Presented by: Scotty Hunter and Bret Kollmann Baker (Niche Beverage Co.)
November 10, 2026 3:00 PM EST
Thinking about putting your spirit in a can? Niche Beverage co-founders Scotty Hunter and Bret Kollmann Baker walk craft distillers through the decisions to make before a ready-to-drink launch—from concept, cost targets and formulation through TTB approvals, excise, can formats and fill standards, minimum runs and real per-can pricing—so you can plan your first canned cocktail with confidence.
About the Presenters:
Scotty Hunter is co-founder of Urban Artifact, a brewery in Cincinnati, Ohio, and co-founder of
Niche Beverage Co, a Cincinnati-based contract beverage manufacturer. A chemical
engineering graduate of Ohio University who went on to earn an MBA, Scotty co-founded Ohio
University’s first homebrew club with his future business partner, Bret Kollmann Baker, before
the two opened Urban Artifact in 2015 inside a converted 1876 church in Cincinnati’s Northside
neighborhood. Urban Artifact has since grown into one of the country’s most recognized fruit-
beer breweries, built around a proprietary acidification process and deep expertise in fruit
sourcing and usage. Scotty has led the brewery’s sales, distribution, and business operations,
including selling its beer in up to 20 states through distribution channels, giving him vast
experience working with every type of wholesaler as well as chain retail in the adult beverage
space.
Building on that foundation, Scotty co-founded Niche Beverage Co, a TTB-permitted, SQF-
certified co-packer producing non-alcoholic, functional, seltzer, and spirit-based ready-to-drink
beverages in cans for brands across the country. He has also backed and launched beverage
brands in adjacent categories, including hemp-infused, and functional drinks, giving him hands-
on experience bringing new beverage formats from concept to shelf. At ACSA, Scotty brings a
co-packer’s and brand operator’s perspective to what it actually takes for a spirits brand to
launch a ready-to-drink product. Everything from formulation, canning, compliance, and
distribution.
Bret Kollmann Baker is COO and Co-Founder of Urban Artifact, Niche Bev Co, and Coastalo,
and co-host of the podcast BrewSkies. A brewer, food science enthusiast, chemical engineer,
and curious epicurean, Bret is also co-author of Tanked in Cincinnati. His love affair with beer
and Cincinnati began with his first fermentation experiments in high school, a hobby that
eventually spiraled into founding Urban Artifact.
Bret considers himself a brewer first and foremost, and with his team at Urban Artifact, he’s
helped pull off some remarkable things over the past decade: winning the EU Eureka Innovation
Award, creating the best THC seltzer in the USA (Mt. Doom), earning multiple Top 10 Brewery
in the US honors, brewing a top-50 beer in the world (Gadget), inventing the Midwest Fruit Tart
beer style, discovering a historic yeast strain beneath Over-the-Rhine and donating it back to
the city which lead to the creation of “Missing Link Day,” now celebrated annually on June 1st,
placing runner-up in Brewbound’s national beverage Pitch Slam, and serving as the
international fruit beer ambassador for Les Vergers Boiron.
Bret jokingly refers to himself as the King of Fruit Beer and he has the durian tattoo to prove it.
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Tags: Upcoming Webinar
