If taproom margins are so great, why does any small brewery bother with sending their beer out into the wider world?
First, any additional revenue is good revenue. And while it may be a shrinking pool, plenty of taproom-focused breweries see a significant cash stream from selling their beer in bars, restaurants, bottle shops, and—if they pull enough distribution weight—grocery stores.
However, one of the most vital reasons to send beer out into the wilds is that it announces your presence. And with some smart packaging decisions, that low-margin beer itself becomes a marketing device that draws new people to where margins are best: your taproom.
To do this most effectively takes some strategic thinking, and the answer might not be to simply distribute everything you make. A couple of questions worth pondering:
- What are people more likely to grab on a shelf, even if they’ve never heard of your brewery?
- What might nudge them into finding out who you are—and, ideally, heading to your taproom for the ideal experience—the kind they’ll want to enjoy with friends, again and again?