At this year’s Craft Beer Conference, Bart Watson’s message to attendees was clear: The craft beer industry is entering a maturation period. Growth in the craft sector, while still present, has slowed, and the industry’s“new normal,” is setting in.

In this month’s Beer Business Finance column, Wormtown Brewery CFO Kary Shumway digs into the details behind craft-on-craft consolidation and looks at the key numbers that shape a deal.

How might a lender approach the funding for your brewery expansion? In many cases, it’s possible the individual underwriter will not be intimately familiar with the brewing industry, which means you must prepare your business and loan application in anticipation of facing headwinds. This column explains four financing methods for owners to consider.

In this month’s Beer Business Finance column, Wormtown Brewery CFO Kary Shumway examines at what the different products in brewery’s portfolio actually cost to make, and how to price them for the healthiest margins.

Taproom-focused breweries have emerged as one of the most popular business models in the craft beer industry, and for good reason: These small-batch, retail-driven breweries are profit machines, and they are disrupting the traditional three-tier system of brewing, distributing and retailing beer. In his latest column, Wormtown Brewery CFO Kary Shumway takes a look at how new craft brewery owners can create a solid financial plan for their taproom-minded outfits.

Wormtown Brewery CFO Kary Shumway breaks down the viability of taproom-focused brewery business models while explaining the financial and marketplace factors that can impact profitability.

Laurie Millotte is the founder of Outshinery, a product photography and video company that creates images and other visual marketing assets without physical products. Millotte has over 12 years of experience as a creative director and designer in the wine & food industries and, in her column for Brewbound Voices, she provides three easy hacks to help brewers on a budget master social media with visual storytelling.

In his column for Brewbound Voices, Scott Birkner, the senior vice president and manager of the craft beverage lending division at United Community Bank, addresses 10 important questions brewers need to consider before working with a lender.

In his column for Brewbound Voices, Andrew Zender, the founder of ‘The Beer Label Guy,’ highlights some of the common mistakes that can slow the beer label approval process and outlines some of the label changes that require breweries to submit a new COLA.

Lawrence A. Katz is a shareholder and Kristen E. Burgers is a principal in the Tysons, Virginia, office of Hirschler Fleischer. In their column for Brewbound Voices, Katz and Burgers provide an overview of the bankruptcy process and discuss the tools available to a debtor in bankruptcy.

In our latest edition of Brewbound Voices, Beer Business Finance founder Kary Shumway returns to discuss self distribution. Shumway has worked in the beer industry for over 20 years as a Certified Public Accountant and currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer for Clarke Distributors, Inc. in Keene, New Hampshire. In part II of his column for Voices, Shumway dives deep into the process of self distributing, discussing account and route building, proper cash flow management practices, the “hidden” costs of operating in a self distribution model and succession planning.

In our latest edition of Brewbound Voices, Beer Business Finance founder Kary Shumway returns to discuss self distribution. Shumway has worked in the beer industry for over 20 years as a Certified Public Accountant and currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer for Clarke Distributors, Inc. in Keene, New Hampshire. In part I of a two-part column for Voices, Shumway begins deconstructing the ins and outs of self distribution. He discusses the advantages and disadvantages of self distribution while profiling one brewery he believes is doing it well.

Marty Butler is is the co-founder of The Butler Bros, an Austin-based branding, consulting and graphic design studio that has executed rebrands for craft breweries such as Maui Brewing Co. and Real Ale Brewing. In his column for Brewbound Voices, Butler, who also co-founded the Austin Home Brew Festival, describes his firm’s creative process while sharing lessons learned during recent branding projects with companies across the beer, spirits and food industries.

Beer distributors have been adapting to changes in the marketplace, on one level or another, for decades. When retailers asked distributors for greater levels of service, the merchandising department was created. As on-premise accounts added more draft lines, distributors were asked to clean the lines and assist with repairs or new installations. So what makes the SKU proliferation of the past decade, and the level of associated changes, different from the above-mentioned service layers?