It started as a Christmas gift from Mike Anderson’s daughters in the form of a Mr. Beer homebrewing kit. Although the premise was fairly simple, with the process largely coming down to precanned wort being brought to a boil with the hops already added, it provided an easy entry into the world of brewing for Anderson. Stopping by a homebrewing shop that was on his commute to work, he continued to throw himself into the world of brewing.

“It just sorta took on a life of its own,” Anderson laughed. “Eventually got kicked out of the kitchen for stinking up the house too much and had to do it outside. Then it was too small and I had to buy bigger gear and then you get more more toys and, pretty soon, it just got kinda out of control.”

What started as amateur experimentation would go on to light the spark that would lead him to becoming the CEO of one of Wyoming’s most popular breweries: Ten Sleep Brewing Company.

Beginning of a legend

The story of Ten Sleep Brewing Company begins with its founder Cole Smith and his plans for retirement being put on hold by the 2008 financial crisis. Smith had worked as an aircraft hangar project developer for 40 years prior before returning to his property in Ten Sleep, nestled on the eastern side of the Big Horn Basin. He had gotten the idea to convert his barn at the base of Signal Cliff outside of town into a brewery following the experience of relatives in Washington who had a similar concept with their own dairy barn. 

With the decision to fully commit, Smith got in contact with Jeremy Tofte, the founder of Melvin Brewing in Alpine, who agreed to get involved as Ten Sleep’s brew master. Construction began in March 2013, and was fully completed just in time for hunting season the following October. Since then, Ten Sleep Brewing Co. has become an icon of the area, with its flagship Speed Goat Golden Ale carrying their name to prominence across Wyoming despite only being available on tap.

Despite the success, it hasn’t been easy to produce consistent results. 

“For a while the challenge was to brew the same beer twice in a row, then the challenge was to make fermentations consistent and repeatable.” Anderson said. “We've made a lot of mistakes but learned a lot as a result; we made a lot of incremental improvements, and now we can make as much beer in a day as it used to take us a week.”

“Good beer for good people”

Being from northern Wyoming, Ten Sleep Brewing prides itself on working with local producers in as much of the process as possible. 

“Speed Goat includes local honey produced by Bryant Honey located in Worland. In 2025 we used more than 22,000 pounds of honey, employing about 15 million bees from around the state.” Anderson said. 

Local cooperation doesn’t just stop with their most popular beer either, as local ingredients make up the foundation of the seasonal beers as well. 

“Our Total Black Out Stout featured malt from Wyoming Malting Co. located in Pine Bluffs and was the first commercial offering in Wyoming to feature their malt,” Anderson said. “Total Black Out Stout continues to use malt from barley grown here in the Big Horn Basin, even though Wyoming Malting Co. is now closed.” 

Anderson said the Whiskey Barrel Stout and Woolly Mammoth Barrel Aged Baltic Porter are aged in select barrels from the Wyoming Whiskey Distillery in Kirby, just outside of Thermopolis. And they brew a “fresh-from-the-vine hop” IPA with and Pack Saddle Porter with hops featured from Worland grower Hill Crest Hops. 

Beyond the Beer

Anderson stresses the importance of having an inviting culture in the taproom. 

“Our goal has been to make beer that is easy to enjoy with friends and to promote a craft beer culture within Wyoming,” he said. “We welcome everyone into our taproom, and it always makes me smile to see our local folks in animated conversation with seasonal climbers and other travelers from around the country and from around the world.”

Ten Sleep also began partnering with Mama Z’s Pizza in late 2024 to tremendous reception. Originally a brick-and-mortar business in Greybull, owners Tom and Nancy Zielof moved Mama Z’s to a built-for-purpose food trailer that would rotate between locations in the Basin for events, many of which brought them to Ten Sleep Brewing. 

“They were kinda looking to step back and start to retire so they were looking for somewhere for the franchise to land. We were in the middle of our remodel and putting in a kitchen when they came to us and said ‘Hey, while you’re doing this kitchen, you could just sell our pizza out of there.’ And we agreed so we did the thing that you're never supposed to do in the middle of a project and changed direction.” Anderson joked. “It was a glorious mistake and a calculated risk that ended up paying off as we’ll have weeks in the winter where we sell more pizza than we do beer.”

Onwards and Upwards

For the time being, Ten Sleep has largely moved production to Worland in order to more easily facilitate the statewide demand the company has generated. Operational since 2022, the Worland location has roughly 3,000 square feet of production space including a 500 square foot cold room that is comparable to the entirety of the Ten Sleep barn’s cumulative production area and cold room. 

The brewery has also been dealing with the logistics of switching distributors in recent weeks. “We have three distributors that we’re working with now so we for sure have a presence throughout the state,” Anderson said. “Logistically, the areas that are farther away from Worland are more difficult to supply as the supply chain is longer. Just getting kegs there and back has been kind of a challenge.”

With the growing exposure the brewery has been bringing in, Anderson looks at the future with optimism and prudence. 

“One of our goals is to create a sustainable business in a small town in Wyoming, so we take small, deliberate steps to not overwhelm our supply chains or our personnel or to overextend ourselves by trying to do too much too quickly.  Currently, our beer is only available throughout the state as draft, but we just started a very limited canning operation this summer that we are hoping to grow over the next few years,” Anderson said, adding that they only recently began to develop a presence in the area around Jackson Hole late last year. “We are not planning to send our beer into neighboring states because Wyoming is a large state, and we still have room to grow here.”

Anderson attributes the success of recent years to the faithfulness of the customers and dedicated staff. 

“We owe all of our customers a sincere thank you for being patient as we’ve slowly grown,” Anderson said. “Our people are talented at what they do, from keeping the books, to putting on big events to making the beer and now the pizza.  Everyone works hard, is conscientious and meticulous about maintaining high standards, and pulls together as a team.”

For more information regarding the story of the brewery, the beers they have on rotation and locations they can be found and upcoming events, visit tensleepbrewingco.com.