Brewbound Podcast

A few years ago, Sebago Brewing co-founder Kai Adams had an aha moment that led to a “significant change” in how the company operates today. “I was the brewmaster because I oversaw the breweries,” he said on episode 32 of the Brewbound Podcast. “But my roles and responsibilities had changed over the years and at one point I said, ‘This is dumb for me to be that person.’” So Adams checked his ego and “released control” over recipe development to Tom Abercrombie. “All of a sudden, things completely changed,” he said. “The culture in the brewery changed. The variety changed.” A self-described “‘90s brewer,” Adams had fallen out of touch with new styles and brewing methods that were becoming more popular in the modern craft brewing era. The lesson? “You can’t do everything 100 percent awesome,” he said. “So focus on the things that you DO do awesome.” In episode 32, Adams discusses the ways in which his company has evolved over the years, the decisions he’s made along the way, the legislative climate for craft beer in Maine, and how a two-decades-old brewery stays relevant in a competitive environment. Listen to episode 32 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 33, which features a Brew Talks panel discussion on diversity and inclusion in brewing, will be released on Thursday, April 25. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected]. Show Notes: 0:00 – 19:10: Furnari and Kendall introduce episode 32, discuss the latest news, and share a few takeaways from CBC 2019 19:10 – 54:46: Furnari and Kendall interview Kai Adams 54:46 – 1:02:18: Furnari and Kendall share their takeaways from the interview

Once a runaway train powering full-steam ahead toward 100,000 barrels, Chicago’s Revolution Brewing has found it more difficult to grow in recent years as an increasing number of new breweries in its own backyard have forced the company to get more tactical. “Just in our patch of Logan Square, the amount of new brewpubs and taprooms and breweries that have opened up is impressive,” Revolution chief commercial officer Donn Bichsel said on episode 31 of the Brewbound Podcast. “It’s no longer neighborhood by neighborhood. It’s become block by block.” According to Bichsel, it’s “challenging” to figure out where Revolution “fits in” in a Chicagoland market in which more than 160 breweries operated during all of or part of 2018. “It’s always difficult to try to maintain truth in what you’re doing, and maintain our ethos and our overall culture [and] feel that we’ve got,” he said of growing to become one of the largest craft beer manufacturers in the region. “You need to be something different to just about every retailer, and in a certain sense, each of our consumers as well,” he added. Creating unique experiences, establishing creative partnerships and getting back to the tried-and-true strategies of selling beer in higher volumes helps. “We have to be greater partners and really understand what it is they’re missing, and what we can bring to the table,” Bichsel said of his interactions with retailers. In episode 31, Bichsel discusses how Revolution Brewing is dealing with industry headwinds and shares his outlook on the future of craft. He also shares how the company is staying relevant in a crowded marketplace, and how it intends to succeed over the long-term. Listen to episode 31 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 32, featuring Sebago Brewing co-founder Kai Adams, will be released on Thursday, April 18. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected]. Show Notes: 0:00 – 14:50: Furnari and Kendall introduce episode 31, discuss the latest news and share their initial CBC 2019 highlights 14:50 – 49:30 Furnari and Kendall interview Donn Bichsel 49:30 – 56:21: Furnari and Kendall share their takeaways from the interview

NBWA chief economist Lester Jones has a theory: The beer industry is suffering from cognitive dissonance. “Cognitive dissonance, in psychology, is this mental discomfort that everyone experiences when they have … contradictory beliefs and facts that send them into a state of confusion,” he told the Brewbound Podcast. Despite the ongoing narratives that beer sales are slumping and millennial consumers are cutting their alcohol consumption, there isn’t enough data that paints an accurate picture of the current landscape to say definitively that those phenomena are actually occurring, Jones said. To make his point, Jones argued that the growing popularity of hard seltzer, hard kombucha, and other non-traditional products could be part of the reason why sales of standard beer are declining. However, that doesn’t mean that millennial consumers are wreaking havoc on the alcohol industry. “They will find brands that they like; they will become brand loyal consumers,” he said of millennial drinkers. “They will change the face of the beer industry and 10 years from now we will look back on millennials and say – you know what, they actually behave like everyone else did.” In episode 30 of the Brewbound Podcast, Jones explains how the NBWA’s monthly “Beer Purchaser’s Index” can help predict future industry trends, and how beer professionals can use it to make more informed decisions. He also explains his “cognitive beer dissonance” theory and gives us all a reason to believe that the industry is actually pretty healthy. Listen to episode 30 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 31, featuring Revolution Brewing chief commercial officer Donn Bichsel, will be released on Thursday, April 11. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected]. Show Notes: 0:00 – 20:25: Furnari and Kendall introduce episode 30, discuss a recent encounter with baseball legend Wade Boggs and discuss the latest news 20:25 – 54:00 Furnari and Kendall interview Lester Jones 54:00 – 1:07: Furnari and Kendall share their takeaways from the interview + segments

In a beer industry littered with hazy IPAs, one cloudy brew stands above the rest. Allagash White, the ubiquitous Belgian-style witbier made in Maine and sold in just 17 states, is the eighth-largest craft brand, sold on draft, in the entire U.S., according to research firm Nielsen. “It’s a very, very strong brand on-premise, but we are probably selling 75 percent of our beer on-premise,” Allagash Brewing founder Rob Tod told Brewbound editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall during episode 29 of the Brewbound Podcast. According to Tod, Allagash White is one of only two top-10 craft beer brands growing sales on-premise. But the brand’s impressive on-premise presence hasn’t necessarily led to strong sales at grocery and liquor stores, as only a quarter of the Allagash White business occurs off-premise. That’s likely to change, thanks to the introduction of canned packages, which rolled out in February. “I think people kind of view us as a special occasion beer on the off-sale,” Tod said. “We want to use cans to bring Allagash White to really every occasion on the off-sale.” In episode 29 of the Brewbound Podcast, Furnari and Kendall chat with Tod about how the addition of canned packages will transform the Allagash business in the years to come, how the company is repositioning itself off-premise, why it invests disproportionately in quality-control measures and how it approaches innovation without chasing trends. Listen to episode 29 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 30, featuring NBWA chief economist Lester Jones, will be released on Thursday, April 4. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected]. Show Notes: 0:00 – 16:45: Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall introduce episode 29, discuss recent people moves and provide an update on #Corntroversy 16:45 – 1:00:10 Furnari and Kendall interview Rob Tod 1:00:10 – 1:11:35: Furnari and Kendall share their takeaways from the interview

The Brewers Association’s official assessment of 2018 craft production growth, brewery openings and closings, and other industry statistics won’t be released for a couple of weeks, but Brewbound Podcast listeners can get a sneak peek at the numbers in this week’s episode. BA chief economist Bart Watson joined Brewbound editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall in late January to share a few high-level insights, including his projections for 2018 and beyond. Based on the data available at the time of the interview, Watson said he expects beer production at BA-defined craft breweries to grow by about 4 percent in 2018, to more than 26 million barrels. He also projected that between 7,400 and 7,500 breweries operated in all or part of 2018 and that roughly 1,000 new breweries opened their doors last year. “If I had to project for 2019, I would project something pretty similar — about 1,000 openings,” he said. Nevertheless, about 3.5 percent of U.S. craft breweries shuttered in 2018, and Watson estimated the number of closures to be about 250. That figure would be an increase from the 165 breweries that closed their doors in 2017. “We haven’t seen a number spike up into the 500 or 1,000 range and so openings are still going to outpace closings, I think about four-to-one this year,” he said. But moving forward, Watson expects the brewery closings figure to rise, and potentially match the number of openings. “Next year, I’d probably think 300 or 350, and then a few more the year after that, until we see that opening and closing rate really pull back together like we saw in the late ’90s and early 2000s,” he said. In episode 28 of the Brewbound Podcast, Watson shares his early 2018 analysis and discusses the circumstances that have led to an increasing number of brewery closures in recent years. He also answers questions about the BA’s revised craft brewer definition, and the possible future impact of legal recreational cannabis on the alcohol segment. Listen to episode 28 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 29, featuring Allagash Brewing founder Rob Tod, will be released on Thursday, March 28. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected]. Show Notes: 0:00 – 17:50: Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall introduce episode 28 and discuss the latest legislative and leadership updates in the beer industry. 18:50 – 53:50: Furnari and Kendall interview Bart Watson. 53:50 – 1:04:38: Furnari and Kendall share their takeaways from the interview and run down segments.

Fresh off a $3 million capital infusion from investment firm Circle Up, Fort Point Beer Company appears poised for another year of double-digit growth. Since its launch in 2014, the San Francisco-based craft beer company has grown its revenue from less than $2 million in 2015, to $14.6 million in 2018, and its production has swelled to nearly 35,000 barrels. Along the way, Fort Point’s employee count has also grown to about 200, largely due to a robust self-distribution division that has helped give the company a competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace. During a conversation with Brewbound editor Chris Furnari, Fort Point founder and CEO Justin Catalana said self-distribution has been “tremendously helpful” when it comes to setting a go-to-market strategy. “Not to squash any of the distributors that are here, they are just frankly not able to take a new brewery and bring them to market as effectively as doing it yourself,” he said. In episode 27 of the Brewbound Podcast, Catalana shares his plan to grow Fort Point’s revenue to as much as $22 million in 2019, while hiring another five dozen employees. He also discusses the pros and cons of self-distribution, why the company takes a debt-averse approach to financing growth, and how it builds strong core brands at a time when breweries and consumers alike are chasing new beer offerings. Listen to episode 27 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 Justin Kendall, are published every Thursday. Episode 28, featuring Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson, will be released on Thursday, March 21. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].

When Monday Night Brewing co-founder Jeff Heck is looking to hire a new employee, he doesn’t just sit a candidate down and run through a list of the 15 most common interview questions. “It’s a painful process to go through for people that want to get a job with us,” he said, noting that the company asks applicants to actually perform the job they are applying for as part of the assessment. When the company was trying to identify its next wood cellar manager, the executive team and other key brewing and operations personnel spent an hour-and-a-half tasting 15 different beers the candidate had produced and asked him dozens of questions about each one. “We just want to see – how does he think about the beer? What would he do differently? Is he able to talk about the mistakes he’s made? Is he able to talk about how he would take learnings from one beer and apply it to another?” Heck said. Similarly, when the company was looking for a new marketing manager, it asked candidates, who had already passed an initial round of interviews, to create a mock social media calendar, which helped the hiring team narrow its search. “It’s a great screening tool,” he said. In episode 26 of the Brewbound Podcast, Heck discusses the company’s recruiting and hiring processes, interviewing and onboarding new employees, the company’s culture, and how the executive team encourages employees to take ownership over certain aspects of the brewery’s operations. Listen to episode 26 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 27, featuring Fort Point Beer Company founder and CEO Justin Catalana, will be released on Thursday, March 14. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email [email protected].