Brewbound Podcast

Denver’s Sleeping Giant Brewing is one of the largest breweries in the state of Colorado, but it doesn’t produce its own label. As a result, the company is “100 percent reliant” on its partners’ growth. “We do look at it as almost a partnership,” Sleeping Giant founder Matthew Osterman told the Brewbound Podcast. “It’s really important that we like what they are doing, we appreciate what they are doing and we think they are going to grow.” Sleeping Giant typically works with brands that produce or plan to sell more than 2,500 barrels annually, Osterman said. But competition for contract business has stiffened in recent years, as regional breweries with excess capacity look to stem declines by renting unused tank space to other brands on the rise. Nevertheless, Osterman is bullish on Sleeping Giant’s strategy – one dedicated entirely to the production of outside craft brands. “People are flat or down, and they might be interested in that volume now, but that’s not necessarily going to be the case in a year, or five years or 10 years,” he said. In episode 39 of the Brewbound Podcast, Osterman shares his perspective on the current state of contract brewing in the U.S., and explains how Sleeping Giant competes for business at a time when some well-known regional craft players have opened up their breweries for contract opportunities. Listen to episode 39 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 Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall, are published every Thursday. Episode 40, featuring Bill Shufelt, the co-founder of Athletic Brewing, will be released on Thursday, June 13. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected]. Show Notes: 0:00 – 20:35: Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall introduce episode 39 and discuss news 20:35 – 52:15: Furnari and Kendall interview Matthew Osterman 52:15 – 1:11:10: Furnari and Kendall share takeaways from the interview + rundown segments

For years, many drinkers have mistakenly referred to New Belgium Brewing as the “Fat Tire Brewery.” “Some people would still call us that,” New Belgium CEO Steve Fechheimer said during a recent Brewbound Podcast interview. Fat Tire, the company’s flagship beer, was a staple at craft beer bars and liquor stores across the country in the early 2000s, which led many consumers to believe it was the company’s namesake offering. The fact that several drinkers skipped over the words “New Belgium” on the label didn’t matter as much when there were fewer than 7,500 craft breweries competing for attention. Today, however, Fechheimer said many other craft breweries — including New Belgium — are stuck debating whether to be a “house of brands” or a “branded house.” Having well-defined brands that can stand on their own – for example, calling a beer Voodoo Ranger versus New Belgium IPA — allows the company to have different conversations and to establish different relationships with consumers, Fechheimer argued. “From a marketing perspective, that’s really powerful,” he said. At the same time, however, Fechheimer would love if drinkers also worked their way through New Belgium’s portfolio after discovering one of the company’s priority brands (Fat Tire, Voodoo Ranger and Mural Agua Fresca Cerveza) In episode 38 of the Brewbound Podcast, Fechheimer discusses the internal tug-of-war between creating new brand identities and leveraging New Belgium’s already well-established name. He also explains how New Belgium plans to rebound from a difficult 2018 and discusses the company’s plan for working more closely with underrepresented communities. Listen to episode 38 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 Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall, are published every Thursday. Episode 39, featuring Matthew Osterman, the founder of Denver’s Sleeping Giant Brewing Company, will be released on Thursday, June 6. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].

More than two decades ago, Keith Villa sat in a room with Coors Brewing executives and glasses of a cloudy, Belgian-style white ale. Some thought it smelled like lemon Pledge. Others thought the beer’s appearance would prevent consumers from buying it. “They tasted it, and they did not like it,” he said. “And from that point forward, they tried to kill off Blue Moon.” In hindsight, it’s probably a good thing Coors leadership — which had paid for Villa to earn his PhD in Belgium (at a cost of just $98 per year, at the time) — didn’t discontinue Blue Moon, because today it’s the largest craft brand in the country. According to Villa — who recently joined the Brewbound Podcast to discuss his 32 years of brewing at MillerCoors, and his latest venture, Ceria Beverages — Coors executives tried to do away with the Blue Moon brand multiple times in the early days. That forced him to get creative. “So I created that orange slice garnish in 1997, because Blue Moon had been discontinued in quite a few places,” he said, noting that many grocery stores actually removed the product from their shelves because it wasn’t selling. Villa’s experience of building a brand from the ground up, and finding unique ways to garner interest and support, is proving valuable in his latest venture, Ceria Beverages, a line of cannabis-infused beers. “It is almost like rebirthing Blue Moon,” he said. In episode 37 of the Brewbound Podcast, Villa discusses his days of brewing and selling the iconic Blue Moon brand, and shares his outlook for the future of cannabis-infused drinks. Listen to episode 37 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 Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall, are published every Thursday. Episode 38, featuring Steve Fechheimer, the CEO of New Belgium Brewing, will be released on Thursday, May 30. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].

Iron Hill Brewery, which opened its first brewpub in 1996, is considering a sizable expansion that would grow the company’s footprint to 50 locations. “We’re going to get far past 20 [locations] by 2020, but that’s our first milestone,” Iron Hill CEO Kim Boerema shared during a recent interview for the Brewbound Podcast. “We have ambitions to look all the way from Atlanta to Boston,” he added, noting that the company would identify locations located primarily on the East Coast. If and when it does reach 50 locations across more than just four states – it currently operates 16 locations throughout Delaware, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and New Jersey – the company will be in the “logistics business,” according to Boerema. But even when Iron Hill expanded with a second location, the business changed considerably, founder Mark Edelson said. “It’s the only time in the history of your business where, overnight, you will double your business,” he said. “You all of a sudden have twice as much work to do, and you’re not ever prepared for it. So it’s always the biggest tipping point,” he added. That’s a relevant lesson for today’s taproom-focused brewery owners, many of whom are considering business models built around multiple locations. And when companies do make the jump from a single outpost, into a second or third location, Edelson suggests spending extra time training staff so everything runs smoothly from Day One. In episode 36 of the Brewbound Podcast, Edelson and Boerema discuss the opportunities and challenges of running a brewpub chain at a time when brewery taprooms have become so popular, and explain how they see the taproom-focused business model evolving. Listen to episode 36 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 Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall, are published every Thursday. Episode 37, featuring Keith Villa, the creator of Blue Moon and the founder of cannabis-infused beer company Ceria Beverages, will be released on Thursday, May 23. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected]. Show Notes: 0:00 – 23:10: Furnari and Justin Kendall introduce episode 36 and discuss the latest news 23:30 – 51:40: Furnari interviews Mark Edelson and Kim Boerema 51:40 – 1:15:51: Furnari and Kendall share their takeaways from the interview and rundown segments

Want to know how to constantly sell out of your flagship product? You could try asking Lawson’s Finest Liquids founder Sean Lawson, but even he’s not entirely sure why drinkers come back time and time again for his popular Sip of Sunshine double IPA. “I wish I knew,” he said during a recent interview for the Brewbound Podcast. “For me, I think the best answer to maintaining that is to really maintain a focus on trying to create the best beer in the world.” Nevertheless, there are some simple yet incredibly effective strategies Lawson has deployed that contribute to the success of Sip. One of the factors that helped push sales of Sip of Sunshine beyond $6.7 million in the convenience channel alone last year, according to IRI, was a commitment to freshness. “[We] demand that our beer is kept cold all the time and that we get it to the customer as fresh as possible,” he said. In episode 35 of the Brewbound Podcast, Lawson discusses the Sip of Sunshine business and explains how his company approaches innovation. He also shares advice for brewery owners looking to expand and talks about how to entice customers to visit the taproom. Listen to episode 35 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 Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall, are published every Thursday. Episode 36, which features an interview with Iron Hill Brewery’s Mark Edelson and Kim Boerema, will be released on Thursday, May 16. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected]. Show Notes: 0:00 – 17:30: Furnari and Kendall introduce episode 35 and discuss the latest news 17:30 – 58:15: Furnari interviews Sean Lawson 58:15 – 1:20:10: Furnari and Kendall share their takeaways from the interview and rundown segments

Although Oregon’s Ninkasi Brewing has scaled production to about 100,000 barrels annually over the last 13 years, the company’s growth and expansion strategy has remained rather modest compared to some other U.S. craft breweries. It never chased a national distribution footprint. It never attempted to build a brewery on the opposite coast. And it never took on too much debt to grow. “In retrospect, ‘thanks former self’ for being at least somewhat moderate in scope and decision-making,” Ninkasi co-founder Nikos Ridge joked during a recent interview for the Brewbound Podcast. Ridge — referring to his company’s tactic of selling 85 percent of its beer across three states (it has distribution in 12) and not growing too quickly — said Ninkasi always had a vision of becoming a “super-regional” craft brewery that didn’t need to rely on 20 percent year-over-year growth to service a larger chunk of debt. “Having gone through the process of negotiating a lot of the debt through our expansion, there were a lot of models that we passed on that would have been heavily impactful,” he said. “I can’t imagine what it’s like to try to manage 50 states of distribution where you’re thin and not really relevant across a giant territory,” he added. That’s not to say Ninkasi didn’t tap into bank financing to fund its expanded operations. In fact, the company completed a $24 million expansion in 2014, the last year it grew by double-digits. In 2015, the company’s growth slowed to 5 percent. Over the next two years, production declined 1 percent and 8 percent, respectively. Nevertheless, Ridge said Ninkasi’s decision not to expand beyond its means allowed the company to explore a variety of options when it came time to determine its next move. Ultimately, Ninkasi opted to sell a majority stake to Legacy Breweries, an upstart venture led by former Yakima Chief CEO Don Bryant that aims to acquire U.S. craft breweries. “Certainly, de-levering as a result of this partnership and putting ourselves in a position to be making investments again – in terms of potential acquisitions and other partnership discussions – is a great result, and part of why we did it, but it wasn’t driven by the need to de-lever.” In episode 34 of the Brewbound Podcast, Ridge shares his vision for the Legacy Breweries platform and explains some of the transaction options that are available to brewery owners. He also discusses how the proliferation of smaller craft breweries is impacting regional breweries, Ninkasi’s new hard seltzer offering, and how he sees the better-for-you alcohol space developing. Listen to episode 34 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 Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall, are published every Thursday. Episode 35, which features an interview with Lawson’s Finest Liquids owner Sean Lawson, will be released on Thursday, May 9. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected]. Show Notes: 0:00 – 20:48: Furnari and Kendall introduce episode 34 and discuss the latest news 20:48 – 58:30: Furnari interview Nikos Ridge 58:30 – 1:21:31: Furnari and Kendall share their takeaways from the interview and rundown segments

Look around the craft brewing business, and you’ll find an industry dominated by “young white dudes with beards” who predominantly sell their beer to people that look the same way. According to the Brewers Association diversity ambassador Dr. J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham, women make up just over half of the general U.S. population but comprise only 31 percent of craft beer drinkers. At the same time, people of color make up approximately 32 percent of drinking-age Americans, but only 20 percent of craft beer drinkers. Over the last nine years, the U.S. craft brewing industry has grown from roughly 1,800 breweries to more than 7,300. But very few of those businesses are owned and operated by females or minorities, and most taproom patrons across the country tend to be white, upper-middle-class males. And as category-wide growth has slowed, the industry has finally begun to take a hard look in the mirror, asking itself not how it can diversify its consumer base, but how it can become more diverse itself. In episode 33 of the Brewbound Podcast, we rebroadcast this month’s Brew Talks conversation on diversity and inclusion with Jackson-Beckham; Founders Brewing diversity and inclusion director Graci Harkema; and Bow & Arrow Brewing founder Shyla Sheppard. Listen to episode 33 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 Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall, are published every Thursday. Episode 34, which features an interview with Ninkasi Brewing co-founder Nikos Ridge, will be released on Thursday, May 2. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected]. Show Notes: 0:00 – 16:25: Furnari and Kendall introduce episode 33 and discuss the latest news 16:25 – 1:02:05: Furnari and Kendall moderate a Brew Talks panel discussion on diversity and inclusion 1:02:05 – 1:17:33: Furnari and Kendall share their takeaways from the interview and rundown segments