In 2025, after a particularly slow summer, my company’s autumn business just didn’t bounce back the way it reliably had every year prior.
We’re based in Washington, D.C., and we’d certainly been facing some new, government-related headwinds—ICE and DHS raids, National Guard patrols, the hollowing out of a federal workforce that had consistently patronized our brewery, bars, and restaurants—but when September’s numbers barely kept pace with August, and October wasn’t much better, it felt like something had shifted more broadly.
In many ways, this felt like the next phase of the transformation in the business of beer. Since the pandemic, our happy-hour and late-night sales have been struggling, no doubt signaling a shift in alcohol consumption and social behaviors. Going back even before COVID, statistics can underscore that point: Guests are drinking less in general, branching out beyond beer when choosing to drink, and spending discretionary income on competitive interests, such as sports betting and weed. Meanwhile, there are twice as many breweries open today as there were a decade ago.
As we looked at our sales slump this past fall—and continued to pore over consumption data and consider the competitive issues of an over-supplied beer market—we realized that we had to get back to basics to rebuild our businesses.
Looking beyond alcohol, we reminded ourselves that taprooms, bars, and restaurants exist first and foremost as social gathering places—spaces that can weather shifts in the drinking culture because they provide something more than a place to simply grab a beer.
We aren’t waiting for competition to wane or for the miraculous return to the craft-beer scene of years past. Instead, we’re working to fine-tune our offerings, service, and hospitality to attract guests and keep them coming back.
Back to Basics
Strip down, simplify, and reconnect—that’s the 2026 mantra.
With the glut in off-premise beer and shelves overflowing with products increasingly priced to move, there is much less opportunity to engage with—and grow—our audience beyond the four walls of the business. So, as we double down on the on-premise business that can deliver the best margins while directly engaging with guests, we need to be increasingly concerned with the allocation of time and resources.
Stop being a one-stop trend shop. Providing an increasingly uniform array of what’s moving in the market may get initial attention, but these releases struggle to garner repeat visits. Concentrate on the products that move you. Show focus and perspective. Develop the narratives that can inspire staff and guests alike. Cut down on new releases, lavish graphic production, and the constant social-media onslaught in favor of the real passion projects that can prove contagious. (Also see Behind the Bar: Escaping the Blur.)
Then spend the time to create, train, and lead your staff in throwing parties nightly.
It all starts with staff. Over the years, we’ve watched talent ebb and flow in the hospitality industry, sometimes excited by the teams we’re leading, other times less so, and we’ve developed a new strategy in response. We hire based on personality and tend to look beyond the resume when adding to our roster. Knowledge, technical skill, steps-of-service—we can teach all of that, but in new hires, we’ve struggled to create from scratch a passion, a curiosity, and an innate drive to connect with guests; they either have it or they don’t. In the end, working in the service industry takes the kind of real talent and specific skills that elevate the job to a profession, beyond being a means to an end or moonlighting.
Once you’ve shaken up your staff, bringing in the kind of team members who get excited to tell your story and build memorable experiences, it’s time to reinforce the kind of hand-to-hand hospitality that can build regulars and grow your on-premise business one guest at a time. (See “Behind the Bar: Elevating Service to the Level Your Beer Deserves,” brewingindustryguide.com.) Your taproom, bar, and restaurants shouldn’t be mere beer factories—the kinds of spare industrial spaces simply adorned with merch walls and can fridges, waiting for the thirsty hoards to descend. Today, these locations need personality and a team of bartenders and servers buzzing about with warm, efficient, and welcoming service. From open to close. Daily.
The Welcome
Serving drinks is not the job—growing the business is—and our staff need to execute the kind of consistent hospitality work that garners repeat guests and creates a neighborhood clubhouse.
It all starts as soon as guests enter the space. No matter how busy our teams may be, there is always time to stop pouring beers or reviewing beverage options to make immediate eye contact, deliver a fresh menu, and let the incoming guests know you’ll be with them momentarily. Necks should always be on a swivel, eyes should always be up, and greetings should happen within seconds of entry. From there, initial drink orders should be taken and delivered within three to five minutes of arrival; during even the busiest rush, we’re still aiming to get the first drinks in hand less than 10 minutes from entry.
From there, we set about growing our regular base. On delivering that first drink, shake some hands and introduce yourself. Label tabs with guest names and commit them to memory. Splash beers liberally to guide your guests to their next favorite brew. Get to know your guests—strike up a conversation, learn their sports and music preferences, ask about their work, hobbies, and kids; get to know the kinds of life details that grow relationships. Anticipate their needs, keep their waters full, check back routinely without hovering, offer to get their next drink working when their current selection dips below half full. Have their favorite beer poured and ready for them at their preferred bar seat when you see them walking up to your front door. Be ever-present with your guests and, once the bill is paid, thank them sincerely for choosing to spend some time at your spot.
Use your comp check wisely. Buying a guest a beer during their second visit is impactful, but it shouldn’t lead to a free beer each time they return. Be strategic: Hold off on daily promos but take care of the entire check on a regular’s birthday. Keep some rare bottles in the back and pop them for groups of regulars on special occasions. Stay laser-focused on costs, so that you have some money in the budget to treat your guests to unexpected surprises.
Be There
It’s also important to lead by example. You may not have started a brewery with the intention of being the face out front, but this has become nonnegotiable in 2026.
Owners and brewers need to be a constant, front-facing presence, touching every table to make some friends. Throwing great events and creating the kinds of experiences guests are seeking makes sense, but they’ll be more inclined to return if they know you’ll be on the floor, bussing tables, taking orders, and talking about the crazy path you took to make your dream come true. Provide warm, lived-in service. Introduce your regulars to each other and grow their social circles in your space. Fight for your guests one goodbye hug at a time.
We’ve come to the inevitable conclusion that guests don’t need our beers in 2026. But they do need social interaction and—as we’ve refocused on the basics of service and hospitality since the fall—our on-site business has been picking up. A typically mediocre winter turned promising as we engaged our guests directly and created the kind of third spaces everyone still desires.
And now, when we go for a high five on the way out, guest increasingly have to put down a few freshly purchased four-packs to free up their hands.