In the midst of the pandemic when many other brewers’ futures seem uncertain, Fiddlehead Brewing has announced a $6 million expansion project that will triple its capacity and help the Shelburne, Vermont-based brewery add three new states to its footprint.
A pandemic-dictated business pivot — canning its flagship Fiddlehead IPA for distribution for the first time — generated a 25% increase in sales year-to-date.
“Within two weeks, we were able to secure some really incredible placements at supermarkets, package stores,” Fiddlehead owner and brewer Matt Cohen told Brewbound. “As a result, overnight essentially, we transitioned all of our business from draft into package, and into a package that didn’t exist prior to COVID.”
Before the pandemic, Fiddlehead IPA accounted for 80% of the company’s sales. With the exception of 19.2 oz. cans for concert and event venues, the IPA was draft only.
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of bars and restaurants nationwide, Fiddlehead for the first time ever began offering Fiddlehead IPA in 4-packs of 16 oz. cans for takeout sales at on-premise accounts and at off-premise accounts.
Since the company’s founding in 2010, Fiddlehead’s focus was on producing “a well-balanced, accessible IPA that was readily available in the Vermont market,” Cohen said.
“I always felt that draft was the proper way to display this style of beer, being that freshness was important,” he said. “We have a lot of great draft outlets in the state of Vermont, so that was my initial driver and goal: to try to obtain these lines throughout Vermont, and really focus primarily on draft.”
In a way, that decade-long commitment to draft set Fiddlehead up for success in a draft-less world.
“It’s synonymous now — you go to a bar, Fiddlehead IPA is the IPA you drink in a bar,” Fiddlehead director of sales Matt Roth added. “For people not being able to get that prized IPA they usually drink [on draft], by having it in the can, now they’re able to take the sample opportunity home for the first time.”
Fiddlehead will add a 60-barrel, five-vessel brewhouse, 15 fermentation tanks that hold 200 barrels each and a canning line with the expansion, which is expected to be completed by spring 2021.
“Right now, we’ve got a 30-barrel brewhouse, and we’re brewing seven days a week, 24 hours a day, so we can’t brew anymore beer,” Cohen said. “We knew we needed that just to fulfill our draft orders. But then cans emerged.”
The purchase of new brewing equipment was planned before the pandemic, but the company added a canning line after Fiddlehead IPA’s successful transition from draft to cans.
“We never anticipated putting a new canning line in,” Cohen said. “But the minute that happened, we realized that cans were going to be here to stay.”
Prior to the pandemic, Fiddlehead’s only canned offerings were Second Fiddle, its double IPA, and Hodad, a seasonal porter, in addition to 19.2 oz. cans of Fiddlehead IPA for venues.
Package sales of Fiddlehead IPA boosted the company’s April 2020 revenue to 53% over April 2019. The company is expecting to produce 32,000 barrels of beer in 2020, a 20% increase over 2019’s production volume of 26,628 barrels, according to data from trade group the Brewers Association (BA).
The expansion project will be funded through cash and loans. Cohen remains the sole owner, Roth said and added the company aims to “directly fund our growth.”
“It’s up to us to grow our company,” he added.
Fiddlehead’s production volume has increased double digits over the last five years, according to BA data: +22% to 10,000 barrels in 2016, +50% to 15,000 barrels in 2017, +35% to 20,249 barrels in 2018, +32% to 26,628 barrels in 2019. The additional tanks will push the brewery’s capacity to 60,000 barrels.
In addition to 4-packs of 16 oz. cans, Fiddlehead will package its IPA in 12-packs of 12 oz. cans for its full footprint, and in 6-packs of 12 oz. cans for New York City.
Although the supply of cans nationwide is right, Cohen said Fiddlehead has formed close relationships with suppliers and haven’t yet felt an inventory crunch.
As Fiddlehead IPA grows into its new packaging format, Cohen expects packaged sales to overtake draft.
“I don’t doubt that we could fall more in line with the rest of the industry or regional breweries in the East Coast,” he said. “I definitely see a situation where it’s 60/40 or 70/30.”
This year, Fiddlehead filled in its distribution in New York state, and added New Jersey and Connecticut to its footprint. Its beer is also available in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Vermont’s reopening has been slow and cautious and the state maintains some of the strictest travel restrictions. Some of Fiddlehead’s on-premise accounts have been cautious to return to offering draft beer in case another shutdown occurs. Instead, those businesses are serving Fiddlehead IPA in cans. Fiddlehead, however, hasn’t reopened its own taproom for on-premise service.
“Although the state of Vermont has allowed for us to do some inside dining or people coming into our tasting room, we’ve opted not to do that, for the safety of the public and the safety of our employees,” Fiddlehead general manager John Ravell said. “We’ve continued to do just curbside pickup; people have been very receptive to that.”
Once the expansion is complete, Fiddlehead plans to focus on increasing sales of its current offerings, rather than launch new products.
“For the foreseeable future, we’re gonna focus on the brands that people know, the brands that we’ve had success with,” Cohen said. “We feel that our IPA’s really just getting started.”