Crank Arm Brewing: Beer Love, Bike Love

Malteurop Celebrates Craft Breweries During American Craft Beer Week

American Craft Beer Week takes place May 10–16, 2021. This annual nationwide event celebrates small and independent craft breweries throughout the U.S. Malteurop (MMC) has joined forces with a few of these phenomenal breweries, highlighting their stories of strength and camaraderie during a time when struggles are common, but support and community continuously shine through.

About Crank Arm Brewing

With a mutual love of bikes and beer came a passion project that fit Adam Eckhardt to a tee, Crank Arm Brewing. We were thrilled to be able to talk bikes and beer with Adam, one of the four masterminds behind Crank Arm Brewing in Raleigh, North Carolina.

What started as a dream in 2009, became a reality in 2013 with a bike themed taproom complete with a ‘55 tandem bicycle, an ‘84 Stingray reproduction, and a ‘69 Peugeot, and gears and cranks throughout. The idea came to fruition when Adam lost his job and began the overwhelming task of figuring out what to do with his life. While Adam was pondering his life goals, his friends knew right away what he should be doing. “My house always smelled like beer, so friends were telling me I should brew.”

Deciding that this was one of the times he should listen, he reached out to some friends in the brewing industry and his next career began. An avid cyclist on his bike every day of the week, it made sense to combine his two passions. Eight years into it, Adam is fully aware of the work that goes into a brewery.

“This is very much a lifestyle. It’s not a job. There’s no pretention to what we are. I’m a bike enthusiast and a beer enthusiast that does those things day in and day out. Taking two passions and combining them into a business helps keeps the perspective, and I enjoy it more.”

A Passion for Brewing

Adam hopes to wake up the sleeping giant that is downtown Raleigh just like he woke up and turned his dream into a business. One that continues to fuel his fire for life on a daily basis.

Beer and bikes are the essence of Crank Arm. The theme, “Beer Love, Bike Love” came from Adam’s heart.

“Creating new things, being innovative. Those are the things that get my heart racing. This is my baby. I love it. You can drink the dream.”

I don’t think you can get much more passionate about beer and bikes than that.

The Future of Craft Beer

Adams sees the future of craft beer heading towards a return to classics. Because it’s now a more mature market, there’s been a lot of innovation. But he hopes to see a revival of the classic styles without losing the creativity that brewers bring to beer.

The current trends of seltzers, sours, adjuncts and more are pushing the boundaries of beer, and consumers are noticing. They have become savvy and understand the nuances of beer. With that, brewers need to hone their process to make better OG style beers while still being innovative with new styles.

Brewing and Biking at Crank Arm

Crank Arm Brewing is known for making consistently solid beers that are true to style, but also for its creative brews. With 15 beers on the board, there’s always a wide variety from a Dortmunder foeder-aged lager to a bourbon barrel-aged fudge stout to a sour that’s been dry hopped with tangerine to a west coast inspired IPA with hazy hops and more.

Celebrating biking as much as craft beer, the brews are all named with biking in mind. Where else can you find names like Whitewall Wheat, or Long Steady Distance or Holy Spokes, to name only a few of their renowned names?

But the bike theme doesn’t stop there. Two of the four business partners here still ride on a serious level. So much so, that Crank Arm put together a diverse pro cycling team consisting of XC mountain biking, Enduro, Cyclocross riders and more. It is now a self-sufficient team with its own board of directors and a consistent group of riders that are quite often on the podium.

“We’re not trying to be the elitist team that caters to only those. But we do have that and that adds a bit of prestige. It’s how we look at our beers, too. We have a delicious everyday drinking pale ale, and then we have these prestige level barrel-aged beers.”

Not to put anyone off, Crank Arm also hosts a weekly ride open to anyone in the community that wants to ride. They also have a running club and weekly yoga. That’s how you earn your beer!

Accomplishments and Achievements at Crank Arm

Crank Arm was awarded a bronze medal in 2016 at the Great American Beer Festival for its Whitewall Wheat. Adam is quite proud of this collaborative effort between him and his partner and Head Brewer, Michael.

The recipe was initially formulated on Adam’s back porch years before he even dreamed of opening a brewery. A predecessor to today’s white IPA, this take on a Belgian classic witbier does not include coriander or orange zest, but utilizes Citra hops for those flavors instead. In 2018, the Whitewall Wheat proved its worthiness even more with a gold medal.

“When I won that bronze I had that medal in my bike bag every day. When I got the gold I was wearing it everywhere.”

From a back porch brewer to world-renowned recipes. I’d say that’s quite the accomplishment.

COVID-19 Challenges Faced Head On

Surviving COVID as a business is quite another accomplishment. With the word of the year consistently being “pivot” it’s a wonder any business has survived. Crank Arm has survived and come out stronger for it.

One of the biggest challenges of the year was being completely shut down. They laid off everyone including themselves. When they opened back up again, Adam and Michael came back in and did everything from brewing to packaging to delivering. They went from a company of 25 people to zero to two.

Ultimately, though, Adam states that it paid off. Up and running now at a limited capacity and packaging a lot more beers than they ever thought they would be capable of, they are coming back strong.

“While there’s been a lot of sacrifices, there’s been a lot of sharpening of the sword. What we’ve really done is taken a minute while things are a little slower, and we’ve looked at ourselves and honed in on who we are and what we do best and try to do it better.”

Moving Forward with Support

As Adam puts it, “It’s all symbiotic. The pub is a place where everyone gathers.”

From that statement comes a plethora of community support from Crank Arm and that same community support comes back full force to Crank Arm.

COVID or not, Crank Arm continues their involvement within Raleigh’s community. They helped found Oaks & Spokes, a non-profit that promotes bicycling culture. They also help raise much needed funds for the Triangle Spokes Group, which provides bicycles to kids in need during the holidays. In conjunction with that they team up with other groups and events such as their popular Sunday yoga program to both enhance and give back to the community they love.

Teaming up with another nonprofit, Water for Good and Tour de Brew, Crank Arm works to bring beer and cycling together while providing clean drinking water to communities that do not have access to it. They played a major role in bringing this event to Raleigh in 2015 and plan to continue building upon this relationship.

On the other end of the spectrum, during COVID, the community has been very supportive of Crank Arm and other local businesses throughout the pandemic.

“The vendors have been very understanding as we are navigating through this and the finances of things. Everyone’s in the same limbo in the beginning, so everyone was understanding of that. Thank you to the community and the world for supporting us through this because not everyone has been so lucky through all this.”

The Latest and Greatest Beers Brewing

With a combination of luck and perseverance, Adam and the entire team at Crank Arm are moving forward. And to them that means brewing. Brewing a foeder lager and a saison aged in white wine barrels, to name just a couple that are consistently in the works.

What Adam’s really excited about is their new flagship, Long Steady Distance. This is a no-coast IPA with juicy hops presenting a moderately balanced bitter IPA west coast style, yet hazy from the hops. Something is always brewing.

Brewing for American Craft Beer Week

“Honestly, we’ve been so careful with our events that things like this have fallen to the wayside. And May is also bike month. We don’t have plans yet but we need to get on something.”

Adam has some planning to do. He’s hopeful that those plans can include some get-togethers.

Getting Personal with Beer

When we asked Adam to describe himself using a type of beer, Galen Smith, Malteurop’s Southeast Craft Sales Manager and childhood friend to Adam, cracked a cynical grin. He knew how to answer that before Adam did. In the end, they both agreed that Adam resembles a coolship beer.

“Something that was wildly spontaneously fermented. Something that’s got a little funkiness to it. Something big and loud. Maybe a barrel-aged American Barleywine. A big personality.”

Adam’s favorite style of beer, however, is quite opposite of that description. While it changes quite often, his go-to style is a pilsner. “There’s just something about a crisp, delicious, noble hopped pilsner that has just the right amount of time aged, with fine bubbles so the mouthfeel is fun.”

Thank You!

Speaking of fun, Adam is the embodiment of that. With his passion for beer and biking, how else would you describe him and his dream? Crank Arm Brewing. Beer Love. Bike Love. Fun.

As beer fans at heart, we thank you and all the brewers out there for sticking to it. For finding ways to be nimble. Every day there’s something different thrown at you, and to deal with the things you have to deal with this past year, it’s amazing. Thank you.

Cheers to the days when brewers can be bored again. If only, for a moment!