Case Study

After making history in 2023 as Missouri’s first Black-owned brewery, Kansas City upstart Vine Street Brewing is building momentum through collaboration, leadership, and live music.

A Tiny Bomb helped to combust this Memphis stalwart into Tennessee’s largest craft brewery. Now, after they acquired Nashville’s Bearded Iris, both brands are better positioned to blossom in a tough climate.

In San Diego’s North County, this brewpub is winning loyal customers and drawing tourists by offering a casual place to enjoy great tacos with medal-winning lagers and IPAs. Perhaps birria was the secret sauce all along.

An efficient, relentless focus on a single IPA is fueling regional success for this Vermont powerhouse.

In South Florida, former science teacher John Hoolihan is scaling up his pursuit of flavor, fueled by demand for sparkling meads and informed by a feedback loop where customers have a real say.

These hospitality veterans are leveraging a quirky location and daylight synergy with coffee and cocktails to tune a vibe that's in sync with their city.

Amid the attractions of Atlantic City, Amanda Cardinali’s farmhouse-inspired Living Beer Project has taken root, embracing New Jersey ingredients, an open-ended creative process, and passion projects that intrigue customers.

This lauded brewery in central Oregon proves that smart operational decisions can pay dividends—and land you on the awards podium.

In Rochester, New York, a dream team of beer and hospitality pros has formed a brewpub Voltron that’s thrilling locals while rapidly earning state and national attention.

In the hills of rural eastern Ohio, you won’t find Wooly Pig Farm Brewery by accident. Yet with an accomplished brewer who brews only unfiltered lager, sells it all on-site, and feeds spent grain to the hogs, there are plenty of reasons to find it on purpose.

Born of companionship, curiosity, and confident risk-taking, this soulful North Carolina brewery continues to explore new creative interests while growing deeper roots in its community.

These self-described “coyotes” are always on the hunt for the next improvement and next opportunity—a drive that’s led them to medals, expansion, and the flavorful grounds beyond beer.

Utah’s liquor laws are less than ideal for its craft brewers, who make plenty of great beer anyway. Some of the best in recent years is coming from a small, lager-centric outfit about 10 minutes from the airport. Going there for a visit? Welcome to the family.

Without wavering from its core beers or mission, this 15-year-old brewery is enjoying steady growth and planning for more. Here’s what its team has learned about the merits of staying true to the principles that got them there. (It helps when people are always ready for Lunch.)

In Portland, Oregon, a lauded brewer and a celebrated chef join forces for a modern brewpub that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

Bucking the current headwinds to grow via distribution, Charlotte’s NoDa Brewing has ambitions to become no less (and no more) than the brand of the Carolinas.

As a small brewery devoted to cask-conditioned ale, Seattle’s Machine House is a rare bird in the United States—and it’s one that recently marked a decade of brewing, guided by the pragmatism of founder Bill Arnott and his “simple, primitive” approach to making their distinctive yet highly accessible beers

The eight-year-old Kentucky brewery is recentering on core principles while diversifying its revenue streams, aiming to get back to growth.

Leaning into classic styles while focusing on its regional market, Central California’s Figueroa Mountain Brewing is sticking to its game plan: keep brewing approachable beers of uncompromising quality.

This bucolic Catawba Island brewery lures visitors with 63 acres of orchards and farmland—then turns them into loyal fans of its impeccable beer. Its next act? Acquiring another, distinctly less agrarian, brewery.