Established Restaurants Converting to Brewpubs
The Right Equipment
In the increasingly ambitious brewing industry, Bui’s is a simple ambition, and one made easier to accomplish by innovations in brewing machinery, and the availability of smaller, cost-effective systems from companies like Toledo, OH-based SABCO. Creations like the Brew-Magic pilot and small-batch production system make it possible for existing hospitality venues, where space is almost always valuable and in short supply, to install a starter brewing operation in tight quarters.
“Restaurants that consider producing house beer learn quickly that implementation comes with several concerns, including space and utility requirements, product quality and commercial consistency. New brewers at this level don’t typically desire to jump into the possible huge capital costs of a larger system when they don’t yet have established recipes, an audience or reputation to support the decision,” says SABCO president and CEO Robert Sulier. “For this reason, [we] suggest a pro-level pilot system capable of precise recipe development and repeatable production brews, unlike homebrew systems designed for hobbyist, non-commercial use where repeatability suffers.”
Adding to the appeal of such systems is the fact many can be moved aside and stored when not in use to free additional space for use by a brewpub’s kitchen and front-of-house staff. In the case of Brew-Magic, innovations such as a circulating mash environment, eliminating stirring and caramelization while increasing overall efficiency, are helpful attributes. Roughly one-third of SABCO’s current customers are restaurants becoming brewpubs, following in the footsteps of the first brewpub to sport a Brew-Magic, Delaware’s Dogfish Head Craft Brewery.
“In 1995, my idea was to open the first commercial brewery focused on exploring the entire culinary landscape for potential brewing ingredients, which is why we opened as a brewpub with a kitchen that could feed both the food and beer menus in terms of ingredients,” says Dogfish Head founder and president Sam Calagione. “Tiny batch sizes aren’t ideal from an efficiency or yield perspective, but they are great from a creative and risk standpoint.”
Today’s new brewpub operators benefit from the same advantages, especially as they work to get their footing, developing and dialing in their recipes. Small systems allow errors to be made without the problem of producing 20 or more barrels of beer not fit for consumption, much less sale to the public. This is of particular importance for more-ambitious brewpub owners looking to provide more outlandish creations—style hybrids, brews with popular food taste profiles, ultra-low- or high-gravity beers. With each passing year, the percentage of brewing entrepreneurs exhibiting that sort of creative bent rises. In some cases, it’s the business owners themselves, homebrewers with varied levels of know-how and experience, who are responsible for bringing their beery visions—avant garde or traditional—to life. But the lion’s share of brewpub owners must hunt for individuals with the expertise to take over their newly installed equipment.
Beyond the Brewhouse
With an unprecedented number of brewing companies opening around the country, finding the right individual from a rapidly depleting pool of qualified candidates is both harder and more important than ever. Increased consumer knowledge and a raised field of industry competition make it all the more essential for any brewing interest to produce high-quality beer straight from the get-go. The restaurant business leaves little room for error, meaning few can afford to lay out startup brewing costs without receiving the projected return on investment. Faltering out of the gate presents the potential for harming an otherwise profitable business long-term or, in the case of an eatery looking to save itself, sounding the death knell.
Just as important as deciding on the right brewmaster is determining the brewpub’s list of stylistic offerings. Historically, the majority of brewpubs have focused on variety and drinkability, brewing a rainbow of predictable year-round session beers—stout, amber, pale ale, IPA, and a blond or wheat beer for good measure. These days, entrants into the brewpub business tend to be more strategic than standard.
Some work to fit the tone of the local beer scene by crafting ales and lagers their clientele have proven tastes and yens for, much in the way they strategically stocked their taps and bottle refrigerators before joining the brewing segment. This modus operandi follows the footsteps of proven operations such as Southern California’s Pizza Port brewpub chain, which is best known for producing lupulin-driven brews appealing to beachcombing hopheads. Then there are the against-the-grainers whose motivation is to fill beer gaps in their areas by brewing beer styles that aren’t largely available in the local marketplace.
An example of the latter is the Trapp Lager Brewery, a 60,000-gallon-a-year add-on to the historic Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, VT. In 2010, when its owners decided to realize founder Johannes von Trapp’s pipe dream of brewing beer at the hospitality estate, they cleared out a former bakery space and outfitted it for lager brewing and lengthy cold storage. While Vermont is home to a lively brewing scene, the majority of styles produced in The Green Mountain State are ales.
“We were inspired by the shortage of European-style craft-brewed lagers that were available,” recalls brewery manager John Patrick Williams, who credits the property’s original brewmaster for making great beer right off the bat, while also crediting another on-site resource. “We are very fortunate to have a spring on property,” he says, adding that the spring water “has the perfect composition for brewing lagers. When we first looked at the analysis of the water, we practically fell out of our chairs.”
Over the past four years, skill and serendipity have coalesced to provide great beery benefit for the lodge. The house beer not only appeals to locals, but also to a younger demographic from far and wide that also appreciates skiing, hiking, mountain biking and other outdoor activities the business offers. In-house brewing has been such a profitable move that the Trapp Family Lodge is constructing a new brewery, an Austrian-style beer hall and an outdoor beer garden, all of which are scheduled to open in summer 2014.
Brandon Hernández
Brandon Hernández is a San Diego-based journalist, an editor for Zagat and has been featured on the Food Network. He also is a columnist for Celebrator Beer News and numerous other national and regional publications including Imbibe, Wine Enthusiast and The San Diego Reader. He is the author of the San Diego Beer News Complete Guide to San Diego Breweries, available in stores and online. Follow him on Twitter at @sdbeernews and @offdutyfoodie.