Being more than a brewery has helped Motorworks diversify its consumer base along with finding multiple revenue streams. Barry Elwonger, the Florida brewery’s Director of Sales and Marketing explained to Brewer that Motorworks has made efforts past beer by roasting coffee occasionally and making cold brew for sale, adding a spirits option, while opening up space for larger events, even during the pandemic.
Cold Brew & Roasting Coffee
Off the strength of the brewery’s award-winning Midnight Espresso Coffee Porter that includes a blend of Sumatran and Sulawesi beans roasted on-site, Motorworks will sell additional beans occasionally to consumers after a roasting day.
“We kind of make it a special thing,” Elwonger said. “We don’t want it sitting on the shelf. We don’t want it to be like coffee that’s in a grocery store that’s often 4, 6, 8, 10 months old.
“We wanted to make sure it’s as fresh as can be, sell it out real fast. and make more when it makes sense again.”
The brewery’s original Bradenton spot really wasn’t conducive for serving coffee to consumers due to its location not being foot-traffic heavy but its new Orlando spot is centrally located and will be a better place to serve consumers the extra service.
“As soon as the world normalizes and people are back to their offices and not working from home, we will be doing a full coffee set up over here in the Orlando spot,” Elwonger said. “We’ve loved it and always wanted to do it. The original location wasn’t really set for it to make it make sense. But we’ve always still roasted the coffee and had it for to-go sales and then the cold brew.
“Over here though, it will be like the full nine and we’re going to start doing additional types of roasting different beans and whatnot. So it’s gonna be a lot of fun for us to kind of flex our muscles and continue creativity.”
Distilling Collaboration
Motorworks doesn’t own its own distillery, but it does work with Dark Door Spirits to create a line of whiskeys to serve at both locations along with being able to sell full bottles to go.
“We do a lot of barrel projects, with different distilleries, and wineries and whatnot — and that’s a lot of fun,” Elwonger said. In 2019, the two companies took Midnight Espresso into an American whiskey at 86 and 120 proof called Eye of Midnight.
“It actually went on to win two bronze medals in different spirits competitions,” Elwonger said, adding that this year the brewery’s Pulp Friction Grapefruit IPA will be made into Spirits of Friction, a 120-proof American whiskey. The partnership is something both feels can be mutual.
“We’ve grown up in the industry side by side in different capacities,” Elwonger said. “So we’re able to make something we both get to drive some extra revenue from it and we get to go and do it at some high-fund accounts and have some real fun with it and gain additional exposure as well as additional dollars.
“I love doing something like this that can help grow our brand, help grow a friend’s brand and do something that’s really unique and cool for customers and keep them excited in an ever-changing world. Everyone wants to feel closer to their producer. What better than actually having true friends and going and doing it side by side?”
Event Space
The new Orlando spot has a deck that sits around 70, but the original location has a 16,000 square foot outdoor beer garden.
“It’s massive,” Elwonger explained. “There’s a huge stage, a 22-foot projection screen on the wall, life-size Jenga, and a dozen cornhole sets. All under a beautiful 200-year-old oak tree. There’s a massive deck built around that oak tree. So we actually host several parties simultaneously.”
He said that on a random Saturday, the brewery can host a 250-person wedding, a 60-person office party, and some general public.
“And it was all still within COVID compliance and spaced out, believe it or not,” he said. “It’s that big. The ability to have those spaces really been what’s been able to keep our business afloat during these troubling times.”
Motorworks employs an event coordinator to make sure that the brewery is able to make sure that all of those parties are going off simultaneously, and that they don’t have major conflicts.
“She is paramount to making sure that all of the pieces on the board get moved around so we can make sure the events are successful and that people are happy and that everyone’s still safe and smiling and enjoying themselves.”
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