Brewbound Rising Star 2024: Prost Brewing

Speaker 1 [00:05] Let's meet our next rising star, Prost Brewing in North Glen, Colorado. Joining me now is Prost president, David Deline. Thanks for being here, David. Happy to be here. Yeah, congratulations, by the way.

Speaker 2 [00:21] Thank you. We're very excited and honored.

Speaker 1 [00:24] So David, I just visited Prost's new location and that That brewery is beautiful. I, I don't even have a dollar figure on how much you invested in this, but it was probably not very cheap.

Speaker 2 [00:38] It was not. It was a risk, but we believed in it.

Speaker 1 [00:42] So tell me about that risk. What, you know, we know that Kraft is struggling. We know that beer is, is going through a rough time at the moment. Why was Prost confident in making the investment in the building, in building a new brewery basically in North Glenn?

Speaker 2 [00:59] Yeah. So, we've been watching industry trends and, and obviously understand the state of the bureau world and we wanted to be counterintuitive to that. Uh, what we believe in Prost is in making world-class bloggers, doing it right and doing it our way. And we felt watching the trends, watching Uh, the industry moved back to loggers in particular, and just that approachability, um, but also just the focus on quality. And we really thought there was a niche in the market and we wanted to brew the best pills in the world that we can, and that meant building a facility and, and doing it our way. Uh, we also knew that there were other like-minded folks out there. Um, and really thought from a contract perspective, there was an opportunity to offer that same level of quality, that same level of expertise to other people who believe in that as well. So, really twofold from that, we took the risk, we jumped in, uh, full speed ahead and ended up with this beautiful brewery here in North Glen.

Speaker 1 [01:56] How much contract business are you bringing into the brewery?

Speaker 2 [01:59] You know, we're about fifty-fifty. Um, like I said, uh, we really try and take a quality first approach, uh, selling logistics all the way to end, uh, logistics on the end of supply chain at the front, and really a one-stop shop for contract brewing and for those that believe in doing it right and believe in quality first beers.

Speaker 1 [02:19] Well, I probably undersold this at the, the beginning because when uh our Uber pulled up to the brewery. It it's not often that I, I'm kind of speechless or impressed when I roll up to a brewery these days, but I gotta say that I, I was super impressed with yours, and it, it's sort of in this, uh, shopping area. What, what was that before?

Speaker 2 [02:41] So, uh, we're in North Glen at the North Glen Mall in Northland Marketplace. Uh, the building was originally built as a movie theater that went bankrupt 95% of the way during construction. Landlord rolled into big box retail, we all kind of know the trends of big box retail. And then we found it, we've been looking for about 23 years, but again, trying to be a little counter trend is we focus heavily on the retail side of our business with 4 operating beer gardens, selling the experience of, of German beer here in Colorado. And we wanted that retail front, we didn't want to be in the back of industrial park and Um, we're very fortunate to work with North Glen and the developers here and really revitalize the, uh, the center and became an anchor tenant here in what you would consider a traditional retail marketplace.

Speaker 1 [03:31] With this brewery, how does that change the trajectory that you see for Prost going forward?

Speaker 2 [03:38] Oh, it, it opened so many doors. Um, the level of recognition around it, um, the hype with the buildout of this new 60,000 square foot facility, but really just the ability for Prost to make the beer the way we believe in resurrecting these centuries, um, old traditions and open fermentation to Auction, uh, funding, uh, you name it, we've kind of put that all in here and what we've seen is the marketplace really respond. We've seen distribution growth in double-digit figures, both regionally and, uh, throughout all of our markets, and we just think it, we're just starting to scratch the surface of what we can do, um, offering more great beer and more great people.

Speaker 1 [04:19] I'm glad you brought up the distribution side of the business because there's always a, a little bit of angst, you know, between distributors and brewers when they open new locations like this. But when the beer garden opened, you told me that it had increased your distribution business around 30%. How has that held up or, you know, are you, are you still, you're still pushing double-digit growth in distribution following the opening?

Speaker 2 [04:46] Yeah, so, uh, 2024 has been nothing but a success for Pros. We opened this facility officially at the beginning of the year, started brewing in March, and pretty much immediately, we saw a 30%, um, distribution increase around the immediate vicinity. That trend is held throughout the year and Been tracking, uh, in our projections going to next year, but we've also seen, uh, a double digit around a 10% growth in our total distribution market here in Colorado and our surrounding states. So, uh, we still just think we're scratching the surface of what's, what the potential is, and we're gonna keep growing.

Speaker 1 [05:22] Well, you mentioned scratching the surface. So what do you see as the biggest opportunity ahead for Prost?

Speaker 2 [05:30] Frankly, I think it's just staying Prost. It's doubling down on who we are. It's continuing to make great beers the way we like it. Um, and it's just leaning into our German heritage and making these lagers and getting them in front of more people. Uh, I really think Offering those in the full experience in our beer garden is such a great way to connect with the consumers these days. It allows us to touch and feel. So, we're investing heavily on growing that network, hopefully with 2 to 3 new stores in the next couple of years. Um, but also the contract side. Like I said, it's 50% of our business model and I think there's less stigmatism in the industry about contract being offered. And so, with all these new products coming downstream, we can do it all here at Prost, and uh we're gonna, we're gonna keep selling and, and uh looking to max out this new beautiful facility.

Speaker 1 [06:21] For the Prost brand, which products and channels do you believe are, are providing that big, big opportunity for you?

Speaker 2 [06:30] Well, at, at Prost, we focus on exclusively German style, so we're pretty tight-knit. We're not very diverse in what we offer. Um, again, I think it's just doubling down on who we are and that focus on loggers and high quality. But from, uh, a sales perspective, Pilsner is our flagship brand. It's what we all love to drink here at Prost. It's what we sell 40% of in the market and distribution, and we're just doubling back down on that. Um, On-premise is a channel where we focus very heavily on here in Denver, and we have above average sales, but also our internal distribution and our beer garden network as well.

Speaker 1 [07:04] Well, you're hitting it at the right time because there is such a logger push going on right now in the industry.

Speaker 2 [07:10] Right, right. So, there's a logger push and, and we're so happy to be a part of it and have the reputation that we do. I also think another big area of growth on the contract side is NA and some of these non-traditional beer beverages. Uh, here at Prost, we put in a full tunnel, tunnel pasteurizer, and we've really seen success in selling that and, and just looking forward to what the next opportunity is.

Speaker 1 [07:34] So as we look ahead to 2025, what's one thing that you're looking forward to the most for the Prost brand?

Speaker 2 [07:43] Being done with construction, does that count?

Speaker 1 [07:46] How far away?

Speaker 2 [07:48] We're, you're never truly done at a brewery. We're always adding, we're always tinkering, but the bulk of the infrastructure, the install, the commission is behind us. And what I'm looking forward to the most is truly making beers the prost way. We took a pretty innovative, unproven approach in our process from endosper mashing, open for. Fermentation, lagering, funding, um, really, you name it, there's not a lot of breweries doing what we're doing around the US. And so I'm excited to have the opening, the insult behind us, and just getting back to basics and getting some world-class beer in front of, in front of our fans.

Speaker 1 [08:23] Well, congratulations again and best of luck next year.

Speaker 2 [08:28] Thank you so much. We're looking forward to it.