Placentia, California-based The Bruery plans to open an outpost later this year in Meridian, Idaho, CEO Barry Holmes shared.
The Idaho tasting room is expected to open by fall 2024.
Holmes, who along with an investor group purchased The Bruery from a private equity group in 2020, cited the Boise market, demographics and a partnership with Jimbo Wood, who will serve as general manager of The Bruery at Eagle View Landing, among the reasons for the move. He credited Wood, an avowed craft beer fan who previously ran “a multi-unit physical therapy practice,” with approaching him with a vision and strategy for opening in the “underserved” market. Meridian is located about 10 miles west of Boise.
In a letter to The Bruery’s bottle club membership, Holmes added context around the decision: “Since 1969, the U.S. population has grown 65% while the Boise metro area has grown 330%. Our specific location is in a new development known as Eagle View Landing, which includes Top Golf, two 115 key hotels, 750,000 square feet of Class A office space, 400 multi-family residential units all within 200 yards of the new tasting room.”
Speaking to Brewbound, Holmes noted the exodus of Californians to Idaho, as well as the ease of opening a location in the state and the cost of operating. He described the location as “phenomenal” and around 75 of The Bruery’s members live in the state.
Holmes credited Wood, a minority investor in the business and “a long-time Hoarder[’s Society] member,” as the catalyst for the move.
“To be blunt, there’s no way we would do this without Jimbo, and his contributions to The Bruery will extend well beyond Idaho,” Holmes wrote in the email to the company’s membership. “Jimbo’s commitment has reminded me just how great our brand, beer, and team is right now. We have some special people who have vastly improved our culture, operations, and beer and have positioned us for an exciting future.”
The move into the Boise area postpones plans The Bruery had to open tasting rooms in Los Angeles, Northern Virginia and the Bay Area. Holmes believes that opening Boise will make future tasting room expansions easier – and the company plans to resume the capital raise for those projects once Boise opens.
That said, Holmes isn’t ruling out expansion in similar burgeoning markets.
“There’s a lot of opportunities in those markets that are growing and places like that want brands that they think can fit with the other big tenants or they’re chasing,” Holmes said.
“There are a lot of Boises out there,” he continued. “And if it’s going to be successful there, we should be able to make it work and in other places.”
Tasting rooms, along with direct-to-consumer shipping – which the company offers to most states – and the membership clubs are the biggest pieces of The Bruery’s growth strategy moving forward.
The Boise opportunity follows The Bruery rationalizing its footprint in 2022 and eliminating leased locations, including a 40,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Orange County, The Terreux tasting room and production brewery, and its Washington, D.C., storefront.
“Each of these locations made sense when craft beer was growing double digits, interest rates were zero, and real estate prices were low,” Holmes wrote. “None of those is the case today.”
Holmes admitted that the optics of those moves may have “looked bad externally,” they were signs that the “business was improving.”
“When you tackle the big issues, you build momentum toward continuous improvement, and this has greatly improved our business and culture,” Holmes wrote.
The Bruery produced an estimated 15,500 barrels of beer in 2022 (-10% year-over-year), the most recent year in which production data is available from the Brewers Association.