Brewbound Podcast

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].

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].

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].

Brendan Sindell is on a mission to bridge the gap between major domestic and craft beer offerings. “I grew up drinking major domestics in college and I found myself drinking them out of habit,” he said. So Sindell created House Beer, a sleek-looking lager brand targeted to millennial consumers who “don’t want to drink their dad’s beer.” The Venice, California-based beer company, which counts Ashton Kutcher and the Winklevoss twins among its investors, only makes one product – a “premium crafted lager.” “The strategy behind just creating a sessionable craft lager in five different SKUs allows us to be extremely focused,” Sindell said. He’s betting drinkers still want to drink lager beer, despite the fact that some of the country’s largest brands – Budweiser, Heineken, Pabst, and others – are in decline. “We’re starting to get a lot more attention,” he said. “I think the rise of Modelo, [Michelob] Ultra, Pacifico, Corona has a lot to do with it. The consumer that was once drinking the big four is trading up to those beers, and that is kind of where we lie.” In episode 20 of the Brewbound Podcast, Sindell discusses House Beer’s value proposition, the company’s distribution and growth strategy, the challenges and opportunities of selling a single product offering and why his investors remain interested in the beer category despite declining volumes. Also in this episode: Brewbound editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall discuss Super Bowl storylines, the closing of the Widmer taproom in Portland, Oregon, and key executive hires at Sierra Nevada and MillerCoors. They also share some social media accounts to follow and discuss the latest “Beer Twitter” debate over craft breweries using unpaid volunteers on packaging day. Listen to episode 20 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 21, featuring former Guinness brewmaster Fergal Murray, will be released on Thursday, January 31. 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].