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

Hi Krystle, what do you attribute your success to?
Not taking ourselves too seriously and surrounding ourselves with talented people are probably the 2 biggst factors that are driving our growth at Axe & Arrow. We make beer, beer should be fun. We aim to make beers that inspire conversation & make people want to try them after hearing about them. The fun of the taproom is conversing with people about beer, hearing what they like and don’t like about our beers and using that info to design the next. We have a great team that really keep their ears & eyes on the industry. They help us come up with ideas, execute them, and market them. It’s a team effort and we’re all focused on crafting fun!

What should our readers know about your business?

We are a small 7 barrel craft brewhouse & taproom in Southern New Jersey. We pride ourselves on crafting fun in the form of high quality craft beer and having a taplist that anyone can find something they like on. We came into this venture with the mindset that we’d just make good beer and that would be enough…. if you brew it, they will come, if you will. Our original business plan stated just that, we were going to focus on making high quality craft beer to provide a taplist that had something for everyone on it without trying to reinvent the wheel. We have since changed that mindset a bit. A great, high quality beer that is not in a style that people are drinking doesn’t do any taproom any good. We took a look at our taplist, what we had brewed, and what was moving and did some self evaluation. The beers that were moving were also the ones people commented on & talked about in the taproom. The fun of beer is talking about some uniue or some super tasty or some really drinkinable/ smooth beer someone has had. We wanted to make beers that sparked those convos, beers that got the non-beer drinker to say “wow, this is good”, beers that people want to tell their friends to try.

Since we’ve moved to this crafting fun mindset we have really had a ball. Our sours are probably what we have the most fun with. We have 4 sour lines that range from tart & fruity to straight up dessert in a glass and they’ve all been well received. We’re also hop heads at heart so Josh & Mike do alot of research to stay current on hops, hopping techniques, yeast, and grains that can be used to continuously improve our IPA game! And who doensn’t love a nice easy drinkning lager?! we make sure to alwasy have an easy drinking lager or 2 on tap at all times.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

In the area of our brewery there is a ton to do, I could fill a solid weekend hanging by the brewery! The Rowan Blvd are of downtown Glassboro is filled with amazing eateries so I would definetly start with breakfast at Dawn to Dusk Diner! We could then go to the Exit 4 Escape Room or maybe throw Axes at Primitive Axe. We could hang on the GLassboro Town Square and people watch while my kids run around and grab some wings from Wing Kitchen for lunch (we of course would not forget the donut – iykyk!). Depending on the mood, I would suggest Mexican Mariachi Grill or LaScala’s Fire for dinner. Ending the night at Chickie & Pete’s for drinks would round out the evening!

All this and we never left a 2 mile radius of the brewery.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

Our team is 175% the reason we are where we are today. Our Taproom Manager, Mary Ellen, & team make sure the taproom experience is fun and inviting! Our Salesman, Kris, gets the good word about our beer out to South Jersey. Our Head Brewer, Mike,, & Packaging Guru, Joe, are the real MVP’s who are led by my husband, co-founder and recipe wizard Josh, without them we have no beer to sell! Our amazing graphic designer, Jon, helps us present our beer to the world in a manner that is as fun as the beer itself! Our one man IT Department, Joe, helps us make sure our website is a good-looking place people can go to find out more about us!

We also have amazing family that support us in this crazy mission from filling in at the brewery when needed to helping us with our 2 kids while we have to take care of stuff at the brewery. Our village is a huge reason we are where we are as well!

I know that is alot but honestly, without them all we would not be where we are today!

Website: axeandarrowbrewing.com

Instagram: @axeandarrowbrewing

Facebook: axeandarrowbrewing

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutColorado is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.