Taproom

With abundant amusements and comforts at home, people are going out less—a blow to hospitality, to draft beer, and to craft. Here’s how we can lean into craft beer’s strengths, aiming to lure drinkers away from their screens and back to the social life.

Based on some recent research, here’s a visual look at the connection between consumer satisfaction and profit at smaller breweries.

Identifying a location for a new taproom or brewpub expansion isn’t as simple as finding a deal or liking the neighborhood. Consider your company’s values and run the numbers on profit potential.

Winter has come. Across much of the North America, the post-holidays lull can be devastating to hospitality-focused businesses that aren’t prepared. Here are some strategies to survive until spring.

People are going out less often, generally, and brewery taprooms have had to get more creative to keep those beers pouring and margins healthy. Here are specific tips on how to entice customers out and make it worth their while.

Most people who operate small breweries don’t want to go into the restaurant business—yet food is an increasingly important way to attract customers and increase beer sales. For small breweries considering what kind of food program might be the best fit, here are some lessons learned.

Whether anecdotal or statistical, there is plenty of unwelcome news to go around the brewing industry these days—and yet, success stories continue. Here, we look at a few breweries that are growing, and how and why they’re doing it, despite the prevailing headwinds.

Chasing flavor-driven trends on retail shelves is certainly one way to pursue growth. Yet smaller breweries may find more success by recommitting to an identity grounded in intentional brewing.

If you build it, they will come... Some breweries are discovering that investing in chargers for electric vehicles can attract more customers while serving wider company goals.

Simply having great beer is no longer enough, and on-site pie is a hit any way you slice it. Using pizza as a prism, here are three operational approaches to drawing more customers with food.

From the NBA to the NHL to minor league baseball, sports venues are looking for local beer brands to join the widening variety of local food. Here’s a look at the costs and opportunities for small breweries considering whether to jump into the arena.

Two years of pandemic have altered hospitality and the beer industry in meaningful ways. Here’s a look at how COVID has—and hasn’t—shifted taproom architecture and design.

North Carolina’s Fonta Flora Brewery now operates three taprooms and a farm, as the company learns how to bridge the gap not just between urban and rural, but also between idealism and reality.

New Orleans’ Urban South outpaced its own ambitious goals for Louisiana. Now it’s thinking big in Texas—and beyond.

A defunct brewery up for sale can be ideal for others looking to open or expand quickly—but this often comes with compromises on location, size, and space. Here, brewery operators who’ve recently been down that road share some lessons learned.

The pandemic hit urban, taproom-focused breweries such as Chicago’s Hopewell harder than most. Despite keeping its taproom closed, Hopewell has survived and thrived by leaning into to-go beer, widening its offerings, and widening its welcome.

Thousands of small, taproom-focused breweries are keeping afloat during the pandemic by leaning into to-go sales. How can we encourage those customers to keep coming back? One small brewery in Vermont has developed tactics that are working already.

Knowing that business will slow as the weather gets frosty—especially amid fears that indoor areas are less safe—breweries are taking different tacks to keep attracting drinkers to their patios and beer gardens.

Gabe McKee, design principal at V Three Studios, explains how flexibility and reassuring design will help breweries prepare for the months to come and future events.

Taprooms and bars across the country began to seat patrons again in May and June. There was no one-size-fits-all plan for doing it safely, but there was—and still is—plenty of detailed advice. With fall and winter uncertain, that advice still applies.