A condensed version of this article was published in Issue 1.2 of The Growler.
One way a brewery can insulate itself from that competition is simply to not package its product or seek draught accounts. Many startups recently have started life as a tasting room-only operation, but only one has so far stuck with the model. Judging by its success, maybe it should be held up as an example of good practice for small breweries everywhere.
Brassneck Brewery co-owner Nigel Springthorpe says the numbers just about made sense when they were crunched for a business plan to set up a growler shop and tasting room on a high-traffic street. Not in his wildest dreams did he predict selling 4-5,000 litres a week – more than some production breweries – from Brassneck’s Main Street storefront just a year and a half after opening.
But Springthorpe and his partners – fellow Alibi Room owner Raya Audet and brewmaster Conrad Gmoser – haven’t reacted to demand by frantic expansion. They’ve stuck to their plan of small, incremental growth.
“We grow in a different way,” Springthorpe says. “We only have so many seats and we can only service so many people. … We’ve got a little 50-seat bar on Main Street and that’s valuable in itself, and that’s a good avenue for beer to move through.”
Brassneck certainly benefits from its location, the reputations of its owners, and, naturally, its fabulous selection of ever-rotating beer. But it’s also the comparative lack of infrastructure that makes its business model so viable.
“We don’t have a packaging line, a keg washer,” Springthorpe explains. “We have the front of house guys and three guys in the brewery … we don’t have a delivery truck, we don’t have a sales force out there. We want to keep these small increments of growth that are manageable.
“This model does make sense in the brave new brewery world as far as where it’s going. … I feel like we’ll always have … people walking through the door, going to the growler shop, sitting in here and using us as a place to go before they go somewhere else. I think our model is less dangerous.”
Brassneck, whose next increment of growth will be producing 20 kegs a week for sale off-site, is a prime example of just how hyperlocal breweries have become in B.C. It’s this neighbourhood model that many see as riding out any potential correction or bursting bubble in the market.
The proof lies south of the border, where tasting rooms and brewpubs have thrived for decades, unencumbered by the legislative division of brewery and brewpub that existed in B.C. until 2002.
“All these breweries in the States have continued growth because they’re really brewpubs that have a wonderful product and a great atmosphere and people are going to go there and drink great beer and have a good time,” says Matt Phillips, founder of Phillips Brewing Company.
“In B.C. we have this legacy, this idea that production breweries have to be these big expensive toys. But the guys who are building brewpubs or small production facilities and tasting rooms, those guys will be fine. There’s an appetite for it, it’s an onsite experience.
“Great pubs have been around for a long time because they’re great places to go, people enjoy them. When they’re making great beer, I see it as something that’s really sustainable.”
Ultimately, the sentiment in the brewing community is that good beer is sustainable. The people who pursue a career in beer with honesty, dedication and passion will always fall on their feet and find a place to do what they love.
“I think people smell a rat very quickly, especially with beer and brewing culture,” Springthorpe says. “People know when something’s disingenuous and when something’s done with a sense of heart and soul. And you can feel it when you walk into a place. You can tell what the deal is. It’s nice for people when they see Conrad walking back and forth in his wellies.”
Ken Beattie, president of the B.C. Craft Brewers Guild, believes B.C. can sustain at least 125 breweries – we’re likely to hit 100 by year’s end – before a correction comes in to play. He offers a host of reasons why: the fact there is still a huge market share held by macro beer that craft is only slowly eating away at; the demographic shift toward young people drinking craft, and likely remaining with craft for life; and the sociological shift that craft beer chimes with.
“I think we’re just such a more conscientious society,’ Beattie says. “… I think it comes back to this sociological shift that occurred that we want to know who made it, where it was grown, we eat better, we buy organic when possible, it’s all of that.”
Much of the money that craft beer is attracting will be used altruistically, in many cases to keep breweries on the right track, Beattie believes.
“What will happen is that people with solid business acumen will come in to places that are not doing what they hoped to do, or are struggling with the business side of it and getting to the next step,” Beattie says. “And they’ll say, ‘Just brew the beer, we got it.’”
Turns out, that’s already happened at R&B.
In late March, it was confirmed that Howe Sound Brewing Co. would be taking over the brewery, with both R&B and Howe Sound beers to be brewed in Vancouver and Squamish. While Dellow is heading to pastures new, Benson is staying at the brewery, staff will be hired or re-hired, and plans are being put in place for that long-delayed tasting room.
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