: So it's really true that, I mean, you kinda have a continuous improvement mentality. When it comes to these feeders, okay?
Dan Saettele: No, we, I, I told the guys when I bought this place, nothing is sacred.
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: things because that's the way we've always done it. I mean, the whole reason we are here is because we innovated. There's, there's no reason to [00:11:00] stop at that. We just, we gotta keep pushing ourselves and figure out how to make the best product. And the guys really took that to heart and they have no problem coming to me and, and telling me when something's not working.
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: and then
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: we say what's wrong or they'll call us, you know, if there's a leak or something like that. and we use that information to, to kind of figure out how to.
To continuous improvement in our product.
Matthew: Okay. So this is a great segue on the moving into kind of the market piece of how you let people know, You're, you're out there, you have, you have this product and they, they might need it. And this is kind of unique. We were talking about, we had to explain it initially. You know what a foeder is? and there, and I believe you are the only one in the nation making these,
Dan Saettele: Yeah, yeah. At
Matthew: okay.
Dan Saettele: I mean,
Matthew: A scale, okay?
Dan Saettele: who have made one or two.
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: Here and there, but we're the only shop that does it full time.
Matthew: That's amazing. So, so I bet you have a lot of potential customers that don't even know they need a [00:12:00] foeder.
Dan Saettele:
Matthew: so who is that person and what needs are they looking to fulfill that you can help them, when it comes to needing a foeder?
Dan Saettele: Yeah. So, so one would be, the producer who doesn't have any wood program at all right now.
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: If, if you think the flavor profile of your product that you're making would work well with Oak,
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: about a whiskey or something like that,
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: they, the kind of flavors that you're gonna get out of the oak.
So whether it be a an RTD or even a cannabis drink, like kind of things, some of the flavors would work really well, you
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: then you should think about getting a foeder. the other are people that work with barrels right now.
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: a huge pain.
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: They leak, they're, they don't store a lot.
You have to blend them all the stuff. they're a big pain point. And that's a lot, A lot of the reasons why our customers come to us in the first place is
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: they have a barrel program and they're sick of using barrels.
Matthew: [00:13:00] Okay. Is this typically a beer and wine that, that are coming to you?
Dan Saettele: our customer base is about about 50% breweries
Matthew: Okay. Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: About 40%. No, probably 50 breweries, 30% distilleries, 10% wine, and then the rest just random. Other little things.
Matthew: You want to experiment, as you said, there's a lot of different uses you've discovered just by, being out there with it.
Dan Saettele: Anything from a sauerkraut, you know, maker
Matthew: Oh, really?
Dan Saettele: soy sauce or all kinds of stuff,
Matthew: Oh, that is cool. Okay. That's, that's, Hey, even more. That's really neat. And then, So how do you educate new markets about the value of your product then?
Dan Saettele: well, so we have a salesman, who lives in the East Coast and he goes to a lot of, state conventions, that
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: he does educational seminars at some of 'em. but really it's just word of mouth, Especially in the brewing world. And the wine and distilling is the [00:14:00] same to a lesser extent, but everybody knows each other. so you know, if your buddy has a foeder, you're gonna know about it.
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: Hey, come look at this thing that I got, and then you see
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: Oh, wow. but word spreads fast and in these groups, so
Matthew: All right. So, and
Dan Saettele: we're known.
Matthew: you, you've, you said you, you've mentioned attending some industry shows and stuff. What if you picked up about the industry itself? whether it be just the industry and the beverage industry, or. Their knowledge of footers and, and how that's a change and affected the way, you do business.
Dan Saettele: that's a good question. We, we find that a lot of people, have misconceptions about American Oak. That's
Matthew: Okay?
Dan Saettele: our biggest thing that we try to get over.
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: especially in the wine industry.
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: are tied to European oak species, because of the different flavors. And we have to, we have to educate them, you know, [00:15:00] it's, it's not gonna taste, you know, the way you don't want it.
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: buttery and all this stuff. You know, you can make this work
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: your product around it. that's probably the biggest thing.
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: all the thing we try to teach them is how to take care of 'em. A lot of 'em are intimidated
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: how to take care of it versus stainless steel, and that's
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: a hurdle. those are the two main things I'd say.
Matthew: Okay. I'm curious about for, I know most people this all came up with English Oak and stuff, and France and Belgium, and that's kind of what, basically how they made their wines in these big things.
Dan Saettele: Right.
Matthew: what is the misconception around, American White Oak. Okay.
Dan Saettele: Well, it, it's not, not necessarily the misconception as it is. They, they think they're not going to like the flavors that they've never tried American Oak.
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: They, they have only tried European Oak and they like the spicy flavors and
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: they think. Oh, it's, you know, this is not gonna work well with what my product is like, [00:16:00] well, have you ever tried it?
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: They usually say no. And then if you send 'em samples of staves or
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: you know, put it, put some stave chunks in some wine for a few months, they're
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: turned out way better than I thought.
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: it also happens a lot with ciders. A lot of people don't like ciders with oak. and then they, when they actually try it, they're like, oh, it actually works pretty well.
Matthew: Mm-hmm. Interesting. Okay. Well that's good. That'd be a good one to share, share with everybody. where since you've purchased this, you've got the processes going, you've kind of, you're continuously improving the foeder themselves and, and you're manufacturing. you're starting to, you know, really have that good understanding of who needs, who can use a foeder and why, and, and, where has, having all said all that, where do you see yourself taking the business next?
Dan Saettele: Oh, we, we would love to get more into the wine industry.
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: I think that's, you know, our, our biggest goal is to grow in the wine industry.
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: that stigma of American [00:17:00] Oak
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: back a lot and we only have a, probably a couple dozen, maybe 50 or
Matthew: Mm.
Dan Saettele: somewhere around there, winery customers. and it's all people. All producers that are making natural wine or, or some, some, some form of wine that's not,
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: trying to be,
Matthew: Traditionalist.
Dan Saettele: I say it? They don't have the, the baggage of, of this is how the
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: it.
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: we're gonna try something new. They're innovative and
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: to try it, and they all love it. we would love to keep spreading that message and, and get more people in that industry.
Matthew: Okay. Yeah, I think we talked about just that, that piece of those winemakers, we even talked about an innovative winemaker in our area. it was like, I think I interviewed them, my episode two,
Dan Saettele: Yep.
Matthew: and, was Noble Ice and just the, the, they're always changing and always adapting. And so does that seem to be a, just finding that as an ideal winemaker client for you is what you're kind of after?
Dan Saettele: Yes, yes.
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: Yep. [00:18:00] That's,
Matthew: right.
Dan Saettele: people, the wineries that we find really are not afraid of trying our product,
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: always end up loving it.
Matthew: I was gonna ask you what impact you wanna make on the community, but I was actually wanna ask you what communities globally are you impacting?
Dan Saettele: I, I'd say we impact, you know, every community, we, we send a foeder or two,
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: it's, it's not lost on us. When, you know, when we send a foeder out somewhere, the customers that walk into that tap room and see it, they
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: Instantly their eyes go to it and they're just like, I want to try. What's in there?
What, what
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: And I think, you know, watching people drink the beers that came out of
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: or, or the wines or the whiskey or whatever, that came out of our foeder, that's, that's what like pulls on our heartstrings. Like we had
Matthew: Absolutely.
Dan Saettele: of that. That's so cool.
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: and, you know, being part of the places where people gather. having a good time and,
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: with, with their loved ones, you know, at a brewery or, [00:19:00] or producer. Like,
Matthew: Okay,
Dan Saettele: awesome. That's, that's what it's all about.
Matthew: cool. You mentioned, that, I think it was Japanese culture starting to kind of adopt the use of a foeder and stuff. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Dan Saettele: Yeah. So we, we have been shipping more and more, not just Japan, but right now we're making two that are going to Korea.
Matthew: Oh, okay.
Dan Saettele: they're the beer industry to me. Being an outsider, it, it seems like the American beer industry, the craft brewing industry was 10 years ago
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: they're growing at an incredible rate. the people love it they're kind of looking to the US craft beer industry model themselves after hopefully good and bad. They see now, you know,
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: has turned, how they can not totally file in the footsteps,
Matthew: Mm.
Dan Saettele: getting a lot of requests from from Asia right now.
Matthew: Interesting. Okay. I just thought, I, I think it was very interesting you told me that. And I just like, where's that? Where is that culture going? That, that they're doing their own, [00:20:00] are they doing anything different or are they just kind of, really like the American craft industry?
Dan Saettele: It's, you know, I haven't had any different styles of beer or anything from over there. All the ones I've had are, are. Similar kind of modeled after the American styles, whether it be
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: or IPA or, or lager. They, they have a tendency to just execute perfectly.
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: much like Japanese whiskey, if you've had that, like
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: they're, it's very good whiskey and they just do a very good job.
They're
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: about things, and I think, our product fits in well
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: mentality.
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: it's authentic, it's high craftsmanship.
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: makes a great product. They just, they love it.
Matthew: Okay. And just based on that, is there any other trends in the beverage industry you've noticed? Like, like I said, with the, the adoption of the footers in, in Japan and Korea. Is there anything else that you've, noticed industry-wise?
Dan Saettele: yeah. we've [00:21:00] seen the takeoff of sake
Matthew: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Hmm.
Dan Saettele: I'd say we kind of get a. A leading indicator. Our, our sales tend industry is a leading indicator of, of how that industry is actually going. We knew the beer industry was slowing down in
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: a bit, but that distilleries were picking up and then we could
Matthew: Hmm.
Dan Saettele: plateau off and start to come down and RTDs are coming up.
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: we, we just kind of see all of those before the, the over the counter sales, you know, make the headlines. but I'd say. is the big thing that has changed
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: the beverage industries. It's, it's taken a toll on all the alcohol, at
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: outside of alcohol, we don't really have too much exposure, so I, I can't speak to that so much.
Matthew: Okay. And then just kind of, I wanna hop back into real quick about, you know, the per, you're, you're buying, what influenced you to buy and that story. I just wanna [00:22:00] kind of close that story with, is there any advice you'd give to someone considering to buying a business within the beverage industry, especially one is niches.
This one.
Dan Saettele: I'd say do a lot of industry research.
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: I had looked, you know, I, I, I was well aware of the beer industry, but I hadn't done much research into the other beverage
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: industries. and I wish I would have to kind of see if beer starts tapering off more, where are we gonna go? What are we gonna try to do?
How hard is it going to be to get into those industries?
Matthew: Hmm.
Dan Saettele: I had plans on where I wanted to go, but I didn't really know the steps to get
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: I wish I would've done more diligence on that.
Matthew: Okay, great. Thank you. Great answer. got a couple more questions and this one's kind of a fun one. We've been talking about these ERs and all the beverages that can be possibly made in them. do you have a favorite beverage?
Dan Saettele: I do, but, I, I'll admit it's not out [00:23:00] of one of our cooters.
Matthew: All right.
Dan Saettele: my favorite, well, the beverage I drink the most is water. I, I drink tons of water all day
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: but. My favorite beverage
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: a beer called Jacobis from Shilling Beer Company in Northern New Hampshire.
Matthew: Hmm
Dan Saettele: they're one of our customers. They make fantastic beer. It's up near Canada and, and, you know, the middle of nowhere in this pretty little mountain town. They invited us up for October Fest a few years ago. and I had this beer and I, I, I'm like, this is amazing. It's a German pilsner.
Matthew: hmm.
Dan Saettele: fantastic. then when I left, we can't get it here in St. Louis. And I, I was wondering is was it really that good or was it just that I'm sitting on this in this beautiful brewery on the side of
Matthew: Hmm.
Dan Saettele: idyllic river, running through the middle of a little town and was beautiful weather, all this stuff. Was it really that good? And then recently I was in Memphis and they had it on the shelf at the liquor store, and I got some, and I'm like, oh, it really was that good. It's
Matthew: All right.
Dan Saettele: it's just a fantastic beer.
Matthew: [00:24:00] That's cool. Yeah. Yeah.
Dan Saettele: one.
Matthew: But you're right. Environment can play on your influence of what you're having and why you're having it, so Totally. But yeah, that's that's good to know.
Dan Saettele: come from is, you know, it, it
Matthew: yeah,
Dan Saettele: room just, you know, the aesthetics of it.
Matthew: you're right.
Dan Saettele: makes it homey and people want to drink and have a good time and all that.
Matthew: Yeah. We really haven't talked about how these things look. They are just like this piece of white, Just unfinished, well, not unfinished, but you know, standing down, nice looking,
Dan Saettele: Yeah.
Matthew: oak barrels and it can be, what, six foot, seven foot tall or
Dan Saettele: even
Matthew: better?
Dan Saettele: done 'em
Matthew: Even higher.
Dan Saettele: feet tall.
Matthew: Yeah. And it, there's just, they do, your eye goes straight to 'em.
'cause this mix of wood and the, the shiny, the, the metal, what are the bands that go around them? Yeah. It's just, yeah, your eye goes directly to like, what is that thing? And amongst all that steel when you go to somebody's brewer and stuff. So yeah, they do stand out. They are a almost a discussion starter, so.
That, that is really neat. Yeah. And, that's the one, one thing I come up to is if you wanna know what they look like. Dan, do you have any, any upcoming [00:25:00] events or promotions or where can people go to learn more about these footers?
Dan Saettele: Oh yeah, absolutely.
Matthew: I,
Dan Saettele: our sales guy's based on the East coast goes to kind of all the big, state guilds, that kind of thing. Beer festivals.
Matthew: mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: be in Florida at the State Brewers Guild Convention in a couple weeks here. he goes to Sn Gaster, the big beer festival.
Matthew: Mm-hmm.
Dan Saettele: of up and down the East Coast with all the things.
We also go to CBC, craft Beers, con Craft Brewers Conference, a DI, American Craft Spirits Association, all the big shows.
Matthew: All right.
Dan Saettele: see is that any of those, if you see someone, the food or crafter shirt, stop us and we'll buy a beer.
Matthew: Alright, I could be hold you to that. so no, and, and another thing we didn't mention as well is I always thought was as far as delivery, we, you know, you're kind of, equ distance. So we're in the middle of the country here in Missouri where they're, where they're made. And so as far as, shipping, in the US you're, you say you're pretty good, equal distance from everybody to getting it, getting it out to 'em.
Dan Saettele: yeah. Shipping is not as [00:26:00] big of a problem as people expect it to be. We
Matthew: Okay.
Dan Saettele: just crate 'em up and load 'em on an LTL truck, and they're there in a couple days. You know,
Matthew: That's awesome.
Dan Saettele: far from anywhere really.
Matthew: Yeah.
Dan Saettele: and that's just, that's where our wood is. We're not, we can't move here. This is where all the, our wood is all Missouri wide oak, so
Matthew: Oh yeah.
Dan Saettele: right here in the middle of the country.
Matthew: All right. Excellent. Well, Dan, this has been a, a great interview. I really liked learning about just, what a foeder is, how people are using it, how old the tradition is of making these, and we just, and the fact that fewer so few people know about 'em and to the fact that. You're the only one making them at a full-time at scale.
And and just, hopefully this knowledge gets out to people who are like, Hey, you know, I think I need one of these in my pub or in my winery, or, and just to give that innovative start. 'cause the innovation is more, in this case, is not only the way they're made, but. Within the, the oak you're using, breaking from that tradition, traditional, like French oak and stuff.
So, I really hope this, this, this helps reach out and find some more, people interested in inquire about these feeders. It's really pretty. [00:27:00] I ge I just encourage you to actually go down to their website, which will be in the, which will be in the show notes, I believe this is food or crafters.com.
Is that right?
Dan Saettele: Yep. And we
Matthew: All right.
Dan Saettele: too.
Matthew: All right. So Dan, again, thanks for coming on the show. I really appreciate the time and learned a lot today.
Dan Saettele: Alright, thanks Matt. I.
Matthew: All right, thank you.