The Best Brewery Guides and Tips

You’re a business owner and you are about to open your own restaurant, bar, brewery, or brewpub. You’ve gone through all the legwork of building the best business plan, securing investment, finding the perfect location, developing your brand and logo, designing the interior and exterior, planning the menu, and dealing with millions of other little details.

You can see the finish line looming in front of you with that grand opening datecircled on the calendar. And while a grand opening does seem like the grand plan here, have you considered a soft opening?

If you’re not even sure what a soft opening is, that’s totally fine because we’re here to help.

Consider a soft opening another weapon in your arsenal. It’s a chance to sharpen your knives (literally and figuratively), hone your operations, generate early buzz, and receive consumer feedback before you even open your doors.

If you haven’t already, here are the reasons you should consider a soft opening for your establishment.

For many business owners, cutting the ribbon and throwing open the doors to your brewery, bar, restaurant, or bottle shop will be a dream come true. Most likely, your grand opening will be the most exciting and simultaneously scariest day of your life.

We understand that building a business from the ground up can be stressful. You’ll be faced with many challenges and hurdles along the way. But your grand opening is your first shot to shout from the rooftops that your establishment is ready to rock n’ roll.

And while planning the perfect grand opening can certainly be fun, it’s actually a very important day for many reasons.

When done well, hosting a grand opening will generate buzz for your establishment and set the tone for months to come. For that reason it should definitely be a part of your overall business plan.

But like we said, it can certainly be a fun day if you implement one of these seventeen grand opening ideas for your brewery, bar, restaurant, or bottle shop.

Attracting consumers to your bar or taproom on busy days like Friday, Saturday, and even Sunday is one thing. But don’t overlook driving foot traffic into your establishment on slow days during the week.

Bringing folks in to drink Monday through Thursday puts pints in hands and boosts your bottom line when you need it most.

Luckily, it isn’t that hard to find ways to increase your foot traffic with events. Just follow these handy tips. Plus, sixteen of the best event ideas we found to help increase traffic and revenue to your bar.

In early 2020, the pandemic forced many breweries to refocus their business strategies. As taprooms closed across the country, breweries either increased their packaging options or focused on them for the first time. But even before the pandemic, large-format packaging had been trending. Crowlers (32oz) and growlers (64oz) have become popular drinking vessels at breweries because they encourage consumers to take home a high volume of liquid to go while simultaneously keeping that beer fresh and carbonated for a certain amount of time.

“One of brewers’ greatest fears is they spend all this time crafting a delicious beverage, but they have no control over what happens to it afterwards,” says Caroline Macdonell, Director of Marketing at DrinkTanks, a popular company making premium, insulated growlers.

Both a crowler and a growler help ensure that consumers can take beer directly from the brewery while keeping it fresh and carbonated with the flavor the brewer intended.

“Beer is such a passion industry where what you’re making is your heart and soul and you love it,” says Ian Crane, Account Manager: Beer, Wine, and Spirits at MiiR, a design-forward company making premium stainless steel vessels for beer.

But what exactly is a crowler and a growler? And most importantly, what are the advantages of each of these packaging options?

Cracking the code on crowlers and growlers could help beverage business owners make a pivotal decision on the right beer-to-go opportunity for their taproom.

One of the best advantages of joining Untappd for Business is that it gives you access to a wealth of data on the world’s largest social networking platform for craft beer drinkers.

With over 9 million registered users, Untappd can easily tap into the trends and insights of drinkers in your city, state, region, and beyond.

How does this benefit your brewery, beverage company, bottleshop, or restaurant?

Tracking the most checked-in or popular beers in your area can inform your purchasing or brewing decisions.

Analyzing your own customers’ purchasing behaviors for the last 30, 60, 90, or even 365 days can help you figure out what to brew next, what to stock on your shelves, or what to put on tap.

Untappd’s analytics help you make strategic customer engagement and inventory decisions.

Interested in learning the top styles folks are drinking nearby in New York? We can show you.

Trying to decide which beer to brew next? We’ll find the most popular beers in your area.

Want to know the most checked-in beers in Chicago over the last ninety days? Well, we already gathered that data for you.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the principle that your business has a responsibility to the greater society. Traditionally, CSR programs refer to the triple bottom line: profit, people, and planet. Historically, these initiatives centered around sustainability along with safety, ethics, and compliance.

However, in today’s environment, responsible business practices are expanding beyond these traditional themes to include diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Incorporating holistic CSR strategies throughout your business plan will help you assess and determine ways to cultivate a positive impact on the community you serve.

So where does social responsibility, specifically DEI strategies, belong as part of your business plan? The answer is quite easy – everywhere.

One of the best tools for your restaurant, brewery, brewpub, bottle shop, or beverage company, Untappd for Business is a digital platform that allows you to create print, digital, or QR code menus and share them with the world’s largest community of beer enthusiasts.

Using our database of over 3,000,000 beers, you can quickly build a menu for your establishment that you can publish to your website, digital menus, Facebook, and the Untappd app. Leveraging QR codes and well-designed custom contactless print and digital menus helps you create a safe environment for your customers and staff.

Most importantly, with Untappd for Business, you can easily track the most popular beers in your area and stay up to date with the latest beer trends. Understanding your customers’ purchase behaviors will help you make strategic customer engagement and inventory decisions.

Plus, you’ll boost your bottom line and increase your sales by maximizing your inventory visibility online to drive new customers to your venue.

With Untappd for Business, you have access to an immense world-class beer database, robust analytics, and custom digital and print menus. All in one powerful tool.

Interested in learning more? Here is the definitive guide to understanding Untappd for Business.

Looking for an edge with your brewery in 2022? Starting a membership, mug club, or bottle society for your brewery can bring a huge advantage to your business over the competition. Breweries looking to foster their own communities and provide additional perks to their consumers should consider starting one of these membership programs.

Typically, fans can purchase access to a membership, mug club, or bottle society for a yearly fee, unlocking special bottle releases, perks, discounts, merch, exclusive tastings and events, and more. A membership program not only allows brewers to give a little something back to their most devoted fans, but also helps create a loyal culture.

Are you seriously considering creating a membership, mug club, or bottle society for your brewery? Eric Thelen, co-founder of Oznr, a brand in the Next Glass family that connects craft beverage enthusiasts with the brands they love by helping breweries create membership programs, mug clubs, and bottle societies, has seven pieces of advice for you.

Overall, Thelen says the best thing you can do is: keep it simple! “We’ve spoken with countless people who have created a membership with the best intentions, only to realize… oh man, this is a pain to manage,” says Thelen.

But have no fear! Luckily, Thelen laid out the seven major factors you need to consider before creating a successful membership for your business. (This is an expanded version of a blog we’ve reposted with permission from Oznr).

Oznr’s headache-free membership platform makes it easy to create, sell, and manage a membership program. GIVE IT A WHIRL FOR 14 DAYS FOR FREE!

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced many breweries, restaurants, and bars to close their doors to the public, business owners had to come up with creative solutions to continue generating revenue.

Many beefed up their ecommerce platforms, started using QR codes, or leaned heavily into direct-to-consumer delivery. Another handful thought even further outside the box, instituting drive-thru alcohol programs that provided a safe, contactless, efficient way for customers to purchase alcohol.

While very successful during lockdowns, drive-thru alcohol is less practical, especially now that taprooms have reopened to the public. However, if the past year and half has taught entrepreneurs anything, it’s that it can’t hurt to always be prepared.

It might be helpful to take a look at a couple successful drive-thru alcohol models. Just to keep this tactic in your backpocket. Here are the top considerations if you ever need to create a drive-thru alcohol initiative.