Gulf Stream Brewing Company is in the midst of its biggest year yet.
Earlier this year, the now 6-year-old Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based craft brewery landed placements in hundreds of Publix grocery stores across the Sunshine State.
And Gulf Stream continues to forge local partnerships, including hosting monthly Pups & Pints adoption events with Abandoned Pet Rescue at its taproom. As part of that partnership, Gulf Stream released Four-Legged Lager, which featured Peter Pan, the longest-tenured resident of the Fort Lauderdale-based no-kill animal shelter, on the label.
Peter Pan, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever and Terrier who is described as “part social butterfly, part lovable weirdo” and “a good boy” is still looking for his forever home, shelter manager Kara Starzyk told Brewbound.
Gulf Stream co-founder Sharee Eriks discusses how getting a major grocery chain placement has affected the business, what the brewery is doing to keep up with demand and what it’s doing to build awareness, in the latest edition of A Round With, a Brewbound Insider exclusive Q&A series.
Have you had any big wins lately?
Sharee: Our biggest win this year has been our launch into 224+ Publix stores. But a recent win was our six-year anniversary party! We released six new beers, had two bands perform, and the taproom was packed all day long.
Our team works extremely hard, and these anniversary parties are a great chance to celebrate with our customers and supporters, including some of the same people who were at our grand opening six years ago.
Distribution makes up a big chunk of our business, but the taproom continues to be the heart of the company. These parties are a way for us to bring all of the great energy back into the place where it all started.
Gulf Stream was added to Publix grocery store shelves not long ago. What did that milestone mean for the brand?
Sharee: Landing that account was a dream come true for our business and has helped us take our production and canning operations to the next level.
We have 80-100 stores ordering every week, which is great validation that we are putting out a product that is consistent and appreciated by consumers. The goal is to continue to grow that relationship by expanding to other parts of the state and also potentially adding new products to the Publix shelves.
It’s a relationship we are very proud of, and we hope it continues for years to come.
What’s the biggest day-to-day challenge facing the brewery?
Sharee: This is certainly a good problem to have, but capacity is our current biggest challenge.
When we started Gulf Stream, the vision was to be a local beer destination. The focus was the taproom and welcoming craft beer lovers and people new to the craft beer scene. As such, the equipment we purchased and the design of the production and storage areas all were centered on doing a volume that would be supported by taproom sales.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, it became imperative to our survival that we look outside the taproom for growth opportunities.
Over the years, we have built a robust distribution footprint that is only getting larger, and we are quickly outgrowing our space. So our challenge is supporting our existing accounts and planning for future growth with somewhat limited production and storage capacity.
We are taking steps to improve our situation, but it is definitely one of our biggest challenges currently.
How are you working to solve it?
Sharee: For starters, we are in the beginning stages of building out a new production facility locally that will help us triple our production capacity. This new space will open up lots of opportunities for expansion.
What long-term challenge keeps you up at night?
Sharee: Well, right now it’s financing the production facility buildout and financing the ongoing operations of the facility once up and running.
We have to think creatively, which means growing out of our comfort zone in a lot of ways – whether it is building a contract brewing program for the facility where we brew beers for other local breweries with capacity constraints, expanding into new territories so we can sell more beer, etc.
All of these things require logistical planning and that is what keeps us up at night currently.
Gulf Stream hosts monthly adoption events with Abandoned Pet Rescue. You recently released Four-Legged Lager. How did the release go?
Sharee: The event was a huge success for fundraising for APR and helping to raise their visibility. We were so happy to partner with them to create a beer that celebrates the great impact they have in our community and gives them a fun way to engage with their supporters.
Gulf Stream recently launched a mini-podcast. What have you learned from launching a podcast? What do you hope it will do for the business?
Sharee: A big focus for us this year was diversifying our social media and engagement content.
I would not say we are “entering” the podcast space at all – we know the time commitment and investment it takes to do that successfully! We’re just a bunch of beer fans who love our brewery and are willing to talk about beer and do silly things to highlight Gulf Stream.
Whether it is photos, short videos, or longer format/podcast-style content, everything we do is intended to increase awareness of what we have going on, create interest among non-beer drinkers and engage our core beer-drinking community.
What’s one beer from Gulf Stream everyone should check out right now?
Sharee: All of them! We have 15-20 beers on tap at any given point and there is truly something for everyone!