By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
While Kevin Burkey was in college in Wichita he worked downtown at a
credit union. Across the street from his work was a store called What’s Brewin’,
a home brewing store. Burkey had no idea that there were people that made their own beer and wine.
“I didn’t know what was in beer,” said Burkey. “I just knew how good the cheap
stuff tasted and that’s what I went after.”
Not long after going into that store, he built equipment in his driveway and
made his first batch of beer in 2011.
Ryan Fairchild has friends that went into the brewing industry and started
learning tidbits about brewing. Fairchild learned a lot more about brewing when
he organized the Bike Brew Q Craft Brew Expo, an event to benefit the Cystic
Fibrosis Foundation.
“I had done some home brew stuff with other people, but never was really hands
on,” said Fairchild. “I decided I could do this. I went all in, much to my wife’s
dismay. I filled the house up with different fermenters. We couldn’t fit the car
in the garage anymore because we were brewing.”
Burkey is originally from Great Bend and moved back with his wife and family.
Fairchild, a Larned native, has lived in Great Bend most of his adult life with
his family. The two reconnected through a home brewers club in Great Bend.
“Ryan and I built a commercial quality, not necessarily scale, brewery in my shop
in Hoisington,” Burkey said. “Just in brewing batches, you have eight hours
standing there talking. We would daydream of what we would do if we opened a
brewery.”
Known locally as the homebrewers, Fairchild and Burkey were introduced to a “prominent
individual” in Barton County that organized a meeting to discuss a possible
brewery in the area. The meeting took place the summer of 2019 at Great Bend
Coffee.
The very next day following their meeting, Brown’s Shoe Fit closed their doors
at their business at 1305 Main Street in Great Bend.
“A week later from having that meeting, we had the building under contract,”
said Burkey. “Without a business plan, without really any money or investors,
we went all in.”
It was in August 2019 that Burkey and Fairchild took possession of the old shoe
store and started their journey of owning a brewery and bar.
“We knew we wanted to be downtown,” said Fairchild. “We want to be that spark
that lights downtown back up and gets people down there on a Saturday night.”
Reconstructing the 7,000 square-foot building meant nearly every interior wall
came down, carpet removed, plaster torn down, the removal of 40 light fixtures,
10 fans and 600 ceiling tiles. The building received a new roof, a back garage door
to fit new equipment in and a front patio.
“We took out the front wall and moved it back 20 feet to create a patio space,”
said Burkey. “We have a brew house, kitchen space for future use, 20-person event
room and two much larger bathrooms.”
When Burkey and Fairchild wrote their initial business plan, there was an
opening date of July 2020. Getting their finances in order, the two were ready
to schedule contractors in early 2020. Not too much longer after they were
ready to begin, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and forced the brewery construction
to be put on hold.
“We jumped in,” said Burkey. “We were involved in the drywall and concrete work.
It was time consuming day after day but we were able to put our blood, sweat
and tears into the building.”
As the building was coming together, the brewery needed a name. Both Fairchild and
Burkey competed as individuals at brewing competitions. Fairchild worked under
the name Fairchild Brewing and Burkey worked under South Town Brewing.
“One of the things Ryan and I have in common is we are both cyclists,” said
Burkey. “We really like riding bikes out at Lake Barton with all the trails.
Lake Barton has such a cool history and used to be the social center of Barton
County. We want downtown Great Bend to be that social center.”
The name Dry Lake Brewing came from the dry lake in which a two-mile trail
circles around.
“We knew we would have support,” said Fairchild. “Frankly, the lack of any negativity
towards it has been absolutely amazing. We really appreciate the support we
received from everyone.”
Dry Lake is slated to open May 6 at 5 p.m. The plan is to open the brewery
Thursday, Friday and Saturdays. The hours Thursday will be from 3 p.m. to 10
p.m. and then 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturdays.
“Our hope is by mid- to late summer, we can add Sunday,” added Burkey. “We
definitely want Sunday open once football season comes back around.”
Along with themselves, Burkey and Fairchild will have a bar manager and six
other employees as bartenders and servers. Until they find someone to run their
kitchen, Dry Lake will make use of food truck vendors to operate out of their
kitchen space to offer food items to customers.
“We want Great Bend to pick what our food will be,” said Fairchild. “We can
bring in food trucks from all over the state. You can come in Thursday night
and have one kind of food, Friday you can get something different and Saturday get
something different.”
By the time Dry Lake opens in May, there will be 10 beers on tap ranging from
an American lager, blonde ale, pale wheat, regular wheat, IPAs, sours and a
porter.
“Ryan and I really like trying the new things out there and putting our own
spin on those recipes,” said Burkey. “We still like the traditional beers.”
Going from kits in their garages and shops that they hand scrubbed to now having
tanks larger than them, Burkey and Fairchild have a meticulous method to making
sure their investment tastes good.
“Every single day we are testing the beer and checking the metrics to make sure
the beer is progressing as it needs to,” said Burkey. “Before, if the beer did
not turn out, there went $50. Now that it is multiples of thousands, we do a lot
more babysitting of the beer.”
Along with televisions, Dry Lake plans on having board games available. There
will also be non-alcoholic drinks for children and a full bar of liquor and
wine.
“Great Bend has done so much to bring people to the downtown square,” said
Burkey. “I think that our little block receives the most foot traffic in
Great Bend. For purposes of accessibility and people watching, I think our
patio space is going to be fantastic for that.”
Listen below to the entire interview with Fairchild and Burkey with Eagle Radio's Cole Reif.