JACKSON, MS—While in Jackson, Mississippi, I stopped by one of the state’s best known craft beer stores. Brewers in the state described it as “one of the state’s original bottle shops,” and “foundational.” But LD’s Beer Run has only been open for about eight years. It sits in a strip mall parking lot in North Jackson, behind a Shell Gas Station, just off of a main road.
The store itself is a square island at the edge of the parking lot, with mossy green awnings and a large mural on its wall. Inside, tables and a small bar offer patrons a place to drink beer from one of the 12 draft pulls that LD’s maintains. Beyond the bar, bottles line the shelves from all kinds of breweries–local, domestic, and international. The store is littered with breweriana from notable names and local favorites. Between the roof of the walk-in and the ceiling, used cases of beer form an impressive brick-like façade. Finally, above the register, the Bicentennial Beer Company banner hangs from the ceiling–a memory of the small microbrewing operation that used to run out of LD’s back room.
LD’s is at the forefront of craft beer in a state that is rather behind in comparison to the rest of the country. The state’s first craft brewery, Lazy Magnolia, only opened in 2005. Since then, laws, tastes, and businesses have slowly changed to bring more beer to the shelves of local beer stores.
Larry Voss, the “L” in LD’s Beer Run, has been a part of the state’s slow moving craft beer scene since the mid 2000s. From grassroots campaigning, to selling craft beer, from brewing renowned local offerings, to hosting impressive bottle shares, Voss has been a constant advocate for craft beer in the Mississippi.
Why? He has found community, flavor, and excitement in craft beer, and he wants to share it with others.
The following interview with Voss has been edited for concision and clarity.
Q: How did LD’s Beer Run come to be?
A: I’ve had the store for a little over 8 years now. I had been involved in the grassroots operation that was working to get some of our beer related laws changed. It took us about five years to get the state to change the law.
The main thing we wanted to get accomplished was to raise the abv. Back then, the maximum was 6.2% by volume (the laws do it by weight so you have to convert.) There was a group of folks pushing for change and all the officers of the organization were good friends of mine. I got involved and we finally got the law changed in 2012.
Q: Who was involved in this legislative reform movement?
A: There were homebrewers who were involved. We have always had a good homebrewer contingent here. But it was a group of people who were getting interested in craft beer.
Next door, Louisiana was getting into it. There would be a gas station right across the border 45 minutes from Jackson. In Louisiana, you can buy beer, buy liquor, and gamble in a gas station. A lot of folks would run over there on the weekends to buy craft beer. A group wanted to buy the same stuff in state, but couldn’t do it. That’s what started it all.
Q: What did the push for legislative change look like?
A: Homebrewing was also illegal. It wasn’t a real issue, but it was technically illegal. Mostly we would raise awareness. We would have different events where we could serve some craft beer. We wanted to expose more people to it. We actually already had Lazy Magnolia operating in the state. I don’t know how they ever did it.
Mississippi is kind of unique. I really attribute a lot of our issues moving forward to demographics. Mississippi is a state of barely 3 million people. It’s a very small population. When you consider how rural it is, and that it is fairly poor as well–all of this is stacked against you as far as craft goes, because it is more expensive. Mississippi still doesn’t have large urban centers.
Q: In terms of distribution and access to craft beer, what has changed over the years?
A: That said, I’ve been here a little over 8 years and its amazing how far it’s come, although slow going. We have a lot more beer and a lot more out of state breweries.
Beer is nothing more than a manufacturing deal. Breweries outside of the state need to determine if they have the capacity to send beer here and if they have the market here. Our state has some different things they have to do. They have to get tied to a distributor here.
We have pretty much a Bud house and a Miller house. I’ve spent a great deal of time trying to influence the distributors as to what beer we want to sell here. To this day, I still get on their case a lot. Ultimately, I don’t have much sway.
Q: What made you open LD’s Beer Run?
A: I had been involved in the beer scene here in Jackson, and when I decided to get out of the corporate world, I wanted to give people more options. My first intent was to try to grow the market and expose people to craft beer. There was a decent sized community of craft drinkers but I also wanted to convert others.
One of the first things we did, was we allowed for the sale of singles. The thinking was that when you come in here and you have $10-$15 six packs, and you’ve never had it before, you aren’t going to want to spend the money. I always encourage people to step outside their box.
Q: How many unique beers do you carry? Has it increased over the years?
A: Somewhere in the 300s to 400s. It has increased over the years, but not like you would think. What happens is, oftentimes, the distributors bring in a new brewery and they cut some of the stuff they are already carrying. Some of it has to do with space, and they’re often fixated on the number of SKUs they have. With recent warehouse expansion, it may allow them to retain some of those beers.
For me, it’s all about selection. I sell myself to the entire metro Jackson area based off of my selection. We have what is often referred to as the best selection in the state.
Q: Is Jackson the best craft scene in the state?
A: I think it is.
You have the Gulf Coast and their scene. They have an okay scene but they are absolutely focused on Michelob Ultra and Bud Light. You have tourists, you have fishing, you have boating. It’s all light beer. There is some craft, but I think it’s a bit more difficult for them.
Then you’ve got North Mississippi which might be more limited by population, but they’re close to Memphis so they have some access.
Jackson, ultimately, is probably the largest craft market in Mississippi.
Q: I understand that you guys once had a brewery here in addition to the bottle shop?
A: Yes, one of my friends is one of the best brewers in the state. He had his own brewery. When he shut down, he started to do a micro thing with us. So we set up a microbrewery in the back here, which became highly rated.
We brewed from 2018 and stopped in 2022. The brewery was Bicentennial Beer Company. We made some great IPAs, wonderful stouts, and lots of sours (kettle and tradition.) We only did draft and we had no interest in bottling or canning.
We made everything except lagers. With only 12 taps, we rarely do lagers. Our clientele is a little more geekish than that. We have done some high end doppelbocks but never a straight lager because it never sells well.
We are disappointed that we don’t have the brewery here any more, it was a big draw for us. But life brings changes.
Q: In terms of clientele, do you have regulars? What is the community like?
A: I have a lot of regulars. A really strong following. New people still find us all the time, even people who live here in Jackson. I get an awful lot of people from out of state on the regular. I think for the most part they leave very happy. Folks who visit each year always come up to LD’s.
One of our slogans is “Always good times at LD’s.” The community continues to grow. People will sit here and drink beer quite a bit, and we are known for our massive bottle shares. These are typically spontaneous. We have a lot of regulars that travel a lot and they’ll bring beer back from all over the country, all over the world. Next thing you know, they come walking in with a cooler of beer. Word gets out and other people bring beer here. We end up drinking tons of beer we don’t sell here. It could be 10 to 12 unique bottles, it could be 80. We had one recently that had 86 different beers.
Q: How did you come to craft beer? Does it matter that you’re not from Mississippi?
A: I don’t think that it matters at all. I got involved with beer in a two fold way. We would have a couple events around here where they might have something besides Coors, Miller, or Bud. I was getting a little bored of the macro stuff, so I was more intrigued by anything different.
When I moved down here, one of my buddies started brewing beer and he brewed an IPA. He offered it to me and it blew me away. It was the first beer I had that I actually liked. I told him that I could actually take this home and have it in my fridge and drink a couple at home. I came from a big college town, and we would have keg parties every weekend, roasting hogs, having big shindigs. I drank a lot of macro beer. I wasn’t a fan, it was just a form of socializing. I would never drink macro at home.
I was willing to try more, even though we couldn’t buy it at the store. So I met a bunch of homebrewers. We would have events, one was called Jacktoberfest, which had a homebrewing competition. Jackson’s St. Patrick’s Day parade is one of the biggest in the country. We would have a whole parking lot full of beer people with homebrew kegs and commercial kegs. We would call it “Beer City.” It’s the one day of the year here in the Deep South that we could get drunk on the streets.
I loved the camaraderie. The beer community is unlike most others. They support each other. It’s not like most industries. There’s such fellowship. That always attracted me to it as much as the beer did.
Q: Did you have a goal in mind when you opened up LD’s Beer Run?
A: I had wanted to expand the craft space here.
I remember the first time I had a dark beer. It was a Black IPA. I originally didn’t want to try it, but when I did, it was a real eureka moment. I realized that there was more out there. It was a big deal because color was involved, of all things.
When I decided to open the store, I wanted everyone to have their eyes opened like I did. It was such a blast for me, so I thought, “Why couldn’t it be a blast for everyone else?”
Q: Where is craft beer going in Mississippi today? The state seems to be behind most other states.
A: Mississippi is way, way behind.
But everywhere I am, there seems to be a great deal of interest. I still think that Jackson could support four to five brew pubs. But I attribute most of it to our lack of urban centers. You can look at Alabama and there are far more options, although Birmingham is larger than Jackson.
I would like to see it move forward more here. Things are slightly on the stagnant side right now. I am still of a positive mindset that the growth will happen. I hear things through the grapevine that some more things will open in the coming years. We hope the growth will continue.
I’m not worried about competition. The more there is, the more we feel we will prosper. The market has a lot of room for growth.
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