Dane Soren Eriksen is a two-time New Zealand poker champion who has won $160,000 over the past two years in the poker championships. What he decided to do with his poker career? Instead of chasing even bigger prizes in Las Vegas trying to expand his bankroll via the conventional manner, Eriksen decide to used that money to start a new business, the 8 Wired Brewing. Since last October his beer label has proved very successful, winning a gold award at a respected beer industry awards ceremony. During these 10 months Eriksen sold 20,000 litres of his beer in various retail stores and pubs. “I never wanted to be a professional poker player because it’s not a very nice environment” he stated. “Sure, I could probably make good money grinding the games in Vegas”, but he decided to stay at home: his wife is expecting a baby and playing poker professionally would not be compatible with family life.
It’s not the very first journey into beer-making for Eriksen: his first attempt began in 2005 but turned out a terrible result, but he never give up the idea to make a career of it. “The initial plan was to run a brew-pub somewhere in the North Island, but rather quickly we realised that running your own brewery is a huge investment, both in finances and your own time” he said telling how his background in science had helped his beer-making: “Brewing is all about bio-chemistry, but it’s always on a much lower technical scale. Brewing is great because it’s both science and art”.
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