Top Talent, Like Good Suds, Requires Time to Germinate

Jesse Core learned a lot of things during four years as a Springdale City Council member, not the least of which is that happiness can’t be measured in terms of political approval ratings.

These days, though, Core’s popularity is on the upswing due to his own brand of hoppiness. The CEO of Springdale’s Core Brewing Co., the former Tyson Foods Inc. senior analyst’s foamy beverages — hoppy and otherwise — are being welcomed by an increasing number of craft beer drinkers.

“Politics, if you’re doing a good job, you make 51 percent of the people happy,” Core said. “Beer, I’m at 95 percent.”

That much is evident in the demand for Core Brewing products. Having launched full-scale production late last year with four 25-barrel fermenters, Core will expand to 10 50-barrel fermenters by the end of May.

Additionally, Core Brewing’s current facility will double its 5,000-SF footprint. Part of the expansion will include increasing the size of its 450-SF tasting room, open 3-9 p.m. daily, to 1,500 SF.

It might seem like heady stuff for the Fort Smith native, a former junior college baseball player who produced his first beer for public consumption in 2010 and left his job at Tyson in March 2012. But Core joked that an obsessive-compulsive disorder — at least when it comes to beer — led him to being picky with his product from his very first batch more than 20 years ago.

“My friends and family always loved the beer, and I’m pretty OCD about this stuff,” he said. “I’d rather pour a beer down the drain than to give it to somebody if I don’t think it’s great.

“That’s one of the reasons we’re successful here. We want to be Arkansas’ premium brand. That is our goal, and we’re not going to put anything out there that’s subpar.

“If it’s not awesome, I’m not doing it.”

Core, 39, lived in a variety of places, from Miami to San Diego, while working as a software programmer during the dot-com boom before taking a job at Tyson. It was time spent in Colorado — Denver and Boulder — however, that spiked his interest in the craft beer industry.

Core noticed something else about the industry not long after he was named a member of the 2008 Northwest Arkansas Business Journal Forty Under 40 class.

“It grew 13 percent during the recession, and no other industry did that,” he said. “You’d think in a recession people would be more willing to buy cheap beer, but they didn’t. They paid for a premium product.

“So I went out and got all the money I could — got some investors, got a bank — and then went full-tilt here in September 2010.”

Core actually started with just a single account, Kingfish bar just off Dickson Street in Fayetteville. Nowadays, though, Core Brewing products are sold at 24 outlets in Northwest Arkansas and five in Little Rock.

Core recently hired a sales rep to help the company expand into neighboring states, and canning of its flagship ESB is under way. He estimated the total investment in the company at between $1.5 million and $2 million.

“How does it feel?” he said, “Man, it’s kind of like glorious chaos.”

But while the flush of success sometimes might feel chaotic, Core appears to employ a very pragmatic approach to which of his recipes go public, and to what extent. The tasting room features a rotating cast of beers, everything from stouts and lagers to ales and seasonal varieties.

If the response from patrons is positive enough, kegs are filled and sent into the marketplace. Its reception there determines whether its made available in 22-ounce “bomber” bottles.

Good bottle sales result in canning, as apparently is the case with the ESB. All of it takes something Core has learned while progressing through his professional life.

“There’s a unique blend you need to have,” he said, “of patience and persistence. When do you push and when do you let things germinate?”

As for what advice Core, who counts time hanging out with his wife and two children as his favorite pastime, has to offer those on their own paths to success?

“I wish somebody would’ve told me this: Be good to yourself. Do not beat yourself up. Most people on this [Forty Under 40] list are going to be their own worst enemy.

“What I would tell them is, ‘Take it easy, man. You’re doing a good job. You wouldn’t talk to your kids or your girlfriend the way you talk to yourself.’

“That’s been hard for me to learn … and I think if people could do that, they would enjoy the path and the process more.”