HUNGRY IN RENO • Lead Dog Brewing

An interview with Ryan Gaumer, Owner

What made you decide to get into the business of food & drink?

My dad was a home brewer and he and his friends home brewed, so I started hanging around them while they were brewing and I developed an interest. I moved down to Los Angeles for college and took all my home brewing equipment with me, set it up on the patio and all my roommates and I would brew beer. I was studying business and knew I wanted to start my own business of some sort, my family had been in manufacturing so I was raised around that atmosphere so I wanted to do something very hands on. Combine those two things and you get a brewery.

We started with our place downtown. At first we were just going to be a local taproom, we had no plans of any distribution at all and then, that changed. Within four months we had our first distribution, after eight months we had our second, by the end of our first year we had four, by the end of our second year we had grown six times the size of our first year and by the end of our third year we were about fifteen to twenty times our first year. So that’s how it all played out … and we are still growing!

Why Reno?

I was raised in Reno for the most part, my family has always lived in the Tahoe area and we moved to Reno when I was in 5th grade. I moved to Los Angeles for college but didn’t really care for the concrete city and I’m a big skier so I decided to come back to Reno.

Why are you excited for Reno Restaurant Week?

I think it will be cool to reconnect with a lot of people that I’ve lost touch with over the years as we’ve gotten busier. During the first years of the business, I would get out and meet the restaurant owners and enjoy being in the beer business for the social side of things.

I’m excited to have the opportunity for more people to connect with our beer.

What is one thing you’d like your guests to know about you and/or your establishment?

I was the youngest brewery owner in the country. The night of my 21st birthday I was submitting ATF paperwork instead of getting trashed downtown.

We don’t specialize in any one style of beer, we try to make a lot of styles of beer really well.

How are you complying with safety guidelines for COVID-19?

Depends what day of the week you ask, it seems to change daily and we are complying with any changes that happen. We are offering curbside, everyone is wearing masks and gloves and we have bottles of sanitize out.

A brewery is already probably one of the most sanitary place on the planet, so we are very accustomed to cleaning surfaces with strong chemicals.

Over the next month or so, instead of having menus on tables there will be a QR code on your table for you to view menus.