When Bailey Spaulding, JD'09, traded the mountains of Vermont for Vanderbilt's academic landscape to study environmental law, her wildest dream of launching a craft brewery felt utterly distant.
Then she immersed herself in the collaborative Vanderbilt community, with people who love to nurture and challenge bold ideas.
While working toward her law degree, Spaulding experimented in perfecting her brewing skills-with fellow students as willing taste-testers. She wrote a business plan and studied the legal hurdles involved in launching a microbrewery.
Today, Spaulding not only has a degree from Vanderbilt Law School, she is the founder of one of Nashville's premier craft beer breweries: Jackalope Brewing.
And starting in September 2024, Spaulding and Vanderbilt are raising a glass together with Conquer and Prevail Pale Ale, a crisp craft beer celebrating the school's alma mater.
"It's a really exciting full-circle moment for me," said Spaulding, who launched full-time into working on her brewery in 2009, right after passing the Tennessee bar exam.
MR. C AND THE CREATIVE PROCESS
Over the years, Spaulding and her team have crafted dozens of unique beers with personalities as distinctive as their trademarked, art-covered cans. With this Vanderbilt-focused beer, they took a creative team approach to crafting the recipe.
"With Conquer and Prevail, we spent time thinking about who was going to be drinking it and where and what kind of experience they might be looking for. That's really a fun challenge for us," she said. "People want a refreshing drinking experience that's also interesting."
What they created is a lively pale ale with hints of citrus and peach.
The unique vintage can design was created by Jackalope bartender-turned-designer Miranda Chandler.
"That Mr. C is super cool-and maybe someone you'd want to have a beer with," Spaulding said, laughing. "The creative part of what we do is why we do it, and that's everything from creating recipes to brewing the beer to the branding and art on the cans."
ENVIRONMENTAL TIES
Spaulding's passion for the environment remains strong. She and her original business partner and close friend Robyn Virball, and current partner Steve Wright, wove sustainability into the business.
"I think being intentional about what you're doing and understanding your impact on the world is the right thing to do," she said.
Jackalope has also donated a percentage of taproom sales to a different area nonprofit or cause every month since its opening.
GOOD LUCK CHARM
The company's mascot is a mythical jackrabbit-antelope hybrid, better known as a jackalope. It's been part of Spaulding's zeitgeist since childhood.
"I grew up believing in jackalopes. I was also voted most gullible in my middle school class, so there's that," Spaulding said, grinning.
Then the jackalope followed her to Vanderbilt.
"A friend gave me a t-shirt with a jackalope on it that says, 'believe in yourself,' and I wore it to all my Vandy law school exams."
That "believe in yourself" mantra is part of Jackalope's culture. And most of the beers are named after myth, legend and folklore characters.
"I think Mr. C is perfect as Vanderbilt's folklore character," she said.
FORGING HER OWN PATH
Craft brewing is a male-dominated industry, and when Spaulding started, microbreweries were almost unheard of in Nashville. But the entrepreneur, wife and mother takes it all in stride.
"In the first years, there was a rumor that we were started by an underground women's cult, and I was like, 'Just because two women started a business together and we have a lot of female employees, it has to be an underground women's cult,'" she laughed. "I'm lucky that I've been in charge of my own business and I'm the one making the decisions."
Her advice for young entrepreneurs is all about flexibility.
"It's important to have a plan. And then it's also important to change that plan. In the past 13 years, I don't even know if I've had a single day where I've ended up doing what I thought I was doing that day," she said. "Don't let the need to adapt derail your dreams."
TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK
Today Spaulding raves about her talented and diverse team and the bright future of Jackalope Brewing.
"I think one of my favorite things about Jackalope is our team here and how they've really adopted the dream themselves. We have people who really care about what we're doing here and are proud of what we put out. That's a great feeling," she said.
RESPONSIBLE DRINKING
When Vanderbilt first considered the idea of creating a partnership with Jackalope Brewing, they also made certain to focus on responsible drinking. Along with the creation of responsible drinking programming and a public service announcement, a portion of all Conquer and Prevail Ale proceeds will support the Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research.
The rest of Vanderbilt's proceeds from the sale of the beer and its branded merchandise will flow to Opportunity Vanderbilt, the university's no-loan financial aid program that provides a wide variety of awards, including full-tuition scholarships for households with income of $150,000 or less.
-By Amy Wolf
