Courtney Iseman

Collaboration is part of modern craft beer’s DNA, but today’s challenges mean brewers must be choosier about when and where they dedicate their time. From fellow industry pros, here are some key considerations to keep in mind.

• Collaboration
• Collab Beers
• Best Practices

Brews of a different kind have the potential to bolster sales and expand your brewery’s local footprint. But quality-focused coffee programs take a variety of shapes—which is the right fit for your brewing business?

• Beyond Beer
• Diversification
• Coffee

Borrowing methods from abroad—including Czechia, Germany, and Japan—more breweries are offering their customers an experience that explores the impact of foam and texture on the enjoyment of beer.

• Hospitality
• Draft Beer
• Pouring Techniques

A successful merchandise program involves more than slapping your logo on some T-shirts. Besides adding revenue, playful items that fit your brewery’s personality can attract new customers while keeping you top-of-mind with the regulars.

• Merchandise
• Marketing
• Merch

As a one-stop information hub for potential customers, wholesale partners, and people who would spread the word, your website still matters. But is it putting your brewery’s best foot forward?

• Marketing
• Websites
• Selling Beer

Your brewery has the potential to tap into a wider audience, bearing in mind that today’s typical drinkers aren’t beer geeks. Here’s how to grab their attention with flavor descriptions that resonate.

• Marketing
• Selling Beer
• Packaging

Local beer weeks started happening when craft beer was the new kid on the block, and they were ideal for attracting new customers. Yet they can still shift to appeal to today’s informed consumers—and breweries can benefit.

• Events
• Marketing
• Collaboration

As taprooms seek more creative ways to attract customers, it’s worth considering how happy-hour specials might (or might not) work out at your brewery.

• Marketing
• Discounts
• Happy Hour

People are going out less often, generally, and brewery taprooms have had to get more creative to keep those beers pouring and margins healthy. Here are specific tips on how to entice customers out and make it worth their while.

• Events
• Taproom
• Marketing

IPAs are known crowd-pleasers, but what about that lighter style or passion project that somehow catches fire? Can your brewery capture that lightning in a bottle (or can, or keg) and reproduce the magic?

• Sales
• Marketing
• Selling Beer

Beer is already made from plants, and foraging for local flavor is nothing new to terroir-focused breweries. So, what does it mean to brew with botanicals—and could your brewery capitalize on the trend?

• Botanicals
• Brewing Trends
• Foraging

Beer festivals aren’t the only kinds of events where small breweries can raise their profiles and win over new customers. From local fundraisers and art shows to major music festivals, here are some tips on identifying events and getting the most out of them.

• festivals
• selling beer
• marketing