Videos

COVID-19 is forcing brewery owners across the country to make hard decisions. Surly Brewing founder Omar Ansari has made his share of those decisions over the last month after shuttering his beer hall, pizza place and event space in mid-March. Couple those closures with the shutdown of on-premise sales, and around 60% of Surly’s revenue evaporated overnight.

Drizly, the on-demand e-commerce marketplace for alcoholic beverages, has seen record numbers of both new customers and sales since the COVID-19 pandemic began forcing millions of Americans to stay home in mid-March.

Barry Holmes, CEO of The Bruery and Offshoot Beer Co., offers tips to breweries considering getting into direct-to-consumer or membership club business and shares how The Bruery is engaging its members via weekly, virtual happy hours on Thursday nights. He also discusses how adding a line of canned hazy IPAs and a pilsner through the Offshoot brand has helped fortify The Bruery’s business, which was originally built on barrel-aged and sour offerings.

Untappd — the beer ranking and checking in smartphone app — was built on the notion of being social. However, being social in the U.S. has been taken away by the novel coronavirus disease, which has forced consumers to stay inside their homes and shut down brewery taprooms, tasting rooms, bars and restaurants across the country.

Stonehearth Capital Management senior financial advisor Andrew Nadeau joined Brewbound reporter Jessica Infante for a conversation about the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) options for business owners.

The 2020 edition of the Ales for ALS charitable program was off to a strong start before the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered brewery taprooms and tasting rooms across the U.S. The program’s founders discussed their family’s personal history with ALS, the start of the charity and the impact of COVID-19 on their efforts during a video interview with Brewbound.

Bump Williams Consulting VP of business development and portfolio strategy Brian “BK” Krueger gives a quick look at the week as off-premise sales began to slow and what’s to come in the weeks ahead in a video interview with Brewbound.

With the loss of tasting room and on-premise sales, members of the American Cider Association have been forced to pivot to curbside sales, virtual tastings and bundles sold through e-commerce, ACA executive director Michelle McGrath explained.

Danelle Kosmal, Nielsen’s VP of beverage alcohol practice, shared thoughts on beverage alcohol’s big stock up, if the trends will continue, the spike in e-commerce sales and more.

In a matter of days, Austin, Texas’ Jester King Brewery had lost two-thirds of its revenue, which dried up as the company preemptively closed its tasting room on March 16 — a week before Travis County issued a stay-at-home order on March 24 through April 13 — due to concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19.

Every brewery’s goal right now should be survival, Monday Night Brewing Company co-founder Jeff Heck told Brewbound editor Justin Kendall during an interview last Friday. “If you’re not already in survival mode, you’re weeks behind,” he added.

Rabobank analysts Jim Watson and Bourcard Nesin, who also host the Liquid Assets podcast, shared insights into the shift in consumer purchasing behaviors caused by the coronavirus disease, the effect on premium products, the e-commerce opportunity and the challenges facing small brewers and much more.

Dealmaking activity in the beer space hasn’t slowed down despite growing concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus in the U.S. Much to the contrary, in fact.

Three former beer executives now in the cannabis industry discussed differences between the two industries during last month’s Brewbound Live business conference in Santa Monica.