Firestone Walker’s David Walker Manages By Walking About

After 25 years in the craft-beer business, I’m no stranger to the question, “How do you do it?” And the answer is—I don’t really know. Every brewery, every region, every circumstance is different, and that makes me even more allergic to dispensing advice. If my partner Adam Firestone and I had it all figured out, our journey would have been much easier. The truth is, it hasn’t been easy at all.

What I do know is what has worked for us at Firestone Walker—not the quick fix here or the lucky break there, but rather the principles, practices, and revelations that have borne the test of time.
[PAYWALL]

Get Out Into the Brewery

Brewmaster Matt Brynildson, Adam, and I are fans of “managing by walking about.” There is no substitute for engaging all the senses when assessing where we are. It’s on days like these when we wonder how we did this—all those tanks, the miles of pipe fence, a majestic brewhouse, and a thousand touches that build brewing efficiency, quality, ingenuity, and whimsy all into one campus.

Grow Organically

Whether out of instinct or financial gravity, we never over-built the brewery. We believe that breweries that are bustling and close to capacity are happier places than those with excess bandwidth, waiting on growth. It just feels better. For us, expansions came online literally a few months before they were needed—an organic progression. It’s a familiar labyrinth that makes total sense to us, as every turn we made we were there for it. For others, it’s overwhelming and inconceivable how so much can be done by a band of homegrown craft-beer lovers. This level of familiarity gives you the confidence you need to muscle through the adversity and challenges that operating a brewery can present daily. We run a tight ship like so many craft brewers; it’s our ship, and ours are the best hands to helm it.

Listen to Others, but Trust Yourself

We have also found that understanding your customer is infinitely more challenging than brewing the beer. Unlike brewing, it’s not an empirical exercise, even though you can wrap yourself in reports, studies, and data that promise to kick out the magic answer. Listening hard and trusting your instincts can be difficult, but in many cases, doing both will lead to a positive outcome.

Increase Your Odds of Success with Many Different (Finely Tuned) Beers

Along the way, we learned that hedging our bets with multiple new releases was worth the additional work, as we were often surprised by what ultimately connected with the consumer. With a new beer cycle taking as much as 12 months from pilot brew to supermarket shelf, you can’t afford to fail.

Value Human Resources

We are a labor-intensive, people-intensive, social business. You have to give time to the human side of what we as breweries do. Get to know folks, understand what makes them tick, respect their perspectives (another reason for walking about). Don’t underestimate the value of a casual greeting, a relaxing beer, a celebration, and outreach in tough times. This is the groundwork that helps when understanding is needed. I think the years of social equity we have invested paid dividends during the pandemic; there was a sense that we were all in this together and had each other’s backs—brewers, wholesalers, and retailers.

The natural business extension of this lies in a robust HR function at the brewery. It’s easy to overlook this role in the struggle of starting and growing your brewery, but ultimately it is essential to creating and protecting a culture that can propel the brewery forward.

Look for Examples

We have made our fair share of mistakes and will hopefully continue to learn. The broader craft community has also been a subtle mentor to how we operate. Thanks to the sustained expansion of craft brewers, it is not hard to find someone doing it better or differently, and you can reach out to them for advice or simply admire from afar.