Since 1926….

In hindsight, a hard-working and head-strong woman starting up a beverage distribution company in a windy, blue-collar town at the edge of the Rocky Mountains in 1926 might not sound like the greatest of ideas, given the state of things back then. Considering that not even a decade had passed since the 19th Amendment had been ratified, the Great Depression was lurking just around the corner, and the entire country was mired deep in the middle of its turbulent relationship with Prohibition, one could be forgiven for assuming this humble business venture was destined for the historical dustbin labeled “foolhardy entrepreneurs of the 1920s”.

But if you assumed all of that, you’d be wrong.

You see, Beryl Yarter-Lewis wasn’t dissuaded by any of the aforementioned, not-so-small hurdles. Taking advantage of a business opportunity that would serve a rapidly-growing customer demand, Beryl began Cheyenne Beverage in 1926 as a soft-drink distribution business, with the Coca-Cola family of brands serving as the young concern’s primary offerings. This would remain the case throughout the duration of the Great Depression and all the way through World War II, and even into the post-war years.

Prior to America’s disruptive 13-year experiment with Prohibition, America was absolutely buzzing with an abundance of local and regional breweries, numbering into the thousands. But come 1920, that number dropped into a mere double-digit range, with the larger outfits doing their best to keep from being shuttered. Breweries like Coors Brewing Company began selling products like malted milk powder and bulk brewing ingredients (brewing beer was illegal, but not selling the raw ingredients to produce it) as a means of keeping the lights on and the payroll paid, such as it was. Thankfully in 1933 Prohibition was repealed and it was back to normal (somewhat) for the brewing industry, although the number of breweries in the US had shrunk at that point to historically low numbers, with hundreds if not thousands of brewers shutting down their operations for good or becoming victims of consolidation by larger regional concerns. Not too many years later, the scourge of worldwide warfare would once more place constraints and constrictions on American brewers, reducing the number of breweries yet again and causing certain brewing ingredients to become rationed, such as barley, which was the literal foundation of beer brewing the world over.

So what did all this mean for Beryl’s humble soft-drink start-up in gusty Cheyenne, WY? Well, by the late 1940s Cheyenne Beverage might have still been humble, but it wasn’t anything to scoff at; quite the opposite, in fact. The company’s sales had continued to soar in the post-war years and it was then that second-generation proprietor Marion Lewis, having taken the baton from Beryl a short time prior, decided that the time was ripe to navigate the company into the uncharted waters of beer distribution. Their first brand that they would begin distributing: Coors Brewing Company of Golden, CO.

The first cases of Coors Lager Beer, and indeed the first cases of any beer sold by Cheyenne Beverage, headed out the warehouse doors in 1949 to a thirsty and enthusiastic public, making the now second-generation company the very first wholesaler in Wyoming to sell Coors’ iconic lager beer. Around that time and for decades to come, the American beer landscape would continue to consolidate itself and simplify its offerings, giving the impression that things had settled into a predictable norm. But that would be wrong to say. You might also say that “…and the rest is history…” for Cheyenne Beverage at this point, but in truth, there was much more complexity and growth on the horizon for the company and the American brewing scene as a whole.

For years, the phrase “light beer” had been used by breweries to describe a beer as being light in color, flavor, or in all reality, both. But in the mid-to-late 1970s, those words would carry new freight with “light beer” as a style proper arriving on the scene. Light in color and flavor, but also light in terms of calorie count and sugar content, light beer fomented yet another massive revolution in American brewing. Coors’ own light beer effort, Coors Light, arrived in 1978 to great fanfare and quickly began its ascent towards being the brewery’s best-selling product. Just prior to Coors Light’s arrival at the end of the decade, Cheyenne Beverage would welcome its third-generation family owner in the form of Craig Lewis, a competitive and forward-thinking visionary who would help see the company through some of the most turbulent and fastest-paced years that the American beer industry had ever seen.

With Cheyenne Beverage now being 100% focused on their beer distribution operation (having seen off their soft-drink portfolio in the mid-1970s), Craig Lewis set about establishing his family’s company as the go-to beer distributor, not just for brewers looking to sell their suds in his part of Wyoming, but also for retailers and the community as a whole. Thus began a dedicated and concerted effort to help make Cheyenne Beverage a true pillar of the community in Cheyenne, an effort that continues to this very day, the company becoming and remaining deeply involved in local non-profits, fundraising efforts, community events, and the like.

Through the 1980s, Craig and his company’s effort’s to strengthen their bonds with the Cheyenne community weren’t the only tasks on their radar. Yet again, a whole new chapter in American brewing was being crafted, and while this chapter might have had humble beginnings, it would create a brewing movement so powerful that it would impact every corner of the beer industry in America, particularly for wholesalers smart enough and forward-thinking enough to pay attention. One of those who took notice of this new trend in brewing, widely known as “micro brews” or “craft beer”, was Craig Lewis.

Some might look at the 1980s as the dark days of American brewing, with the frothy beer landscape dominated by homogenized light lager styles and still more mega-brewery consolidation. But underneath all of that, a burgeoning subsect of the industry had taken root and was beginning to blossom from seeds planted by rogue and rowdy homebrewers who sought more flavorful, impactful beer at a time when most beer contained only the faintest whiff of hop flavor or malt-driven viscosity. Chico, California’s Ken Grossman and his Sierra Nevada Brewing Company would establish themselves officially in 1980 with their pioneering (and polarizing, at the time) Sierra Nevada Pale Ale taking its place as their flagship offering, eventually becoming one of America’s greatest contributions to the beer world as a whole. The list of micro-brewers that followed Ken’s lead and managed to eek out a foothold of their own in the 1980’s and into the early 1990s now reads like a who’s who of brewing luminaries: Jim Koch and Samuel Adams in 1984; Larry Bell and Bell’s Brewing in 1985; Marcy and Geoff Larson’s Alaskan Brewing in 1986; The Odell family and Odell Brewing Company in 1989; and Kim Jordan and Jeff Lebesch’s New Belgium Brewing, launched in 1991.

While all of this was happening, Craig Lewis wasn’t scoffing at these micro-breweries (the term “craft brewery” wasn’t in vogue yet) like so many other wholesalers, retailers, and big brewers were; rather, he saw the value of what these renegade small brewers brought to the pub table. While their size in virtually every aspect paled in comparison to that of the nation’s long-established big brewers, the product in their kegs and bottles was undeniably powerful, flavorful, and impactful. Consumers ranging from military veterans who had enjoyed fuller-flavored beer overseas in the UK and Germany to culinarians seeking robust beers to pair with food to just about everyone in between were clamoring for a commercial alternative to domestic lagers.

Beer consumers in Cheyenne weren’t exempt from this micro-brewed excitement, so in the early 1990’s Craig and Cheyenne Beverage became the first wholesaler to introduce craft beer to the market in the form of New Belgium Brewing and Odell Brewing Company, both of them brewing neighbors from nearby Ft. Collins, Colorado. Coors wasn’t scoffing at the idea of artisanal beer either, introducing their hugely-successful Blue Moon brand, which to this day boasts an expansive R&D program centered around craft beer and historical styles.

While craft beer growth continued to surge in the 1990’s, Cheyenne Beverage’s growth did as well. In 1998, Cheyenne Beverage purchased Longpre Distributors of Laramie, WY, expanding their distribution footprint which now included all of Albany County in addition to Laramie County. This marked the first territorial acquisition for Cheyenne Beverage, a particularly fortuitous move considering the strength of the Laramie market, the demand for both domestic and craft beer being particularly strong there.

Time passed as it does, and as the new millennium progressed it became time for the next generation of the Lewis family to take the reigns of the company, and in 2013 two of Craig’s children, son Todd and daughter Brittney rose to the challenge of running the day-to-day operations of a once-tiny wholesaler that had grown to include well over twenty beer suppliers, and had ventured back into non-alcoholic drinks as well. The period of time from 2013 to current day has been marked by fast-paced growth and massive volume gains for the company. A brand-new, state-of-the-art warehouse facility was completed in Cheyenne in 2015, and in 2019 Cheyenne Beverage acquired Metz Beverage of Sheridan and Gillette, WY. This accomplishment brought Cheyenne Beverage’s distribution coverage up to seven counties, ten counties when one includes the coverage provided by sub-distributor Tri-County Coors in Torrington, WY, with whom the company has enjoyed a strong and mutually-beneficial partnership with for many years.

When the COVID-19 panic took the world by storm in early 2020, the leadership team of Todd and Brittney stood fast and helped Cheyenne Beverage remain nimble, viable, and ready to move with the constantly-changing winds of the beer business. Consumer purchasing habits changed dramatically a number of times in 2020 and while many industries were unfortunately hit very hard by the pandemic, the beer industry surged along despite periodic ingredient and material shortages. The company’s focus on customer service, quality control, and taking care of their employees never wavered despite the litany of unprecedented challenges presented by the global pandemic, including the cancellation of marquee events on the beer selling calendar like Cheyenne Frontier Days, Laramie Jubilee Days, and the Sheridan Rodeo.

As 2020 mercifully ended and the world began to consider the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, the Lewis family made yet another landmark decision in the history of their now 95-year-old family business: a change in name to better reflect the company’s growth and standing as not just a local Cheyenne business, but a Wyoming business, catering to nearly 50% of the state’s population including some of the state’s largest and most important markets. The name chosen among management and the company’s team of dedicated employees was Bison Beverage, paying homage to the legendarily rugged American bison, a silhouette of which dominates the Wyoming state flag. This change in name, while not easy to come by for a family business operating under the same moniker for nearly a century, was a necessary and important milestone in an American beer story that few in the public are aware of, but is very much respected and well-known in the beer industry.

What lies ahead for the American beer landscape is hard to say, even for the most forward-thinking malt beverage evangelist. From the incredible rise in popularity of hard seltzers to a renewed focus on innovative non-alcoholic products, not to mention the evolution of craft beer from a cottage industry to a globally-recognized commodity, it’s hard to say what the next sweeping trend or tidal wave of innovation will be or where it will come from. But if anything is certain, it is the focus that Bison Beverage has always had and will always have on maintaining its place as the go-to beverage wholesaler for Wyoming. With customer and community service always at the top of the proverbial company to-do list, Bison Beverage is poised more so now than ever before to respond to the changes of an ever-evolving industry in a growing market like Wyoming.