Great Notion Brewing will open its first California taproom this year, taking over the former Sierra Nevada Torpedo Room in Berkeley, California. The move comes as the Portland, Oregon-headquartered craft brewery shifts its focus to own-premise growth, as direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales have trailed off.
Great Notion has been exploring locations in California for a “long time” – and had entertained locations in Oakland and Sacramento – but the “time just wasn’t right,” CEO Paul Reiter told Brewbound. Then in June, Sierra Nevada announced it would be closing its satellite taproom in the Bay Area after nearly a decade.
“We wanted to open a Sacramento taproom, but we just couldn’t find the space we wanted at the construction price we wanted and everything,” Reiter said. “So this kind of just fell in our laps as a next best option.”
Sierra Nevada opened the Torpedo Room in 2013, but shut down operations several times this year due to staffing shortages. The taproom closed permanently on June 30.
The 2,000 sq. ft. space remains fully furnished for Great Notion to move in, requiring little to no “construction money” or “equipment money” from the brewery. Sixteen taps will serve its core beers as well as smoothie beers, sours and stouts. Consumers can also order 16 oz. 4-packs to-go for pick up or delivery from the location.
The location, expected to open by mid-December, will also serve as a return-to-home for some of Great Notion’s leadership team who grew up in the area.
The Torpedo Room is not Great Notion’s first California facility – in 2021 it opened a fulfillment center in Sacramento to allow for DTC shipping within the state. But it is the first taproom, and a sign of the company’s transition to a more “traditional” expansion strategy.
Great Notion was built on the idea that beer could be inspired by the marketing and business strategies of larger trend-setting companies such as Nike and Adidas. With the motto “keep beer fun,” the company’s co-founders James Dugan, Andy Miller and Reiter made it their mission to refresh beer with a tech-focused business strategy, including a focus on DTC shipping and the launch of an interactive app and iOS video game.
In 2021, about 90% of Great Notion’s sales were DTC, averaging nearly 900 shipments per month, Reiter told Brewbound last November. But in 2022, packaged beer sales declined and have yet to return to 2019 levels.
“This year was not a great year compared to what we thought it would be,” Reiter said. “But we’re still expanding, and we’re still trying our best to make the most exciting beer in the country with the most exciting tech-enabled experience, and bring that Northwest, forest-y, woodsman vibe to our taprooms.”
Great Notion operates five taprooms – three in Portland and two in Seattle – in addition to the Sacramento fulfillment center and a seasonal Portland pop-up location. Over the last year, the company has reevaluated how it approaches bringing in drinkers, placing a higher priority on physical locations than before.
“We went so hard on e-commerce,” Reiter said. “We [opened] all these shipping facilities, invested all this money in ads, and it was amazing while everyone was stuck at home. But now that the world is opening back up, we’re kind of transitioning a little bit more toward an in-person focus.
“We still want to be the most tech-focused brewery out there, I don’t want to discount that,” he continued. “But we are putting a greater emphasis, currently, towards building out the in-person experience.”
Great Notion now ships its beer to consumers throughout California, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Vermont, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Virginia, Oregon, Washington, Ohio and Washington, D.C., as well as Anchorage, Alaska. The company also has a partnership with DoorDash to deliver its beer to consumers within a 10-mile radius of any of its taprooms.
In 2023, the company plans to “tighten up the ship,” cutting costs where they can and “making it through the recession without blowing tons of money on investment into our app or investment in new taprooms” with ground-up construction, Reiter said.
In the past, Great Notion has tried to put out new beers every week, rarely releasing the same beer twice. But this year – like many in the industry – they’re altering their approach to have a larger focus on a few core beers, including Ripe IPA (7% ABV), Juice Invader IPA (7%), Blueberry Muffin tart ale (6%) and Ledge Bier pilsner (5.5%).
Great Notion has also made adjustments to how it conducts its e-commerce business. Previously, consumers had to buy Great Notion beer through the brewery’s app, rather than through its website, accounting for about half of the company’s sales.
This fall, the company rolled out a “full e-commerce site” where consumers can order beer. The app has been transitioned to a Great Notion “loyalists” platform, where fans can earn points toward rewards and get exclusives. Purchases on the app now account for about 20% of the brewery’s sales, Reiter said.
“It was hard for a grandpop who wanted to buy our beer to download an app and figure out how to register for an account and do something like that, so we want to make it easy now to purchase our beer,” Reiter said. “Now you can quickly buy beer on our website – just continue as a guest and pay – but if you want points, if you want to be a diehard fan, that’s what our app is for now.”