Ben Caya, 30, has been business-minded since he was a pre-teen. At age 12, he and a friend embarked on their first moneymaking venture—selling knockoff designer T-shirts over the internet. “Being a schemer, and always trying to make a buck, I’d try to make something happen,” he says.
About a decade ago, while a mechanical engineering student at UW-Milwaukee, Caya found empty beer kegs in the basement of his East Side apartment. This sparked the idea for manufacturer Spike Brewing Equipment.
Caya posted flyers around his college campus, seeking used kegs, which he acquired and then sold to home brewers, who cut the keg tops off and prepared beer inside the containers. According to Caya, beer kegs are significantly cheaper than specialized kettles, which can cost hundreds of dollars. “For less than $100, people would have a very inexpensive vessel,” he adds.
Caya drove a U-Haul as far as Iowa to pick up kegs, which he then stored in his grandmother’s basement in Oconomowoc. Gradually, the company, named after Caya’s childhood pet, transitioned from buying and selling beer kegs to manufacturing brewing equipment like custom kettles and fermenters.
In recent years, Spike has experienced considerable growth, and its revenue has more than doubled. The company’s electric brewing systems are sold internationally in more than 20 countries. Caya says the majority of the company’s customers are home brewers. Two years ago, Spike moved to a 14,000-square foot facility at 3866 N. Fratney St. in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood, a far cry from the small garage spaces the business once occupied. Caya added 8,000 square feet of office and warehousing space to the building. Now, the company employs over 20 people, including metal fabricators and customer service personnel.
According to a press statement, the Spike facility now “houses an engineering lab, a dedicated showroom and an employee taproom with eight beer taps featuring employee-brewed beers and cold brew coffee from fellow startup Pilcrow Coffee, whose roasters use Spike equipment to make their cold brew variety.” “Spike’s commitment to innovation and creating an unmatched customer service experience bleeds into the local community as well,” says Caya. Several Milwaukee breweries, including 1840 Brewing Company, MobCraft, and Gathering Place Brewing, have used Spike’s test equipment facility to brew new recipes.
This year, the company, which has two production lines dedicated to kettles and conical fermenters, plans to add a third focusing on brewing systems. Caya says he will be hiring six to eight new employees for higher-level positions. “2019 will be a big year for us. We’re looking to have a very strong team,” he notes.
As a business owner, Caya is constantly learning new things, which keeps him on his toes. Sometimes, he finds it hard to believe that his company, which began as a few empty beer kegs in a college student’s basement, has evolved so much. “Never in a million years would I have guessed it would have gone to this point,” Caya concludes.
