Episode 156 // Luke and Jennifer Mahin of Irrigation Ales
On today’s podcast episode we’re with Luke and Jennifer Mahin of Irrigation Ales in Courtland, Kansas (pop. 294). They’re sharing how they have built this business over time, starting with the Courtland Fermentation Club and the process of learning how to brew good, quality beer, as well as the cool story behind their branding.
They also talk about the incredible entrepreneurial culture of Courtland, plus what it was like for Luke growing up in a very small town and for Jennifer moving to a very small town.
You are going to love SO MUCH about this interview and there’s so much we can learn from Luke and Jennifer’s story. Whether it’s building your business one step at a time or creating that entrepreneurial culture in your town or the economic development tips — we know you are walking away from this interview inspired!
“It was hard at first adjusting (to moving to Courtland), I mean I loved it, but now if I go back to Pennsylvania or when we travel I’m always so excited to come back to Courtland. I find myself waving to people in big cities now and they don’t wave back to me and I’m so offended. But it probably took me probably eight years of living in Courtland to finally wave to people myself.”
- Jennifer Mahin
“Courtland is very centrally isolated, is what I’d say. We’re not out in the middle of nowhere but we’re far enough away that we’re not sucked in by a vacuum of a bigger town. So we kind of have to do some things here during the week and there’s different businesses that still can exist here because we’re not right next to a bigger city. And the irrigation agriculture industry really does help our community. We wouldn’t have a school district probably without it. Courtland has maybe two or three vacant buildings in a three block area. We probably wouldn’t have this if it wasn’t for the input of agriculture and the spinoff businesses.”
- Luke Mahin
“We also knew coming into this that we couldn’t just rely on our community to support us. Because being such a limited community we needed outsiders to discover us, to discover Courtland and support us. And I think our biggest hurdle in the local business in the beginning was the people who asked, will you serve Busch Light? And we’re like, no. So convincing those Busch Light drinkers to come in here and at least try what we had, and it’s so crazy now because those same Busch Light drinkers are completely trying everything.”
- Jennifer Mahin
“The whole county has a lot of young people desiring to come back to this area. We’re in a really good spot in Kansas. But also Courtland, if we’re joining all these other people putting blood, sweat, and tears into the town, there’s tons of reasons to build into this ecosystem. And our median age went from 55 to 30s in a five or seven year period. Then we saw an increase in the census for the first time in 50 years. So those things just give you a lot of confidence that, if not now, when?”
- Luke Mahin
“Courtland has always been entrepreneurial. They’ve always been a progressive community that says yes or maybe first, and not no. And that was the cool thing about opening here, is we never got told that this is not gonna work. We got asked for three years, when are you opening? So that’s the kind of community we’re in.”
- Luke Mahin
“Honestly it wasn’t until 2020 when we were like, we should do it. Because at that point we had the building, we weren’t open, but I think that’s when we got a lot more serious about, maybe when this is all said and done we should really look at getting this open and getting it moving forward.”
- Jennifer Mahin
“And I think a lot of people took time and paused in their life and reevaluated, what is the thing that you want to do? Everybody had that chance. We saw the draw to rural America and our local lake doubled in attendees because everybody wanted to get back to openness and things near them. Everybody was interested in staycations. And I think a lot of those elements we saw were going to continue even after the pandemic. We knew it would be hard, but with the cost of the building and things we started doing, we worked on that business plan a lot harder after that.”
- Luke Mahin
“I feel like this has just changed our lives in so many ways.”
- Jennifer Mahin
building renovation progress
PODCAST SHOW NOTES AND LINKS:
Courtland, Kansas
Republic County Economic Development
Courtland Fermentation Club
Courtland Fun Day
Soul Sisters
Courtland Town Feature
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We’re challenging small towns to create opportunities and shift the mindset of our kids so they choose to stay in our rural communities instead of leave.