Hidden Gems: Meet Bradley Polachek of Red Beard Seasonings

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bradley Polachek.  

Hi Bradley, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Red Beard Seasonings was launched in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cooking and grilling have been a hobby of mine for a long time and I had just ventured into the whole world of BBQ and smoking meats. I had several seasonings that I used regularly when we would cook at home for family and friends and one day the good idea fairy came and I said, “Well let’s see if we can sell these seasonings?” 

Seasonings and rubs are big in the BBQ community and in the beginning process of figuring out what I needed to do to sell our blends I did countless hours of research. The hardest part was putting the blends that I was using at home into a formal, calculated recipe! I always just added a little of this and a little of that but never had an actual recipe. That recipe part of the whole thing was very important when it came down to producing 5-10 lb. batches in the beginning and even more important now that we are producing blends in the hundreds of pounds at a time! My wife, Kayla, became the official taste tester at that point – I would mix up a batch and write down what I was adding in down the gram. She would then taste the batches we already had made and tell me what I needed more or less of. Kayla is a pretty darn good cook in the kitchen so I trusted her senses when it came down to putting recipes down on paper. It took many batches to get the recipes just right where we wanted them 

When we started the company, we were operating under Ohio’s Cottage Food Law. We were blending the seasonings in 5lb batches, labeling, sealing, and bottling everything all by ourselves. Now, a little of one and a half years later we have moved to utilizing a co-packer who does all of the blendings and bottling labeling for us. We are currently selling our products in 53 retail locations in 10 different states. We have also recently obtained our food service license and built a food trailer from the ground up and now offer BBQ catering in the Willard, Ohio area. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
For the most part, the transition into industry we operate in as a small business has been pretty smooth. The startup costs were minimal compared to a lot of other small businesses. Our main initial investment was 90% dedicated to establishing inventory to sell. The actual equipment and everything needed to get started was very minimal in the scheme of everything. 

Once we transitioned to utilizing a co-packer, we hit a few bumps in the road. At that point, the co-packer needed to convert our recipes into much larger batches. In order to do this, we had to provide them with a recipe that larger in quantity so they could do the conversion to 100lb batches. The problem is with mixing spices and herbs is that if you want a 10lb batch recipe, you can’t just take the 1lb recipe and multiply by 10! Different spices and herbs, the large the batch, are more concentrated and simply cannot be multiplied. We were back the drawing board and had to purchase a large amount of raw ingredients and put together larger batches to get the flavor profiles right. Once that was accomplished, we were in business. 

The transition and the decision to contract a co-packer to blend, bottle, and label our products was definitely worth it! We were to a point where we couldn’t keep up with orders because the process, we were using was very time-consuming. We had much more time available than we could direct towards marketing, social media presence, improving our website, and even opened the door for more time to attend farmers’ markets and trade shows to showcase and sell our products. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Red Beard Seasonings specializes in the production of small-batch quality seasonings that can be used in the kitchen, on the grill, in the smoker, in the air fryer, or around the campfire. The idea behind the flavor profiles of our blends is geared towards the BBQ community, but hundreds of satisfied, repeat customers use our seasonings in a variety of ways each day. Our seasonings are also used by BBQ restaurants on several of their menu options that they serve. Our seasoning blends have also won numerous awards at BBQ competitions in the United States and are used regularly by competition BBQ teams competing in various competition circuits. 

All of our seasoning blends are made with non-GMO natural ingredients sourced from companies in the United States. Our mission is to bring unique flavors to you that will take your meals, however, they are prepared, to the next level. Our blends contain no MSG and no synthetic fillers or preservatives. 

All of our seasoning blends can be located and purchased through our website www.redbeardseasonings.com. We offer gift boxes and discounted pick-your-own bundle deals as well as sauces made by another local company in Ohio (E.D.S. Sauce Guys Mt. Gilead, Ohio) and our t-shirts and hats. 

Pricing:

• $9 per bottle
• Discounted pick-your-own bundles available on the website
• Gift Boxes available online

Contact Info:

• Website: www.redbeardseasonings.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/redbeardseasonings
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/redbeardseasonings

Image Credits
Robert Rose
Brad Polachek