Brewing beer is fun… growing a brewery can be fun, but it requires more than just brewing good beer…
Matt and I went on a tour from Tennessee through Colorado all the way to Arizona to interview breweries and get insights on what has made their brewery successful…
As we began to ask them how they were able to grow their brewery, a few patterns began to emerge…
How do you grow a brewery?
There are 4 components that you need to have in place to make sure that your brewery can grow a loyal customer base… we found that you don’t need all four, but you’ll need at least 2 out of 4…
#1 Your brewery Experience
#2 Great product
#3 Unique taproom/location
#4 Events & community
How to create a brewery experience that creates loyal customers
When it comes to creating a good brewery experience, we are talking about hospitality and good customer service…
A simple greeting letting people know you are happy to have them there goes a long way…
Having a team that knows the product is also a must… can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to a brewery and asked the server what their favorite beer on tap is and been told that they don’t drink beer… cool, totally respect that, but why are you working at a brewery?
Developing a great product that people love
If you’ve started a craft brewery, then chances are you are proud of your beer…
Maybe it’s good, maybe it’s not so good… yet…
It’s okay… we’ve been to many breweries that were able to grow despite the beer not being the greatest…
Having a good product isn’t just about the beer…
A good product could also be great food or merch…
Hopefully you are working on brewing the best craft beer, but again, we hope to encourage you to keep going even if you are not there yet… the craft beer community will support you…
Creating a unique taproom or finding a unique location
Unique locations may be hard to come by… they may be expensive…
Location, location, location… that’s the old real estate adage… but just because you are not in a unique location, it doesn’t mean that you can’t create a unique taproom…
There are many breweries I’ve been to that had nothing especial about their location… some of them have been in the middle of nowhere… but what made some of these breweries unique was the interior decoration…
Ideally you’ll want to create an “instagrammable space” that shows your brewery’s logo and gets people sharing their pictures from your brewery…
You can think of this as choosing a theme for your brewery…
When I visited Someplace Else brewery, I found myself surrounded by Star Wars art work and giant posters…
The theme you create will attract the audience you are looking to build, so keep in mind who is it that you want to attract to your brewery…
How to grow your brewery through events and community
Events are the most effective way to build community and grow your brewery’s loyal customer base…
Some of the most successful breweries we’ve visited, credit their success to the community they’v built through events…
Events that build community are the best ones…
Naked River Brewing in Chattanooga, TN does a river clean up event that gathers the local community for a good cause and celebrates with craft beer afterwards…
Check out our blog post on brewery event ideas to help grow your brewery…
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