Brewpub marks 10 years in Cheney

If Hank Sanford is worried about competition in the local microbrewery business, it doesn’t show.

“There are three or four new ones opening in the next four or five months,” the owner of Hank Is Wiser Brewery in Cheney said. “The more breweries, the better.”

That attitude probably stems from the fact that Sanford was a member of the area’s amateur brewing community for years before opening his place. He loves trying other folks’ beer and hopes they’ll return the favor.

Hank Is Wiser marks its 10th year in business with a celebration April 3 and 4. Sanford says he will be pouring more than 25 of the brewery’s beers over two days, including several not offered before.

Sanford opened Hank Is Wiser after a long career in sales with a manufacturer that was heavy on travel.

“My hobby was visiting brewpubs all over the country,” he said.

He started making his own beer a quarter-century ago. When it came time to ponder retirement, Sanford knew he wanted to spend it in his own brewpub.

A Wichita resident, he nevertheless picked a “neat old building” in Cheney for its location. The 115-year-old building had been a drugstore with a lodge hall upstairs.

You could say Sanford was eager to open.

“On April Fool’s Day of 2005, I retired at noon, and we had our grand opening at 3 p.m.,” he said.

The brewpub is a family business. Sanford’s wife, Jane, helps with customers while his son, Steve, handles most of the brewing and cooking.

Sanford doesn’t think being located in a small town a half-hour’s drive from Wichita hurts.

“We get quite a bit of our business from the Wichita area, probably a good 50 percent,” he said. “We do draw the beer people out. We know all the beer people in Wichita.”

Sanford claims he’s had an effect on beer drinking in Cheney, too.

“Now we’ve got 150, 200 people that drink craft beer out there that used to drink Bud Light.”

The Sanfords have tweaked the place every couple of years. They put a patio out back and a game room next door. A couple of years ago, they started serving barbecue – pulled pork, brisket and ribs – and quickly started selling out of that as well.

“It’s driving in customers that we didn’t have before,” Sanford said. “When they come to eat, they drink our beer, too.”

Hank Is Wiser is open Thursday through Saturday, but the short week is not due to a lack of demand, Sanford said. It’s because he needs all available space for the brewing and barbecuing processes. The brewery’s next step likely will be to remodel, move or expand the brewing area.

“We’re brewing all the time,” he said. “We have trouble keeping up with the demand.”

For the anniversary, Sanford will be pouring plenty of his Crippled Kangaroo IPA and Tortured Toad Imperial IPA, fruit beers, oak-aged stout and more. Utopia, a strong and storied craft beer from Samuel Adams, will be available at $18 an ounce. Sanford expects one highlight to be a barley wine that he started aging five years ago, on the brewery’s last big anniversary.

“That barley wine, it just keeps getting better with age.”

This story was originally published March 25, 2015 at 5:43 PM with the headline "Brewpub marks 10 years in Cheney."