New York’s 42 North Brewing has entered its second decade with a new mindset about what it means to be a craft brewer, founder John Cimperman said on the latest episode of the Brewbound Podcast.
“The days of having great liquid alone? Those days are behind us now,” he said. “It’s really that total guest experience, so we’ve really leaned into that and really focused on training our employees, making our environment as approachable and inclusive as possible, and just not taking any customer for granted.”
42 North Brewing celebrated its 10th anniversary last September. Business at its taprooms in East Aurora and downtown Buffalo has returned to pre-COVID-19 levels with some changes. Food and events make up a larger portion of revenue, and 42 North has embraced both by enlisting a restaurant partner to manage service and booking standing live music performances.
“The other part of it is kind of listening to our customers,” Cimperman said. “We’re seeing more younger families in our taproom, and while we’re not going to put a jungle gym in the beer garden, we are leaning into it, whether it’s programming that’s family oriented, smaller portions on the food side for the kids.
“We look around the taproom and we look at the demographic, and we say, ‘OK, what is going to appeal to this group and bring them back?’” he continued.
Before the interview, Zoe and Jess break down Tilray Brands’ acquisition of BrewDog’s Scotland brewery, global brand and IP and 11 pubs in the U.K. and Ireland, plus the closing of BeatBox’s sale to Anheuser-Busch InBev and the new leadership of the Brewers Association’s board of directors.
Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform.