A new company in town is almost ready to publicly unveil their products, but you have to be 21 or older to partake.  Defiance Brewing Co. is preparing to have their first beers available on tap around Christmas.

Brewmasters and co-founders Matthew Bender and Dylan Sultzer told Hays Post that their brewery has partnered with Western Beverage, who will be distributing their craft brews in Hays and southwest Kansas.  Local bars are already reserving tap space for the first batch, which should be available before the end of December.

Sultzer says that their goal is to provide high quality, unique beers throughout the area.

“We want to make really interesting beer; beer that people want to drink, not your average beer that you can just go and get 10 varieties of the same kind.  We want to get something different out there in the market, especially in Kansas because it’s such a mundane selection.”

Bender says that the name Defiance is all about putting a youthful spin on the craft industry instead of providing the same beer that’s already available.

“Our generation is really defiant in terms of they’re not stuck in the traditional ways: we want higher quality food, we want higher quality beer; we crave a higher quality product.”

To provide a higher quality brew, the pair started with 12 unique recipes using all natural ingredients.  Some of the beers will be seasonally released, but their two flagship drinks which will be available year round are Gutch, a dark English mild ale, and Thrasher, a session IPA.

Bender and Sultzer recently attended a meeting with the Kansas Craft Alliance (KCA), where every distributor in Kansas was present.  Defiance held a presentation detailing their business model and future plans and provided 4 beers for sampling.  All in attendance were very supportive of the efforts of Defiance, and because of the KCA, Defiance Brewing Co. will be able to distribute to 14 states when they’re ready to expand production.

Some future plans include providing cans of their beer around February and increasing production, but Bender added that while the sky is the limit for growth, they want to ensure they are maintaining a local focus.

“We just want to be able to provide something that isn’t from here.  We want to take care of Hays because Hays has taken care of us.  As far as growth, we want to get to the point where we start hiring staff on.  We want to be able to do local charity events.  We just want to give back to the community and what better way to do it than through beer.”