This conference brewed up a very pleasant surprise! It was the initial AZBrewCon, sponsored by the AZ Craft Beer Guild. The goal was to attract industry professionals as panelist to discuss current topics in the brewing industry. After looking at the agenda, there were multiple topics that caught my attention, so I decided to attend.
Thursday evening, opened up with a “pre-event”. A panel discussion on “How to Open Up A Microbrewery”. Out of all of the tracks, I needed to attend this one for obvious reasons. The panel was certainly of interest. Steve McFate, McFate Brewery, who I met several months ago at AZ Beer Week. I was impressed by Steve's generosity to open up his production facility to 100+ “brewery owner want-to-be’s” for an educational seminar on “how to open up a microbrewery”. Who does that? Who teaches people how to enter into the same business? Most industries aren’t so generous with the flow of information to what some would see as competition, but that is what I love about this industry. It’s about sharing and empowering each other, until you get to distribution. But that is another story in itself. Karma. Brian Helton, Helton Brewery, a brand new brewery in the Phoenix area, gave the advice about putting a lot of time and effort into your business plan. He also gave advice when getting investors, if they have less than an 8% interest in your brewery, they are not involved in any credit or background checks. He also said everyone is different in their approach with investment money, but he was cautious about family and friend’s money. Dustin Hazer, Helio Basin gave some solid advice about securing hops. Many hops are SOLD OUT for next year, and the year after, and the year after. It’s pretty important for new breweries to buy hops on contract two or three years in advance to assure your allocation so you can brew your flagship beers. You don’t want to be stuck without the proper ingredients. This is something I’ve learned from selling hops for Glacier Hops Ranch. It is foolish not to contract. But it’s difficult to know what you will need as a new brewery two or three years out. Carole Kennelly from Historic Brewing Co., said…”we are an apparel company that makes beer on the side”. Love this line! Given my past career of branded merchandise, I've got that covered...and beer fans love their trucker hats and t-shirts! Last but not least, there were also two gentlemen from the Health Department on the panel who seemed really open to working with breweries-in-planning to get their doors open. I had no idea they would come out and inspect a potential location for what needs to be done in order to open doors. They talked about how they work to make this process as smooth as possible.
Friday, June 22
I attended 6 tracks today. I really can’t go over each in detail because I don’t want to be writing for hours and that is how long it would take each was so rich with content. So here's a brief recap of each:
Panels:
Pink Boots Society - Sensory, Melissa Osbourne, Four Peaks
Retail Chains - Jeff Eder, Four Peaks
Barrel Aging - Steve Anderson, Ballast Point; Molly Browning, Trophy Brewing; Noah Steingraeber, Rocky Mountain Barrel Co.; Todd Bostock, Dos Cabezas
Draft Quality - Ken Wilson & Randy Storm - Lumberyard Brewing Co
Media - Erika Reitz, Editor-in-Chief, DRAFT Magazine; Jess Harter, MXSW; Jennifer Doan, KSAZ-FOX 10
Distribution - Chuck Noll, Crescent Crown; Shawn Hillman, Quail Distributing; Jessica Evans, Young’s Market; Gordon Penberthy, Hensley Beverage
1) Sensory - I absolutely love all things sensory! I found this out from my coursework at UCSD Brewing Program. You better know your off flavors in this business, and know them well! This was sponsored by Pink Boots Society and led by Four Peak’s Head Brewer, Melissa Osbourne. It was supposed to be an hour long, but was cut in half so we were very rushed. And you can’t learn sensory in 30 minutes. Melissa did a great job in the limited time. She spiked off flavors through the roof so we could smell and taste them…at 8:00am next to a control beer. There are many off flavors, but two are very common in beer… Buttered popcorn and creamed corn (or steamed vegetable). If you put your nose up to a beer and smell either, that is not good. When tasting, some people’s senses cannot detect certain off flavors. It’s very unique to each person. What I’ve learned is ‘no one is an expert’…no one. It’s a constant learning and training of the palate.
2) Barrel Aging - I knew zero about barrel aging and honestly not a huge fan of the beer they produce because I'm not a whiskey or bourbon fan. But it's not about what I personally like, it’s what the market dictates. You put beer in a used bourbon, gin, rum, tequila barrel and let it sit for a period of time. Each barrel is its own ecosystem, and the final outcome is never certain. They spoke about barrel maturation, care, maintenance, types of barrels and their impact on beer maturation. Steven spoke about them as his children “bleeding out slowly”…and how to fix a leak in a barrels when your prized beer is leaking out at a rate that makes you want to cry. We watched Dillon disassemble and reassemble a barrel for purposes of inspecting the inside and its integrity.
3) Retail Chains - This was a discussion about beer in the off premise (supermarkets, convenience stores and retail chains). The challenge is pretty real as far as getting your beer on the shelves in a store. It’s limited real estate and there is a fight for it. He gave some advice as to start in the smaller mom & pop local neighborhood stores where they can make instant decisions, and grow it from there. Also work constantly with your distributor so they can represent your product to the larger chains in its best light. It’s a relationship business. Jeff also talked about analytics and how important keeping track of reports generated by third party data service. They tell a story and it is absolutely critical to understand that story and make smart forecasting and business decisions based on them.
4) Distribution- This is where things can get ugly fighting for tap handles and premium shelf real estate. The panel members were Chuck Noll, Crescent Crown; Shawn Hillman, Quail Distributing; Jessica Evans, Young’s Market; Gordon Penberthy, Hensley Beverage. Definitely a strong panel. Something I hear over and over, and emphasized again from the panel, “pick the right distributor for your brand”. Once you’re in a relationship, you’re in forever. Work with the distributor on goals, and have a business plan in place. Set goals and forecasts together with your distributor. You really have to work together to gain marketshare.
5) Quality Draft Lines - Honestly. This confuses me. It’s about pressure, temperature, CO2, distance of keg lines, diameter of lines and keeping lines clean. When beer leaves your building, you have lost control of how it is handled. If it gets warm, it will taste bad. Is it fresh. Bars and their draft systems effect the flavor, mouthfeel, temperature of your beer. Distributors should be cleaning the lines regularly, not the brewery. Bars (most) will not allow a brewery rep to do this. There are many things out of the brewer's control once the beer leaves the brewery, and this is one of them.
6) Media -The panel was a great mix between print (DRAFT Magazine), Blog (MouthXSW) and TV. What I learned from this is how approachable the media is. All three panel members were very readily available and open to ideas for content. Jennifer said she would sent the morning TV crew out to a brewery with very little notice given the topic is relevant and contains some type of “action”…i.e. making/mixing/mashing beer. All of them mentioned how important it is for companies to keep contact information current and readily available on a website. They want to get ahold of us to interview and get the word out about what is being brewed. It was a pleasure to meet Erika Reitz, Editor-in-Chief, of one of my favorite magazines, DRAFT. Without a doubt, I’ll be taking advantage of media coverage a bit further down the road. Again, I’m really excited they are so willing to work together, and I will have a great story to tell! :-)
I want to personally thank the AZ Craft Beer Guild, Rob Fullmer and Tiffany Shultz for their constant passion and drive to make the Arizona Guild one of the top in the country. They are passionate about AZ beer and making the state of AZ stand out in the Craft Beer scene. I am excited to be moving closer to being a part of the brewing community. Thank you for your warm welcome so far!