After nearly five years under corporate ownership, Appalachian Mountain Brewery (AMB) leadership is excited to return to independent operations, co-founder Chris Zieber told Brewbound.
Zieber and co-founder Nathan Kelischek announced last week they have reacquired the Boone, North Carolina-based craft brewery from Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B). AMB was first acquired by Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) in 2018, which was then acquired in total by A-B in 2020.
The deal has been in the works for nearly eight months, Zieber said.
“It just took a little bit longer than maybe we would have liked, but certainly happy to get here and it’s fun to work with them,” Zieber said. “We learned a ton going through the system for so many different things. It’s interesting to be on the outside with that knowledge.”
Last year, AMB’s volume hovered between 11,000 and 12,000 barrels, “plus or minus a little bit,” Zieber said. The brewery’s 2023 output is expected to decline slightly as AMB looks for a contract brewing partner.
Other changes on the horizon for AMB include the opening of a new taproom in Mills River, North Carolina, which is expected to happen this summer, Zieber said. The 3,000 sq. ft. taproom will feature 32 draft lines and serve “unique small-batch beers, ciders, seltzers, and a curated cocktail list,” according to AMB’s website. The new location, a former mechanic shop near the entrance of Pisgah National Forest, also includes a 4,000 sq. ft. beer garden.
As AMB works to reestablish itself as an independent brewery, Zieber discussed AMB’s future, its local roots and why splitting from the world’s largest beer manufacturer is “a fond farewell.”
Zieber and Kelischek aren’t the first founders to reacquire their brewery from a larger entity. In July 2021, Three Weavers founder Lynne Weaver bought her brand back from CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective, coincidentally about six months before CANarchy’s sale to energy drink giant Monster was announced.
The below conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
How day-to-day operations will change as an independent brewery …
“Candidly, some people would expect us to say, ‘Eff A-B, blah, blah, blah,’ but it’s not like that,” Zieber said. “We learned a ton from our time in the High End and with Anheuser-Busch. There’s certainly things that are going to change. We’re gonna be way more nimble and more flexible. We’re able to pivot quicker in a way that a small business should without the constraints of what we call the cruise ship mentality of A-B.
“It’s not like Nathan and I left and we’re now coming back after two years with CBA and almost two and a half years with A-B, and changing everything. We were here and we continue to give a lot to philanthropy over the last five years, to continue to work on programs to highlight local nonprofits that we really care about.
“All these things just contribute to the reason I can’t wait to do more. As we focus to grow our business in a manner that’s more suited to the size of the business that we are, we’re gonna have more opportunities to do all those things.”
On the size of AMB’s existing team and plans for the future …
“We’re about 30, including our pub staff in Boone,” he said. “Obviously, as we open our second pub in Mills River, which is just south of Asheville, a couple miles past Sierra Nevada, we hope to add a lot more. And then as we grow organically, we’re certainly looking to add additional sales support staff and logistics as we figure out the next steps for the business.”
On keeping the focus on the Carolinas …
“We’re in North and South Carolina, but the majority of our business was in North Carolina and I think that’s a sustainable model. For a mid-sized brewery, as far as craft is concerned, North Carolina has got plenty of places [to sell beer]. And I think that keeping the 95% of the business that was in North Carolina and sustaining it and finding a new [contract] brewing partner in North Carolina or building our own facility is definitely something that we’re interested in doing.”
On exploring beyond beer on their own terms …
“We also want to focus on what makes sense. Looking way back, I remember our negotiations when CBA first acquired us and how much emphasis I was putting on cider. We finally got through and made some breakthroughs with our Southern Apple cider and some other products that we launched the last couple of years, but there’s lower hanging fruit.
“The beer scene is so competitive, and I think we made some amazing ciders. Being free to explore and pivot as a business to what we think is going to really work is another part of that flexibility that we’re really looking forward to.”
On contract brewing …
“The facility we have in Boone is good for draft, but we want to continue that packaged product opportunity in the chain sets and whatnot that we have. We want to keep those alive. And so by the end of the year, we’re really hoping to have a contract brewer in place.”
AMB has already secured a New York-based contract partner for cider production, he added.
“If we find a contract brewer who’s in North Carolina, we can produce at a cadence that we’re having fresher beer. We’re just in that really awkward growth stage for a brewery between being big enough to really fill the need that we need to fill for the larger facilities and then too small to really do it on our own. That’s where I think finding the right contract brewing partner is so critical for us over the next like three or four months.”
On the Bojangles Hard Sweet Tea collaboration …
“That was not part of the acquisition for AMB, that will actually stay with Anheuser-Busch. We’re gonna continue to work with them as consultants and make sure that that brand lives up to its solid reputation. It’s off to such a great start.”
On maintaining AMB’s wholesaler partnerships …
“We’re staying with the same distribution network. We’ve got a lot of buy-in from our wholesalers. We’ve been building these relationships for six or seven years now, and we think that they do a great job. Obviously some little nuances will change, but honestly I think it’s gonna change for the better.”
On saying goodbye to A-B and looking forward …
“The bottom line is we’re really excited about what Nathan and I can do as owners of a local brewery in western North Carolina for our region and the state. Honestly, we learned so much. We’ve met so many people during the last two years. It’s such a fond farewell. It’s not sad. It’s not acrimonious. It’s really nice.
“We came to them and said, ‘Hey, we see this opportunity where we solve a problem for you, and we solve a problem for us, and everybody is a winner.’ And it’s a really good place to be. I don’t think you get that in business as often as we would like.
“We had a great time and they did a lot for us and taught us a lot. I hope that we contributed to their growth for the time that we were there, and I couldn’t be happier to have been a partner, and I’m really excited about the future.”