Events

People may be drinking less beer, but they still crave welcoming third spaces and social connection. Greg Engert, beer director and partner in the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, explains how we can win new regulars by simplifying and refocusing on that guest experience.

After making history in 2023 as Missouri’s first Black-owned brewery, Kansas City upstart Vine Street Brewing is building momentum through collaboration, leadership, and live music.

As guaranteed taproom-fillers, private events can boost your brewing business—all you need is the space, a few options for food, and fresh ideas.

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.

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.

Winter has come. Across much of the North America, the post-holidays lull can be devastating to hospitality-focused businesses that aren’t prepared. Here are some strategies to survive until spring.

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.

For the new generation of drinkers, craft beer isn’t anything revolutionary—it was already ubiquitous. But by providing opportunities for memorable experiences, craft brewers can still win over these drinkers.

Whether anecdotal or statistical, there is plenty of unwelcome news to go around the brewing industry these days—and yet, success stories continue. Here, we look at a few breweries that are growing, and how and why they’re doing it, despite the prevailing headwinds.

It’s the toughest time of year for beer—cold weather, health kicks, and lots of people just staying home. For breweries barely hanging in there, these months can be a knockout blow. From a variety of voices in the industry, here are some ideas about how to make it work until spring.

Today, with distributors cutting back and tough competition at retail, it’s time to re-emphasize the festival as a way to attract new customers. Here are some experience-based tips on running a successful and profitable event.

It may be one of the lowest-selling styles in American craft beer, but some breweries are packing their taprooms by cutting down the menu and serving stange after stange of nothing but Kölsch.

Make it fun for them: Amid rising costs and changing customer habits, there are untapped opportunities to pack them in and maximize sales with creative events and activities.

These entrepreneurs outfitting classic hot rods and fire engines with draft lines and cold boxes say they’re in the business of spreading joy—and in the meantime, they’re winning new converts to craft beer.

Ready to get back to holding beer fests and other special events? As more people get vaccinated and authorities relax some rules, there are ways to ensure a profitable event where people feel safe.

Among the myriad ways that taprooms and brewpubs are luring customers this winter—beyond blankets and space heaters—is one approach that appears counterintuitive during a pandemic: by organizing special events.