How It All Began: The Story Behind Jerky Boys

When I was a kid, my grandpa was always making homemade beef jerky. It was something we all looked forward to anytime we heard he was planning to make a batch. Funny enough, as a kid I never really liked beef jerky, except for his. There was just something about Grandpa’s jerky that I couldn’t get enough of. Whenever we got a fresh batch, our neighbors and all my friends would get just as excited as I did. Anytime I told them we had just gotten a delivery of Grandpa’s famous beef jerky, they would go crazy for it. Everyone loved it. We always told my grandpa he should sell it, but he never had any interest in turning it into a business. So time passed.

Fast forward to when I was 25. It had been quite a while since Grandpa had made a batch of jerky, and I started craving it again. Being an adult now, I thought to myself,

Why not try making it myself?

So I called my grandpa and asked him for the family recipe. I made a batch, and the nostalgia immediately hit me. It was just as good as I remembered. I sent some to a few of my buddies I grew up with, and they had the exact same reaction they did when we were kids.

That’s when the idea hit me.

The beef jerky market today is flooded with gummy, overly processed jerky that just doesn’t taste right. A lot of it barely even feels like real meat. So I called my grandpa back and told him I wanted to start selling our family’s jerky recipe. He was all for it. That’s when Jerky Boys was born. But it definitely wasn’t easy.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into. USDA permits, finding a space for food manufacturing, equipment, inspections, none of it is cheap, and it takes a long time to get everything approved. But I was committed, because I knew once people tried this jerky, they’d be just as obsessed with it as everyone I had ever shared it with.

Fifteen months later, in 2024, I finally received my USDA permits and was officially in business. At first, I thought that was the hard part. Then reality hit. I was making the jerky, running the company, selling at farmers markets, handling USDA compliance paperwork, and trying to grow the business all at the same time. But the farmers markets were a huge success. People kept coming back week after week, and I sold out almost every time.

Christian Koch (Farmers Market 2024)

Then something big happened.

In May of 2025, Dale Earnhardt Jr. became a partner in Jerky Boys. My older brother, Blake Koch, had given Dale some of my jerky to try. Dale loved it and couldn’t get enough. From there, he was hooked. That moment changed everything. Suddenly, orders started coming in from all over the country. It was exciting but also overwhelming at times. Jerky takes an entire day to make, and demand started growing quickly, so I had to invest in more equipment to keep up.

Today, Jerky Boys is fully committed to making the best jerky possible while keeping the same quality and recipe my grandpa made for me as a kid, the same one that had everyone hooked.

And we’re just getting started.

Christian Koch & Jim Finley (Grandpa)