East Troy entrepreneur Ayla Guild turned a passion for clean ingredients into a thriving taproom. Now, she encourages others with a business dream to take the leap.
Guild and her husband, Tim, opened The Hive Taproom in 2018. She credits the Farm Finance Institute (FFI) for helping launch and grow their venture.
“The first part was getting me into a farm finance class way back when, when I said I’m not a finance person, but Tera Johnson, who started the FFI, ran the class and made it really interesting and approachable, and all of a sudden it’s like, oh okay, I understand why it’s important now. That was kind of the gateway. I started coming to the FFI events and started participating in a lot more of their classes. I did a VAPG boot camp and applied for the Value Added Producer Grant in 2024, which was super great and was very helpful in our business.”
Consumer Trends Are Changing
Consumer drinking habits are shifting. This trend prompted the couple to expand their menu with new non-alcoholic brews.
“In 2018, the microbrewery boom was still happening, and now you see all of the breweries closing. I think people aren’t going out and drinking quite to the same extent, and they’re a lot more moderate and more mindful, which we fully support more mindful drinking.”
Keep It Simple
For their recipes, Guild follows a ‘less is more’ philosophy.
“We talk about how this is really a clean alcohol because we use minimal ingredients. Everything is with 100% raw, local honey, much of it from my own bees, and then we use all local ingredients and 100% organic teas and single-origin coffees. Super clean ingredients, so if you eat clean, we believe it’s important to drink clean as well because we really, in the end, want to feel better. No one has time to feel like junk the next day.”
The Hive Taproom serves 13 dry session meads brewed from 100% raw honey. The menu also features honey kombucha, a zero-proof cocktail, and a tea-based soda elixir.
Guild spoke with the Mid-West Farm Report at the recent Food Finance Forum and Expo.
