About Crazy Mike's
This brand started with a grudge against mediocre jerky. Mike grew up on a family farm in Northeast Montana in the 1970s, loving beef jerky and settling for brands he calls mediocre. In 1994, while serving in the U.S. Navy, he went looking for a high-protein snack to refuel after exhausting workouts, found nothing, and created his own recipe. The name came by way of beer: he was a home-brewer first, started handcrafting jerky a few months later, and at a local bar his friends named the home brew “Crazy Mike's” for his adventurous attitude. He carried the name over to the jerky. In 2018, he turned a hobby of more than 20 years into a small business. Today the company is Crazy Mike's Beef Jerky Company, LLC, in Altamont, New York, and describes itself as a 100% USA Veteran Owned Small Business.
What makes Crazy Mike's different
The brand's word for its process is handcrafted. According to the manufacturer, the jerky is made from top round beef, marinated in Mike's secret recipe and naturally smoked, and the Original Hickory recipe is billed as unchanged since 1994. One flavor has a named partner, Buffalo Tom and his Famous Gourmet Hot Sauce, and the brand says a portion of every sale goes to HicksStrong to help fellow Veterans.
Crazy Mike's flavors we carry
Everything here is beef, and most of it grows out of one hickory recipe the brand describes as flavorful without overpowering the beef. Coarse black pepper turns that base into the peppery version in our peppered beef jerky, and lots of garlic makes the one Mike says will keep the vampires away, in our garlic beef jerky collection. If you lean sweet, the teriyaki swaps hickory for brown sugar and pineapple juice and lives with our teriyaki beef jerky, while the smokehouse version adds maple and bourbon brown sugar seasoning for what the brand calls a sweet, smoky and zesty profile.
The oddballs are the fun part: a buffalo wing flavor billed as not too hot and a little drier, and a dill pickle flavor. Our ghost pepper beef jerky and habanero beef jerky collections gather the pepper-named bags. Everything currently in stock is in the grid above.
Who it's for
Pick Crazy Mike's if you want jerky that reads as beef first and seasoning second. On the manufacturer's site, only the buffalo wing flavor gets a heat description and that is “not too hot.” It comes in 2.3 oz bags. The manufacturer's site does not publish ingredient lists or allergen statements, so if you have a dietary restriction, read the label on the bag you order.
JerkyBrands is an independent retailer; the Crazy Mike's name and logo are trademarks of their owner.
