Meet Warren Wood | Warren Wood- Founder & CMO of Elevated Seltzer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Warren Wood and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Warren, what do you attribute your success to?
The most important factor is being in business with my brother. We compliment each other to the next level. My area of expertise is opposite of his and his is opposite of mine but we have the same vision. We are able to work together while not stepping on each other’s toes and make decisions with hardly any disagreement. We grew up with our family’s brewery that started in 2002 so we’ve technically been working with each other since I was 10 and he was 5.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
We are two brothers that grew up in the craft beer industry that decided to create our own brand. A simple concept that started off as a “now, just hear me out” phone call manifested into the current products we offer. With an ever changing craft beer culture, we decided to take a new approach to what we’ve always done and tap into the Hard Seltzer Market. That lead us to being the FIRST company to open an independent, seltzer only operation! In a market dominated by corporate giants, we wanted to take things into our hands and do things our way. Although we like to make straight up beer (nothing fancy, just good beer), we wanted to get into something we could be passionate about. The beer industry has changed a lot since we started in it (2002-2019) and the drive just wasn’t there to love what we do. As a result, we founded Elevated Seltzer! Our hard seltzer, is crafted to be different. Crafted to be brewed with quality, precision and fun. We have always loved adventuring and seeing knew places so we built our brand around it. With our seltzers, we plan to expand the world of cocktails while making each one enjoyable on its own. My brother, Hunter started off working in our family’s brewery assisting the brew master at the time. He began packaging products, making supply runs and like most people starting up in an industry, all the grunt work. As time progressed, he picked up brewing, ordering ingredients, managing distribution and a solid chunk of operations. When he was ready, he took the helm of the ship. For a few years it was a one man show at the brewery. I took the other route. While he was brewing, I was learning how the restaurants, retail sales and beer industry worked. I began by bussing tables, serving patrons, packaging products and helping with events. From there I started running the events, managing the restaurants, visiting accounts and learning how to run a restaurant. After some time, I took over sales, event coordination, promoting the brand and eventually opened up my own bar and restaurant. Getting to where we are today was definitely not easy and struggles were/are a common thing. By going through those, you learn how to handle the hard times better. I have learned to never get to high and never get to low. There will always be unavoidable factors and it is important to take personal accountability whenever possible. The more you make something someone or something else’s fault, the more you lose control. That is something we learned by being in the industry/business for 18 years.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my best friend was in the area we would go hiking/snowshoeing up around Niwot, Leadville or any other remote town that has that awesome Colorado small town feel. We’d spend a day brewery hopping in RiNo and hitting restaurants in the area as well. It’s always a no brainer to go to Jefes Tacos in Longmont and New Image Brewing in Arvada. If it’s warm out, we’d get a bunch of people together and BBQ at Union Reservoir or whatever park has an open grill.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Our parent’s Richard and Karen Wood. Without them, we wouldn’t be close to where we are. They showed us the ways, values and struggles of small business. I always joke about this but as a kid, it was always a giant pain when my parents would ask me to go help him pick up grain, remodel a building, cook in the restaurant, serve at the restaurant, go to an event with them, etc… but now I couldn’t be more thankful for putting me in those to positions to add to my personal growth.

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