I can’t believe it has been almost 20 years since my cousin Emily and her (then) husband Chad the homebrewer and I opened the doors of Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, only the 3rd brewery in all of Santa Cruz County, California (there are 15 or so today). Emily and I grew up in the small mountain town of Ben Lomond, California home to redwoods, Henflings (a local biker bar next to the volunteer firehouse) and a strong community of hard working people. It is safe to say that during the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s when Emily and I grew up there were likely 2 tap handles at Henflings Bar: Bud and Bud Light. (back then Coors was a non-union brewery)
When Chad, Emily and I divided up responsibilities for opening the brewery Chad focused on brewing, Emily on brewery operations and I focused on sales, marketing and distribution. Every Saturday, I have fond memories of my dad and I putting up “free beer tasting” signs up and down Highway 1 and setting up a roll out bar just outside the walk-in for Saturday surfers, mountain bikers, hippies, UCSC students and “westsiders” to try Santa Cruz’s newest brewery on the Westside in the Swift Street courtyard, a former canning facility anchored by Kelly’s French Bakery, a Santa Cruz institution (and our landlords). There was only one other brewery in Santa Cruz, the Seabright brewery and it was 3 blocks from my house and I knew it well (and they had 4 beers on tap). During the week after working my “day job” I would often make targeted sales calls to local retailers including liquor stores and grocers and had some success with getting a locally produced organic product (22 ounce bomber Santa Cruz Mountain IPA that I think we wholesaled for $2.25 and recommended retailing for $3) on the shelves amongst many others–I remember Stone Brewing had a lot of bomber real estate.
Where I knew I needed to get us Keg Sales traction were the high volume restaurants in Santa Cruz, a local and very large tourist-based beach community. I had relationships with many of these retailers and restaurants having sold advertising for many years for the local newspaper (the Santa Cruz Sentinel) after college. My number one target account? The Crows Nest–a Santa Cruz tourist AND local destination favorite for many years and what I soon learned from Chuck the Crows Nest Bar Manager was the NUMBER ONE volume beer keg account in the entire county (I think I remember a good weekend was 5-7 kegs). The upstairs bar had 8 tap handles, 6 of which were “anchors” and 2 had seasonal rotations or promotions. I also learned quickly that while Chuck and the owners loved the idea of supporting a locally brewed small craft brewery and the pricing/margin were competitive there was one component in which we could not (YET) compete: servicing taplines weekly (and being “on-call” during the weekends). The largest beer distributor in Santa Cruz at that time (Couch Distributing) “owned” 6 out 8 of the Crows Nest tap handles and the remaining handles were in competition with me and every other independent brewer like Stone and Sierra Nevada (without a distributor) in the U.S. at the time.
What are 5 takeaways for today’s brewer that are still relevant today?
- It’s more than a great product and brand. Beer distribution became a business of not just producing a consistent, quality product (great beer) and brand but of creating and maintaining a services-based business for our customers.
- Practice good hygiene. Cleaning beer taps and draft lines (BA recommends at least every 2 weeks) became a best practice for our customers and our own tap lines.
- Distribution matters. That landscape has changed. Brewers like Stone even have created their own distribution channels.
- Focus on what you can control. We realized (and it worked) the business of beer would be much better with our own indoor and outdoor (dog-friendly) taproom attached to the brewery rather than a primary focus supporting restaurants and retail.
- It takes a village. Connecting our brewery with other small businesses and the local community (events, philanthropy, causes like women brewers) is what builds a lasting local brand and loyal customer base.
This article was contributed by Scotty Morrison