Tyler Jones and the team at Black Hog Brewing never really started out in 2014 thinking they would be a gigantic brewery. But the brewery’s initial growth has had the group have to take a different path as they watched the craft beer industry grow larger than ever expected.
”Our focus has been to make great beer that people can enjoy, we’re pretty happy with the brand we’ve built so far and continue to strive to do what we do better and make sure to have fun doing it and hold up our commitment to give back to our community,” said Jones, the Oxford, Connecticut brewery’s Brewmaster. ”The growth of our cans sales was expected but not at the rate we’re currently seeing.”
Can sales climbed to nearly 60% of the brewery’s total volume for 2018 Jones said.
“It’s wild how much we can make in our small brewery when we really maximize our equipment and work together to make it happen,” he said.
Black Hog uses more technology to forecast what beer it should be brewing than Jones ever thought they would.
“We’ve learned that we have several businesses within one,” Jones said. “We have to brew for our distributors who get the beer out to on- and off-premise locations and we have to brew for our tasting room which also moves a ton of product.
”Not all of the beer can make it to both and learning that balance has been something that’s allowed us to open up new and more profitable revenue.”
Brand growth has the most important growth for Black Hog.
”We want our brand to be known as one that is high-quality, fun beer run by a conscious and responsible team who love their company and what they do,” Jones said. ”We’re not looking to be the next gigantic brewery to pop off. We want to provide great service along with a delicious offering of well-crafted beers.
”Successful growth for us would be a little bit of money in our employees, investors and our own pockets and many more smiles on the faces of the folks sipping on our beers.”
The addition of a silo in 2018 was also a driver for savings on malt.
“From floor space to the lowered per pound grain price it’s been amazing,” Jones told Brewer.
Taking a look at the price of grain when purchasing it in bags along with delivery costs and even the amount of floor space the pallet of malt took up factored into the pluses.
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