NYC Banker Launches All-Natural, Drinkable Pickle Brine

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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Hey there, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Got an interesting story for you today. It's about a banker in New York City who sells a food product, kind of an interesting unconventional food product.

And whenever you do that, it usually presents numerous challenges, but many of our featured case studies this year have figured it out. Among others, we've had episode 241, the writer who turns leftover cherries into a $5,000 a month income. Episode 219, two friends start $25,000 a month paleo bar business. And of course, episode 248, the protein shake lover who chomps crickets for six figure side hustle. Once again, that was 241, 219 and 248.

In all three of these stories, each of these people had to learn how to make their products in bulk using a co-packer. A co-packer is a company that essentially will take your recipe and bulk produce your food item. So today's story features a financial services professional, a banker basically who finds himself in a pickle, that is a drinkable pickle brine side hustle. It's kind of a big deal. And I'll tell you the whole story right after this.

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Michael Bellicose is the vice president of consumer banking for JP Morgan Chase & Co. He's got a lot of responsibility at his day job. When he's off the clock, he keeps out over something that most people don't give any thought to, pickle brine. Though unknown to many, pickle brine is actually a drink beloved by an avid subculture. Athletes love it for its post workout regeneration and hydration qualities.

Chefs love it for its complex flavor profile that pairs well with many types of food. And lovers of adult beverages enjoy mixing it into cocktails or using it as hangover relief. After work, Michael and a friend like to enjoy chilled shots of pickle brine followed by a shot of whiskey, which is known as a pickleback shot. But they found that the brine was often just an afterthought. It tended to be unfiltered, old, and filled with all sorts of preservatives.

Disappointed by the sad state of pickle brine, Michael and the friend began playing with the idea of creating their own. With thousands of bars and restaurants in the city not knowing how delicious good brine could be or how it could compliment a spirit, they believed they had found an opportunity. Michael knew that he could create a delicious all natural brine that would be far better than the ones most places served. He also knew that New York City is filled with passionate bartenders that are always looking for ways to improve their menu. Feeling confident that they'd stumbled upon an underserved need, Michael and his friend started planning their domination of the drinkable brine market.

Some side hustles take just days or weeks to experiment the transformation from idea to income, but this one wasn't one of those. It actually took 15 months to launch Brine Brothers. Side note, I think it should be called Brine Bros., but we'll go with their name, Brine Brothers. The first few weeks were spent speaking with cucumber farmers and pickle manufacturers. It took a few dozen phone calls, but they eventually found one that would work with them to produce exclusive brine recipes and flavors.

The next step was much more difficult and took several months, finding a co-packer. Remember that co-packer is that company that will take your recipe, work with all the ingredients and package everything together so that it can be sold at retail. And in this case, there were two big reasons why the search was so long and exhausting. First, most facilities didn't want to run pickle brine through their machines. They feared that the highly acidic properties would taint the equipment forever.

Second, to meet regulations, the brine has to be pasteurized and heated to 195 degrees Fahrenheit while it's being bottled, another process that many co-packers weren't equipped to handle. This time, the phone calls weren't just in the dozens. They made hundreds of calls to find a co-packer in Bloomfield, New Jersey that could meet the requirements and was willing to handle the brine. To finish setting up manufacturing, Michael and his friend collected all the information that was required for the bottle labels and certifications. Thankfully, this information was easily accessible through various food manufacturing websites.

I've got a whole list of them, by the way, if you're interested, I'll link them up in the show notes. They outsourced the branding and bottle labels to 99 designs. They were able to pick their designs without spending a lot of money. They also built a website with Shopify and began posting relevant content on social media. Finally, their first bottling day arrived.

Michael and his friend went to New Jersey to watch their initial run of 2,000 bottles enter the world. They then took the cases and stored them in Michael's brother's basement. Thanks, bro. In May 2017, 15 months after Michael first had the idea, brinebrothers.com launched, and they've been hustling ever since. Their most effective marketing tool has been social media, and they have an interesting outreach strategy.

Not only do they post great content, but every day, Michael messages athletes, celebrities, chefs, bars, anyone else in the position to help expand their audience. One of the athletes he pitched was Blake Coleman from the NHL's New Jersey Devils. He responded and tried one of the brines, and he loved it so much he's since taken a bottle to every single hockey game to avoid cramps and stay hydrated. No word on whether there's any whiskey involved as well. This quickly led to brinebrothers being mentioned on the front page of the National Hockey League website, which was the brand's largest publicity yet.

In turn, this led to a variety of newspaper and online magazine articles featuring their all-natural pickle brine. They were also able to show off their brine at the New York City Pickle Festival, not making this up, which is the largest pickle-focused event in the world. They brought an ice luge, played party music, and served their brine to people walking by. Just seven months after launching, brinebrothers now has product in over 15 bars in the New York area and generates sales online from around the country. Before Thanksgiving, they'd seen just over $5,000 in sales.

However, in the two weeks after Thanksgiving, they generated $2,000. So it seems like the pickle empire's on the up, but Michael's not getting comfortable yet. He's aiming for $10,000 a month and to reach a point where the business drives itself without him having to message influencers every day. We'll try to give him that side hustle school bump today. Everybody go check out some pickle brine.

To get to that point, he and his friend will soon be launching a new line of olive-based brines, as well as frozen brine pops. The road ahead may have challenges, but when Michael looks back, he's incredibly proud of the journey so far. In fact, you could say he relishes their first year of hustling. [Music]

What do you call a hardworking pickle? Diligent.

That's right, you're welcome. And if you relish the idea of having more than one source of income, Side Hustle School is here for you with a different story every day of somebody making money, often doing a pretty crazy thing like pickle brine. As we head into 2018, our second season, we'll be picking up the pace. We'll be introducing an online community called Side Hustle Society. I'm gonna be going back out on the road to lots of cities.

Hopefully we can hang out somewhere. In short, there's a lot on the way and I hope you'll join me for it. As always, remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes, including links to those resources I mentioned, as well as everything about the Pickle Empire, are at sidehustleschool.com/362. Thank you for listening.

I'll be back tomorrow. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]