Brewbound Rising Star 2024: Pinthouse Pizza

Speaker 1 [00:04] Our next rising star is Pinthouse based out of Texas. They are the nation's largest brew pub. They operate 4 locations in the Lone Star State, and they are also, uh, getting its distribution, something they've added since COVID-19. Here to talk all about it is co-founder Joe Mohrfeld. Welcome, Joe.

Speaker 2 [00:26] Hey, great to be here.

Speaker 1 [00:27] So, congratulations first on being a rising star. Um, it feels a little bit overdue. I think we've had you guys on the list for a while now, so I'm glad we can finally do this for you guys. Um, and like I mentioned, you're the largest brew pub in the nation, brew pubs. They, they're having an interesting identity time, I guess you could say right now. Um, we've talked a lot about them and how they're finding their way, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, so we're gonna talk about all of that. But first off, Pint House, based out of Texas, you're meeting someone in the elevator, they see you with a, a Pint House shirt on or something, ask you what it is. What is your pitch to them for who you guys are?

Speaker 2 [01:09] We're a brew pub first and foremost here in Austin, Texas. Uh, but yeah, we, we really focus on, um, hot 4 beers. We, uh, we've always been really focused on IPA, um, and, and other hoppy beers. But, uh, Yeah, I think we've, we've kind of become known for our hazy IPA, Electric jellyfish. It's become really synonymous with the town of Austin. Um, and I think we, we, you know, we've really tried to become part of Austin itself, you know, but part of the social fabric, and it's been, I think, a big part of our success from the beginning is really just being a part of, you know, the neighborhoods we're in with our brew pubs and, and focusing on, on the local culture around that.

Speaker 1 [01:51] Cause like I said at the top, you have 4 locations, but they're all still in Texas, so you're still keeping that kind of tight-knit community, right?

Speaker 2 [01:58] Yeah, we're actually all still in uh Greater Austin. So we have 3 that are in Austin proper and 1 that's in Round Rock. Uh, so we basically are in 2 different counties, um, and we sell 90% of our beer in 3 counties. Um, so we're very, uh, you know, very focused on, you know, very deep roots. Uh, we're not trying to spread out, uh, you know, we Opened San Antonio a few years ago for distribution. Um, that's our only other market outside of Austin. It's about 10% of the volume. Um, we'll, we'll do a little over 23,000 barrels this year. Uh, and again, 90% of that sold in, in the three counties that make up Austin.

Speaker 1 [02:35] So brew pubs, a lot, your business relies on folks coming to you and getting beers at your spaces. The pandemic made it so you couldn't really do that anymore. So what kind of changes did you all have to make during that time?

Speaker 2 [02:48] You know, it's a very challenging time, obviously for brew pubs. We were in the distribution game. We started distributing in 2016, but we're draft only, and we, we stayed draft only, uh, until 2020. Um, we did do some canning, but we, it was all direct to consumer can sales, so we never sold any cans in market. Um, in 2020, we, we did acquire our first, our, our only canning line, the same canning line that we still have. But we, um, you know, we started sending beer out to, you know, uh, grocery stores. HEB is the biggest retailer for grocery in Central Texas. Uh, they became one of our biggest accounts. So it was a pretty big pivot, um, you know, we never designed our model around, uh, distribution, uh, especially on the package side. So, you know, it took a lot, it took a lot to figure out how to make You know, a lot of the cost work, you know, that's one of the, the big challenges is when you're designing beers, you know, sell over the bar. It's a different model than when you're designing beers to sell in a grocery store. And, uh, so, you know, that was um some of the challenges we faced early on, but um it's been a huge, it's been a huge success for us, you know, um. About 75% of the beer that the volume of beer that we sell is through our distribution channels, uh, both draft and package, uh, with, you know, the rest being over the bars, obviously. Um, you know, it started as kind of a big marketing move is to, you know, try to get people to know who we were in Austin by getting our beer into accounts that, you know, those people might not ever come to Pine House, and now it's a, it's a really big part of our business.

Speaker 1 [04:15] You mentioned having to, to look at beers differently depending on, you know, when you're where you're serving them. How has now with so much of your business in distribution, how's that affected how you're approaching innovation and what you're putting out there for folks?

Speaker 2 [04:32] What we've done is really focused on, I, I almost look at the business as two, kind of two different businesses. So, you know, whatever we send out to distribution, we have really a core 5 beers. Really, it's a core 4, but we've had one that's really crept up over the last, uh, you know, year and a half. It's kind of been this slow momentum build. It's obviously happening in Greater Beer. It's a Mexican lager, um, so we're, we're getting a lot of success there. But, yeah, it really started with 4 beers. We've stayed really focused on the core and market. We don't have a bunch of skews on the grocery store, grocery store shelves or In bars, you know, we really focus on our electric jellyfish, which is a hazy IPA, um, Trading Mines, which is an IPA, a West Coast IPA, Scorpion Disco, and a Pilsner. And so that's really like how we, you know, try to stay streamlined with our distributor, really, you know, drive high volume accounts, um, stay focused there. And then what it allows us to do is get really creative in the, in the brew pub setting. And, you know, we could have 1820, 25 different beers on tap. Um, you know, that run the gamut of all the different styles. Uh, but we're not out there, you know, we can tell the story over the bar, so we don't have to, you know, come up with packaging and marketing around all of these. So, I, I think that like simplicity on the distribution side has been um a really good model for us and then being able to really focus on innovation and pushing the boundaries in-house and taking our, our customers on that ride, um, you know, kind of gives us the yin and yang of the business.

Speaker 1 [05:56] The idea of focus and simplicity in distribution has been something we've talked about constantly, at least on our end with folks like any conference we go to, that is like the main. Driving idea that they're getting out to people is you got to focus. So, I mean, you've kind of gone over it, but what, what is it that you guys are doing to make sure you have that focus?

Speaker 2 [06:18] What we've continued to do again is, is really focus on those core beers and we spend a lot of time constantly working on those beers to, you know, make them better, um, to look at the costs on them, you know, if we can find, you know, a little bit here and there on the costs and, and improve the quality. And so we're doing a lot of innovation on those beers constantly and it's not like in the traditional innovation where we're coming up with new styles or new brands. Um, So I think that's really helped us, I, you know, kind of scratch the creative itch too, is, you know, we still get to kind of tinker and play with those, but we're giving the customer a consistent product.

Speaker 1 [06:54] Along with fresh beers, you guys also have fresh pizza coming out of your locations. Um, and pizza is a hot topic, so I have to ask about it. How are you, how would you describe the Texas pizza scene and how does Pint House fit in that? Why is that the best?

Speaker 2 [07:11] I mean, I don't know for the best, but I think we do a really good job. Um, there's some great pizza places. You know, I think much like a lot of Austin when we opened, you know, the beer scene was, uh, a lot smaller. I, I moved down here from, from Colorado's, uh, You know, at Odell Brewing Company for 4 years prior, and it was a very mature scene. The Austin beer scene, was not there, so we were able to drive it forward. The pizza scene had a lot of similarities, you know, Austin, even though it's a, it's a big city, it, it was still kind of a college town, you know, just 12 or 13 years ago. And so the, the pizza kind of matched some of that. Um, I think there are some good options out there, but what you're seeing now is really a proliferation of, of styles of pizza. We got some really good, you know, classic Neapolitan in town. Um, the Detroit style is very popular here. You know, we do the kind of hand-tossed, uh, style. Um, so, uh, it's, it's hard to describe it in one way. I think, you know, the, the way that Austin just as a, as a community is, it's, it's People are very creative eaters and drinkers. They wanna experience new flavors. They wanna experience new styles of things. And I think the pizza kind of mirrors that. I think we just have an abundance of styles that people can, you know, try out.

Speaker 1 [08:26] With things like having these food elements, it makes brew pubs a little bit more complicated to operate and something that Bart Watson from the Brewers Association has brought up before is possibly one of the reasons why brew pubs have been a little bit slower to gain back a lot of the momentum that they had before compared to taprooms and other things. Do you have any theories about why brew pubs are having some difficulties right now?

Speaker 2 [08:51] Uh, yeah, I mean, it's, it's definitely a challenge. Like we're, you know, we're experiencing it just like everybody else. Um, I think one of the strengths in our models is we have the distribution side to kind of help pull along the restaurant side, uh, you know, when we're a little softer and vice versa. Um, you know, I think the big challenge is, it's the same thing every restaurant's facing. It's labor and it's, it's cost of goods on the, on the ingredients side. You know, we're, we're a pizza place first and foremost on the food side and, um, cheese is 70% higher than it was a year ago. Um, you know, so some of our input costs are just tough and, you know, you can't just pass everything along to the consumer. Um, you know, you gotta figure out how to be, you know, better on your end and, and find, you know, find out how to kind of absorb that. So, yeah, I think, you know, I think we're dealing with a lot of same challenges that a lot of the restaurant industry is. Um, there's, there's consumer spending fatigue. There's, uh, you know, challenges with the, the cost of labor and cost of goods and You know, we're just trying to negotiate that, uh, with that and try to run as efficiently as possible. And, and again, I think, in the model that we have, we're able to kind of absorb some of that with the amount of distribution that we've been able to, to gain.

Speaker 1 [10:04] Going back to the beers a little bit, one of, uh, the series, I guess you could call them that you all have that I love keeping tabs on is this cold classics series. So you're celebrating kind of old world styles of beers, um, the most recent one, the nickel beer, which is like a, just like an American lager inspired beer, right? 4.9% ABV. A lot of folks are getting into that space right now. Why, why do you want to participate in that and what really goes into having, you know, a, a worthy participant in that pretty crowded marketplace right now?

Speaker 2 [10:38] Yeah, we've had a lot of fun with the Cold Classic series. Um, it's, it, it, it really started because it goes back to, you know, we as brewers, uh, we, we like lager a lot, you know, we like those beers, that's what we drink. Uh, it takes a lot of those beers to produce, uh, IPA and barely sell it and some of the other stuff. Uh, so part of it was kind of the passion project of we love these styles, uh, we think they're really fun to brew. Um, again, it's, it's just fun from an innovation standpoint to You know, look at some of these more, you know, red lager styles and, and try to do them, um, you know, more true to style cause we spend so much time, especially in the craft space, you know, say being innovative and pushing boundaries and so to go back in and kind of, you know, put the sandbox in a little tighter and, and to brew into that style is really fun. So, Yeah, we started this, this program and it, the, the kind of the beauty of it is, um, for us again is we don't distribute it outside of our, our locations, um, really. It's people want the cans, they're coming in, so it's kind of our most engaged customers, um, you know, they love it. They, you know, they're picking up a 4 pack of our electric jellyfish and then they're grabbing a 4 pack or a couple of, you know, these cult classics is, you know, the drinking beer, so to speak, um. So yeah, it's, it's just been a fun journey and we've been able to, uh, you know, produce some really cool, um, again, kind of trad styles like this nickel beer is the first one. It's, it's a very much just a full-on adjunct American lager and it's just designed to be that way. It's designed to, uh, just be very clean, very crisp. Um, it's a really fun style to brew. It's very delicate, it's very nuanced. Uh, so yeah, it's a, it's a lot of fun to do these, um, and They're starting to, you know, we, we do, I think this year we'll do uh 9 different ones in the series. Um, we, we kind of rotated 3 in and out from last year to this year. And, uh, so, yeah, it's been fun. The Brewers love doing it. You're kind of, we kind of always have one, you know, in the tank, lagering, um, So it's, it's cool. I think it's funny the brewery probably gets the most excited whenever one of those gets canned. Everybody standing around the canning line, uh, cause that's, again, what we like to drink a lot of.

Speaker 1 [12:47] Totally. I think people inside the industry are probably most excited that there's a lot more of these beers coming out, cause that's really what we want at the end of the day.

Speaker 2 [12:58] Yeah, and it's hot down here, and so that, you know, like, uh, drinking a really crisp cold lager, you know, especially in the middle of summer, um, it's, it's, yeah, nothing better than that. All

Speaker 1 [13:09] right, Joe, final question for you that I like to ask our rising stars. You're a rising star because you're doing something right. So, what is a piece of advice that you could give to other breweries out there or a piece of advice that was given to you that you could think would really help with businesses right now?

Speaker 2 [13:27] Yeah, it's, it's, you know, obviously, there's a lot of uh talk in the industry about kind of how the challenges we're facing. You know, beer, beer is gonna be here, you know, and I, I think The, the best thing that I've been told from, you know, people who've been in the industry for a long time and, you know, I think what we try to focus on is you, you're gonna go through these ups and downs, but stay focused on your quality, stay focused on your consumer, stay focused on the hospitality. You know, that's, that's what's gonna allow you to continue to be successful. Um, you know, if you know you got the good product, charge what it's worth, you know, don't, don't give your product away and Um, but yeah, I think, you know, for us, it comes down to quality first and foremost. We want to make the best beer that we absolutely can. Um, if times are harder and people are spending less, we wanna make sure that people think they're getting that, the best value they can with their dollar on that. So, um, I've always been told to focus on quality. Uh, you know, we have a saying around the brewery and this was given to me from Uh, Brendan McGivney at Odell when, when I was working there. But if you're not willing to pour any beer that you have on the tap wall for, you know, your brewing hero comes walking through the door or, you know, we, we all, you know, worship Ken Grossman. So it's like if Ken ever walked in and we were gonna pour a beer, like they all better be good. And if you don't, if you don't believe in it, it shouldn't be on the wall. You shouldn't be pouring it for any other customers. So, you know, uh, quality and, and stay focused on the consumer.

Speaker 1 [14:53] That's some great advice. Well, thank you, Joe, and congratulations again on being a rising star.

Speaker 2 [14:59] Thank you. It's uh, it's very cool. It's an honor. Um, yeah, thanks a lot.