CLEVELAND, Ohio — It all began when brothers-in-law Drew Anderson and Luke Visnic realized they were both making their own sauerkraut at home.

Luke was doing it to get in touch with his German roots.

• A local company started by two brothers and their brother-in-law has gone national and their unique product is flying off shelves 
• It all started when one of the brothers moved from Cleveland and couldn’t find one of his favorite foods— sauerkraut
• Today, they have 6 flavors and are in retail stores across the country, but they say it’s important to build their business at home in Cleveland

“Actually, today, our Classic Caraway is a riff on his great his grandmother's recipe,” said Mac Anderson, Drew’s younger brother.

This was about 6 years ago. 

“You know, there was this whole focus now on food companies, startups and healthy food and probiotics and fermented foods we are like, we make something that's very good, and we can't find it on the shelf anywhere. Let's try it out,” said Drew Anderson.

They roped in Drew’s younger brother Mac, and started taking their product to local farmers markets — somewhere their mom brought them all the time growing up. 

“We were always entrepreneurial, we grew up in that lifestyle,” said Drew Anderson. “So, we thought maybe this is this odd thing could be a niche. This is something we're passionate about. However, we share with the rest of the country and see what happens.”

In 2015, they started selling “Cleveland Kraut” at the Cleveland-based grocery store Heinen’s. 

“Since then, we've been the fastest growing fermented foods brand in the nation. We're currently number one in the channel of specialty, but to be number one in natural, and we're about 4,000 stores nationally today. So, it's been it's been a fun, fermented ride,” said Mac Anderson.

They’ve got 6 flavors and say new products are on their way. 

“It feels really good to not only be, you know, producing something that tastes really good and adds a lot of great flavor and the people love, but we can feel good because every batch we sell actually makes everybody healthier,” said Mac Anderson.

This year, they launched in stores nationwide.

But what means the most to them is growing where their roots are. 

“It's, you know, we're still pinching ourselves. And hopefully we're just getting started, said Mac Anderson. “But, you know, what's been really important to us is it's bringing this growth back to Cleveland, we both grew up here. This is our hometown. And, you know, today we're employing 40 to 50 people full-time and that's really exciting for a couple Cleveland kids to be able to say hey, we're right here in downtown Cleveland, and we continue to add growth and jobs and really hopefully, going to take our Cleveland name nationwide and with a good reputation.” 

They say the future is fermented.