Cold as ice

Some business ideas are born over a couple of beers.

For Randy Beeman and Dave Chism, their great idea stemmed from the brewskis themselves.

In their opinion, drinking a beer should be an enjoyable experience from beginning to end. And often, that doesn't wind up being the case.

“When you get halfway done with a beer it's always warm,” says Beeman. “So how do you keep your beer cold until you're finished? The only way to do that is to actually get the beer colder to start with.”

The two manufacturing and engineering veterans found a way to do just that with Beer Frost. The Sarasota duo began to develop the product toward the end of last year, researching how to make an ice-filled cooler as cold as possible.

What they came up with is an all-natural, environmentally friendly, patent-pending mixture of minerals like sodium, magnesium, and calcium chlorides. When users sprinkle the granules between two layers of ice in a cooler, it creates a reaction that actually makes the ice colder, reaching temperatures as low as -10°F in less than three minutes.

“It turns your cooler into a freezer,” says Beeman. “We've done tests where we've taken three beers out of the refrigerator and put one on regular ice, one in the freezer and one in ice with Beer Frost. After 40 minutes the one on ice was at 32 degrees, the one in the freezer was at 28, and the one in ice with Beer Frost was 18 degrees.”

They created a prototype by the spring. Then they used the prototype to strike a deal with Mr. Checkout, a national network of distributors for convenience and independent grocery stores. That deal got Beer Frost into some 500 stores in New York, New Jersey, Texas and Florida for a test run. Initial feedback is positive.

The company also created a campaign on crowdfunding website Indiegogo. Though it only raised $2,685 from 69 funders, Beeman says the exposure Beer Frost received was priceless. “What we raised was awareness, and the phones are ringing off the hook,” he says.

Inquiries have come in from 11 different countries, and the company has shown off its product for entities like Sunkist and iHeartRadio. Beer Frost will be a sponsor at popular radio DJ Elvis Duran's End of Summer Bash in New York City and the Great American Beer Festival in Denver in late September. It also recently filmed a segment for the program “In America” with James Earl Jones, which airs on PBS.

With a suggested retail price of $3.99, Beer Frost “actually pays for itself,” says Beeman. “You're not throwing out any beer at the end, and your ice lasts longer.” It can be found at some 60 gas stations and convenience stores throughout Sarasota and Manatee counties. The Sarasota Shell station where the product was first sold now sells about 90 bags a week.

Beer Frost currently shares office and manufacturing space with Chism Manufacturing Services, an earlier venture of co-founder Chism. The product had been bagged there but will soon be packaged by PPI Technologies Group in Sarasota, which can handle a higher volume in a much quicker timeframe. Company owners also anticipate the need for a distribution center or two down the road and see the potential for job creation both at Beer Frost and PPI as the company grows.

Though Beeman and Chism focused on beer drinkers originally because it's such a huge market in this country, Beer Frost can be used to chill everything from sports drinks to soda. There are also potential applications in industries ranging from fishing to medicine. “We'll get our name out there and get known,” says Beeman, “and then other products will spin off.”