Mike and Lee Harding have built a St. Petersburg-based beer empire. Three Daughters Brewing now does nearly $14 million in revenue, with three locations, including its Clearwater location. It boasts major customers like Publix and Walt Disney World. Their journey spans several decades, and industries, and yes, three daughters.
Bridgette Bello, chief executive officer and publisher of Tampa Bay Business and Wealth interviewed the Hartings in front of an audience at 3 Daughters Brewing. This transcript has been edited for length and brevity.
Bello: Mr. and Mrs. February, my favorite opening question is what has it been like being on the cover of TBBW?
Leigh Harting: I’ve known Bridgette for years and have an amazing friendship with her, but I have to say I’ve never experienced the kind of attention, kindness and depth that this opportunity brought us. They truly listened to our story—maybe even longer than we wanted to listen to ourselves! They went back years into our history. The entire experience has been outstanding. We’re so happy to celebrate with so many people tonight.
Bello: That’s wonderful to hear. Hurricanes have been a bit of a theme tonight—your Clearwater location was impacted. How’s the recovery going? Is there anything we can do to support you?
Mike Harting: If you haven’t been to the beaches, recently, they’re still recovering. Our Clearwater Beach tasting room is in a three-story building and we’re on the third floor, so the facility itself survived. But sales have been tough—we’re at about 25% of what we were last year. A lot of the resorts are still closed or partially operating, but more are reopening before spring break. I think we’ll be back to normal by summer.
Bello: So, the way we can support you is by heading to Clearwater Beach and hanging out at 3 Daughters Brewing?
Mike: Exactly. We could all go tonight!
Bello: When we did your interview, there were so many stories we didn’t have space to include, but one that stood out was when Mike was supposed to go to California to pick up three barrels and came back with… how many?
Leigh: Oh, no, no, no—I get to tell this one! Mike was supposed to get a three-barrel brewing system. Instead, he calls me from California and says, “Great news! Someone’s financing fell through on a 30-barrel system.” At the time, I barely even knew what a barrel was. But he bought it—so that massive brewing system behind us? That’s the one. This was in 2012, and, at the time, Cigar City had a system half that size.
Mike: The three-barrel system cost $16,000. The one I bought? $685,000. And we didn’t even really have the $16,000. But we figured it out.
Leigh: When it arrived, everyone stood around asking, “How do we turn it on?”
Bello: That’s classic entrepreneur storytelling—just figure it out. Mike, beyond the brewery, you recently decided to enter politics. Why?
Mike: It was always something I wanted to do. I had planned to transition into public service, eventually, but the timing lined up sooner than expected. The district I live in had an open seat and Leigh said, “Why don’t you just do it?” That was November. By January, we were in full campaign mode, knocking on 4,200 doors. On election night, 118,000 people voted in our race and we won by just 998 votes.
Bello: What’s been the biggest surprise since taking office?
Mike: I didn’t expect to be so impressed with how professional and capable city government is. The folks running these departments—fire, engineering, parks—are incredibly knowledgeable and hardworking. It’s been eye-opening.
Bello: Leigh, you’ve also stepped into a new role, expanding your community involvement beyond the brewery. Tell us about that.
Leigh: We have three daughters and when they were little, they left their handprints in our taproom. Now that they’re older, two in college and one driving, I’ve had time to focus on giving back. Four years ago, I became a Guardian ad Litem, advocating for kids in the foster system. That led me to Think Big for Kids, a nonprofit helping middle and high school students in low-income areas by providing career mentorship, guidance and scholarships. Right now, my goal is to expand Think Big into St. Pete, where our youngest still attends school. We want to give kids a pathway to success, especially those without strong support systems.
Bello: That’s incredible. Think Big was founded by a former TBBW cover feature, Tony DiBenedetto. It’s amazing to see the connections in this community.
Leigh: Tony’s story is inspiring. By 12, he had no parents, no stable home, yet he put himself through Florida State University, started Tribridge and later, sold it. His whole foundation is about helping kids who need guidance the most.
Bello: It all sounds like smooth sailing, but I know that’s never the case. Tell us about a time when things weren’t easy.
Mike: The first five years were tough. We didn’t take a salary for 14 months, lived off savings and even dipped into our home equity line. We had to balance our checkbook, daily, to make payroll. But we believed in what we were doing and kept pushing forward.
Leigh: And there were little things, like when we first started canning beer. We spent six months designing the cans, paid $30,000 for them, only to realize—lids are sold separately. Rookie mistake.
Bello: Let’s talk about brewing. What’s the best and worst thing you’ve ever made?
Mike: Worst? Crawfish beer. We brewed a triple IPA using the leftover water from boiling 1,200 pounds of live crawfish. It was awful—but the die-hard crawfish lovers drank two whole kegs.
Leigh: Favorite? Bourbon barrel-aged quad. Worst? Anything with root beer.
Bello: Leigh, you didn’t even try the crawfish beer?
Leigh: Nope. You lost me at “crawfish water.”