Kansas City-based Strange Days Brewing Co. struggled to survive during the pandemic, but now with Restaurant Revitalization Funds in hand and a new head brewer in house, it's looking to refresh and relaunch the brand.
Founded in 2017 by Kansas City area-natives Nathan Howard, Chris Beier and Alec Vemmer, Strange Days brought the craft beer scene to Kansas City’s River Market, attracted to the foot traffic and the neighborhood's vibe. When Covid-19 hit, it changed everything for the brewery at 316 Oak St. Small local brewers like Strange Days that relied on in-house sales were hit the hardest.
The brewery survived thanks in large part to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which moved plans to upgrade the equipment and the quality of the beer from the back burner and to the forefront again.
A fortuitous meeting
That’s when a chance encounter between Beier and Trevor Schlam happened. Schlam had just moved to Kansas City with his girlfriend, who grew up in Parkville. He was looking to buy some brewing equipment to start a brewery. But Beier instead ended up offering Schlam a job as head brewer, which he accepted. Schlam also bought a 5% ownership stake, with a deal to earn sweat equity over time.
Schlam will use experience he gained in New York’s craft beer scene to bring fresh offerings Strange Days.
After earning a master's in mathematics at Northeastern University in 2014, Schlam took his first job out of college as operations manager at a bottle plant in Poughkeepsie, New York. The job required studying the products being bottled, setting up tastings with brewery representatives and managing a home brewing department.
“I ended up getting a good base of beer knowledge because you’d have an opportunity to try a lot of beers,” Schlam said. “I didn’t actually take note of everything that I tried, but I probably tried thousands of beers when I was working there. It ropes you in.”
It was inevitable that Schlam would try his hand at home brewing. It hooked him immediately. Schlam decided to pursue a career in brewing and was offered a job as a brewer at Greenport Harbor Brewing Co. in Peconic, New York, on the tip of Long Island.
Three different experiences
“People often don’t realize this, but the top half of Long Island is actually rural,” Schlam said. “The brewery was desperate to hire people because no one wanted to live out there. It’s a vacation spot, and in the winter everything shuts down for four months.”
Schlam said the brewery focused mainly on producing four beers and did little experimentation. But he learned a lot about the process of making high-quality beer.
After 11 months, the isolation was too much for Schlam, so he parlayed the experience into a job as head brewer at Greenpoint Beer and Ale in Brooklyn.
“It was the polar opposite of the last brewery — very unrestricted, much like a playground,” Schlam said. “It was a really cool place to learn, but it turns out businesses don’t really do that well when it’s a complete free for all.”
Schlam left after two years and took a brewing job at Kings County Brewers Collective in Brooklyn. It had a two-vessel, 15-barrel brew house that did some experimentation but had core beers as well. Schlam learned a lot about running a successful business there. He also ran the barrel aging program.
When Covid hit, Schlam said his basement apartment in New York didn’t seem so appealing anymore. After talking with his girlfriend, they decided to move to Kansas City.
Making KC home
Now at Strange Days, Schlam said he’s working on remodeling the brew house and refreshing the beers. The biggest investment he wants to make is in a water filtration system because Kansas City's water is very hard and not ideal for certain styles of beer, limiting quality.
Schlam said he likes that Kansas City isn’t so beholden to the latest trends in beer. That enables him to focus on making high-quality beers, instead of surfing Instagram to see what styles are getting the most likes and then trying to copy it. His plan is to come up with base beers and then add a twist to the recipe each time.
“So if you like this sour beer that we do that has berries in it, the next version might have more tropical fruits in it,” Schlam said. “You'll have familiarity with that beer but also intrigue to try it again. We’ll do a similar thing with the IPAs, lagers and stouts, too.”
Schlam is also looking to form partnerships with local businesses. The brewery has a beer on tap called Premium Unleaded, an Imperial Coffee Stout that was done in collaboration with Oddly Correct Coffee Bar at 39th and Main streets in Kansas City. Next week, he’s doing a collaboration beer with City Barrel Brewery in the East Crossroads. He hopes to also work with local bakeries, ice cream shops and even barbecue restaurants that could smoke some grain.
“I really want people to know that there’s going to be a new philosophy of bringing flavors to the table that balance subtlety with drinkability but also have a strong presence of the flavors,” Schlam said. “I hate when you have a beer, and it says there’s vanilla in there, but you don’t taste it. You also don’t want to be at a point where it’s like, 'Oh my God, this is too much vanilla.' You’ve got to have a balance in letting people know what flavors are there and not disappointing them, while riding that line of not going too far and stepping out of bounds.”
