Brewbound Podcast

Jim Woods, the founder of Bay Area-based Woods Beer Co., opened his first brewpub location in San Francisco’s Mission District in 2012. But in the six years leading up to the opening of what he calls the “Woods Cervecería,” Woods had been selling a yerba mate-infused IPA called MateVeza, as well as two other offerings, that were brewed under contract and distributed to a handful of Western states. That exercise – brewing bigger batches of beer, partnering with distributors in non-local markets, and attempting to sell consumers on a relatively unknown brand – proved to be both costly and inefficient. “I was doing a lot of ride-alongs and growing the business, but I wasn’t seeing the kind of growth that I wanted to,” Woods said. “I just didn’t feel like I was making an impact or doing anything for my brand,” he added, noting the daily visits to retail accounts such as Whole Foods. So Woods did what any smart entrepreneur would: He pivoted. “I wasn’t seeing the scalability and I wasn’t breaking into the awareness of the customer that I wanted to, solely through being on the shelves,” he said. In 2012, Woods — who now oversees five locations throughout San Francisco and Oakland – began focusing his resources on a taproom-focused business model that enabled him to have a “more tangible relationship with the customer.” “Having a mecca, a brick-and-mortar where people can, you know, slip on a puddle and fall into the arms of their future wife,” he said. In episode 15 of the Brewbound Podcast, Woods discusses his company’s shift from a distribution-focused business model to a retail-minded operation. He also talks about the difficulty of trying to build a new product segment – in his case yerba mate-infused beer – and the challenges small breweries face now that thousands of competitors have flooded the space. Also in this episode: Brewbound editors Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall share the latest news, including information about a new co-packing facility in New Hampshire, details about equipment manufacturer DME’s receivership, and an update on Drizly’s latest round of funding. Listen to episode 15 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 16, featuring Brooklyn Brewery CEO Eric Ottaway, will be released on Thursday, December 27. 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].