Brewbound Podcast

Fergal Murray spent 31 years with Diageo Ireland, as both a Guinness master brewer and a global brand ambassador. During that time, he poured perfect pints of the iconic Irish Dry Stout for former President Barack Obama, Queen Elizabeth II, Jimmy Fallon, and Tom Cruise, among many other international dignitaries and celebrities. But his brewing industry expertise stretches far beyond the draft handle. Over the course of his more-than-three-decades career with Diageo, Murray worked alongside the global marketing and sales teams to help drive awareness of the Guinness brand, and to educate wholesalers and retailers across the world. These days, Murray is consulting for small breweries and distilleries across the world, most notably with Wachusett Brewing in Westminster, Massachusetts. On a recent trip to the U.S., Murray stopped by the Brewbound offices to chat about building brands on-premise, the emerging non-alcoholic beer trend, and the tug of war between the desire to satiate consumer demand for innovative products with the need to hone and perfect core recipes. “Every high-performance something or other comes out with something new with an improvement,” he said. “Brewer — tell me what you’ve done to make your beer better.” In episode 21 of the Brewbound Podcast, Murray discusses the changes to the American beer scene that he’s witnessed during his long career in beer, his latest collaboration with Wachusett and innovations that could drive future category growth. Also in this episode: Brewbound editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall share their takeaways from the 16th Annual Beer Business Daily Summit in San Diego. Listen to episode 21 of the Brewbound Podcast above, as well as on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, and Soundcloud. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast, which is co-hosted by Furnari and Kendall, are published every Thursday. Episode 22, featuring Russian River Brewing co-owner Natalie Cilurzo, will be released on Thursday, February 7. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].

Constellation Brands chairman of beer Bill Hackett has spent more than three decades growing sales of imported Mexican beer in the United States. When he began building the Corona brand in 1984, the market for imported beer in the U.S. was just 8 million barrels. Last year, about 34 million barrels of imported beer was sold in the U.S., and 23 million of those barrels were imported from Mexico. Much of that growth can be attributed to Hackett, and others who have worked on the Corona brand over the years. So what’s his secret to scaling a brand that, in many cases, consumers didn’t even know they wanted? “I went into market and I just started asking questions,” he said. After surveying retailers and drinkers about Corona, Hackett identified a target demographic and built a marketing plan around what consumers believed were the brand’s key differences. “Very simply stated, what we did was developed the marketing, positioning and the advertising, basically reading back to consumers what they were telling us about the beer,” he said. In episode eight of the Brewbound Podcast, Hackett discusses the strategies that have allowed the Corona brand to flourish in the U.S. over the last three decades, and how he sees the beer market evolving in the years to come. Hackett also talks about the taproom phenomenon, the importance of brand building at a time when 7,000 craft breweries are fighting for mindshare, and what he drinks when he’s not tipping back a pint of beer. Also in this episode: Brewbound editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall share the latest news and run down segments. Listen to episode eight of the Brewbound Podcast above, as well as on iTunes. The episode is also available on Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, and Soundcloud. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast, which is co-hosted by Furnari and Kendall, are published every Thursday. Episode eight, featuring Victory Brewing co-founder Bill Covaleski, will be released on Thursday, November 8. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].

About four years ago, Hops & Grain Brewing founder Josh Hare began the process of transitioning his Austin-based craft beer company from a licensed manufacturing brewery to a brewpub. He wanted to take advantage of a new Texas law that allowed brewpubs to sell beer directly to consumers for off-premise consumption while simultaneously expanding his operation. So Hare signed a lease on an adjacent space inside the building where his brewery was located and spent nearly $80,000 on the beginning stages of an expansion while he waited for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to approve the switch. Then his request was denied. The problem? A hallway dividing his existing brewery and the new space he was planning to expand into meant that his vision of occupying the entire building would never be realized. “In the state of Texas, spaces under one permit have to be contiguous,” he said. “And that hallway created a non-contiguous space between what was our original space and what we wanted to be the new space.” So Hare opted to maintain his manufacturing permit while he spent the next two years planning another attempt. And then he was denied again. This time, Hare learned that his licensed manufacturing brewery was located in an area of Austin that was not zoned for direct-to-consumer alcohol sales. “Manufacturing is fine. Giving away free beer samples is fine. But if you are actually trying to transact, that doesn’t work unless you sell more than 51 percent of your revenue from non-alcohol sales,” he said. In episode seven of the Brewbound Podcast, Hare takes a deep dive into his company’s complicated four-year process of becoming a licensed Texas brewpub, and why he feels the state’s confusing direct-to-consumer sales laws need modernizing. Hare also discusses how he’s financed Hops & Grain’s growth, why he feels Texas beer wholesalers wield too much power and why current Texas alcohol laws make it difficult for upstart breweries to breakout. Also in this episode: Brewbound editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall share the latest news and run down segments. Listen to episode seven of the Brewbound Podcast above, as well as on iTunes. The episode is also available on Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, and Soundcloud. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast, which is co-hosted by Furnari and Kendall, are published every Thursday. Episode eight, featuring Constellation Brands’ Bill Hackett, will be released on Thursday, November 1. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].

Delaware’s Dogfish Head Craft Brewery is bucking industry trends, growing off-premise volume sales at a double-digit clip, while many other similarly sized craft beer companies struggle to stay out of the red. So how is Dogfish doing it? If you asked co-founder and CEO Sam Calagione, he’d tell you that a relentless focus on producing high-quality and well-differentiated beers has helped his company avoid being chewed up by what he calls the “smiling jaws of death.” “There is the lower jaw, that has tons and tons of tiny teeth – which are the local and hyperlocal breweries, mostly oriented toward the tasting room,” he said. “And then the top level, there are the big ass teeth. The volume brands that are either indie brands like Dogfish, and Sam Adams, and Sierra, and Yuengling, and Bell’s. And then affiliate brands, that are really owned by global conglomerates, but market themselves like they are American indie craft breweries.” Calagione believes that, as the industry approaches 7,000 craft breweries, successful beer companies will need to either remain small and hyperlocal or be forced to invest large amounts of money in an effort to “break through the noise of the top 50 brands,” and “go up the ladder of your distributors.” “There are very little opportunities in-between,” he told Brewbound. “There are breweries that are over their skis in terms of investment in their equipment, but also over their skis in terms of five, 10, 20-state distribution networks, but they don’t have the resources to support a broad geographic distribution base.” In episode six of the Brewbound Podcast, editor Chris Furnari and Calagione discuss how Dogfish Head is “navigating the noise” of 7,000 small breweries, how other craft breweries can grow without taking on too much debt, and how Dogfish Head has financed its own expansion in recent years. Throughout the conversation, conducted during Dogfish Head’s annual distributor meeting last month in Baltimore, Calagione explains the benefits of remaining a small, taproom-focused brewery in today’s competitive marketplace, why he is bullish on the Brewers Association’s independent craft brewer seal, and how he envisions the marketplace evolving in the coming years. Also in this episode: Furnari and Brewbound assistant editor Justin Kendall share the latest news and run down segments. Listen to episode six of the Brewbound Podcast above, as well as on iTunes. The episode is also available on Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, and Soundcloud. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast, which is co-hosted by Furnari and Kendall, are published every Thursday. Episode seven, featuring Hops & Grain founder Josh Hare, will be released on Thursday, October 25. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].

It’s only been about three months since Three Weavers founder Lynne Weaver sold her company to the Fireman Capital-backed Canarchy Craft Brewery Collective, but she already feels like the decision has alleviated some of the stress that entrepreneurs in the beer industry battle on a regular basis. “It’s been really refreshing to feel like I’m not on an island by myself anymore,” she said. “I have a really solid team to be able to bounce business strategy, ideas, opportunities, and be able to place them in the right places.” Weaver, who said a partnership with Canarchy puts her company in a better position to weather the “tides and the storms that are maybe coming,” credits The Bruery’s mid-2017 sale to Boston-area private equity firm Castanea Partners with causing her to consider a deal. “That was one of the really defining moments for me,’ she said. In episode five of the Brewbound Podcast, editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall sit down with Weaver to discuss her partnership with Canarchy, opportunities to grow craft beer sales in Los Angeles, and why Three Weavers initially chose to build its brand on-premise as a draft-only brewery. Throughout the conversation, conducted during the 2018 Great American Beer Festival, Weaver explains the process of launching, scaling and selling Three Weavers, the maturation of the craft beer category, and how Canarchy will help Three Weavers expand into off-premise chain retail sets. Also in this episode: Furnari and Kendall share the latest news and run down segments. Listen to episode five of the Brewbound Podcast above, as well as on iTunes. The episode is also available on Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, and Soundcloud. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast, which is co-hosted by Furnari and Kendall, are published every Thursday. Episode six, featuring Dogfish Head Craft Brewery co-founder and CEO Sam Calagione, will be released on Thursday, October 18. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].

Before opening Atlanta’s New Realm Brewing earlier this year, co-founder Carey Falcone spent nearly eight years meticulously crafting a business plan that would set his company up for long-term success. In doing so, Falcone visited dozens of breweries around the world, taking notes about the elements of each company that he loved the most and wanted to replicate. “We were really thorough about just about every aspect of this building, from the glasses that we would choose for our beer to the soap that we would choose to clean the glasses,” he said. “We really laid out an incredibly detailed, strategic plan. We built a one-, a three-, a five- and a 10-year plan. Everything from the materials that we would use, to the people that we would bring in to be a part of this, to the focus on the quality and everything being very core values-based. We detailed all of it.” In the second episode of the Brewbound Podcast, Falcone joins Brewbound editor Chris Furnari in a discussion about his career in the brewing business and the launch of the Atlanta-based beer company. Throughout the conversation, Falcone talks about his experience as a first-time entrepreneur, New Realm’s core values, the process of getting the brewery off the ground, and how he convinced former Stone Brewing Company brewmaster, Mitch Steele, to move across the country to join a startup in the South. Falcone also discusses the impact that recently enacted direct-sales laws in Georgia have had on New Realm’s business, the decision to purchase a distressed brewing facility in Virginia ahead of the company’s original expansion plans, and how he envisions the craft beer category evolving over the next decade. Also included in episode two is a rundown of the latest industry news and the official introduction of Brewbound Podcast segments. You can listen to episode two of the Brewbound Podcast above, as well as on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, and Soundcloud, among other listening platforms. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast, which is co-hosted by Brewbound editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall, are published every Thursday. Episode three, featuring Port Brewing, Lost Abbey and The Hop Concept partner Tomme Arthur, will be released on Thursday, September 27. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected]

Brewbound is excited to announce the launch of its namesake podcast series, which will feature interviews with the beer industry’s top founders and executives, as well as promising newcomers. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast, which is co-hosted by Brewbound editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall, will be published every Thursday. Future installments will include a rundown of the most important weekly news items, a featured interview with a prominent beer industry professional, and a rotating set of segments at the end of every show. To kick off our first episode, Mass Bay Brewing Company (Harpoon Brewery) co-founder and CEO Dan Kenary joins the program to discuss the state of the beer industry, the myriad challenges facing craft brewers, and the dangers of taking on too much debt to grow, among other topics. Throughout the conversation, Kenary shares his experience launching and scaling Harpoon and discusses some of the more important business decisions he’s made over the last 30 years, including the purchase of a distressed brewery in Vermont for 25 cents on the dollar. He also shares his thoughts on the emergence of taproom-focused business models, direct-to-consumer sales, the trend toward hazy IPAs and how he envisions the craft category developing over the next few years. You can listen to episode one of the Brewbound Podcast above, as well as on iTunes. Future episodes will be made available via Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, Soundcloud, and other listening platforms. Episode two of the Brewbound Podcast, featuring New Realm Brewing Co-Founder and CEO Carey Falcone, will be released on Thursday, September 20. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected]