Brewer Magazine Q&A: Colin Jones, Weldwerks

This is a part of a continuing series of Q&As with members of the brewing community from across the U.S.
Brewer Magazine will share business and personal insights from Brewmasters, Head Brewers, Brewing Managers, Sales Directors, QCQA Managers and others each weekend to help you get to know each other better in the industry and learn more to better develop your own brand.

Colin Jones, Co-Founder/CEO, Weldwerks Brewing — Greeley, Colorado

BREWER: How has your business strategy evolved to help grow and stay competitive?
JONES: WeldWerks has been very fortunate to grow as much as we have — especially in a state like Colorado with so many insanely great breweries! Since the beginning, we have worked hard to develop a people-first strategy, meaning we focus on our hiring practices, role development, consistent hands-off management, trust, communication and leadership. We bust ass to create careers here at WeldWerks! This people-first strategy lends itself to constant evolution as the brewery is forced to adopt the ideation of multiple people, all working in unison towards the same goals. It is give and take every single day but the end result is always stunning.

BREWER: Who is your mentor in the industry and why? What have you learned from them?
JONES: One of the most amazing parts about this industry is that long-time legends like Firestone Walker and Russian River are both willing and excited to engage with much younger and smaller breweries like us. We also make a point to get out of the festival circuit and journey to other breweries of all sizes to share some beers and talk business, hang out, and learn. Learning what not to do is always valuable but most recently we have incorporated branding strategies, brewing techniques and release formats from our fellow brewery friends.

BREWER: What idea did you or your team come up with lately that has been a big benefit to how your brewery functions?
JONES: Around the middle of 2019 we completely rebooted our beer strategy team. This is the team that forecasts production, dials in releases and formats, creates new styles, you name it — it’s a tall order and a lot of responsibility. It now has equal representation from all parts of the brewery and ensures that we are all communicating and working in tandem. It has created great opportunities on the creative side and has dialed in our production planning to ensure we are keeping pace with the demand.

BREWER: If you had one business strategy that you could implement to better the brewing industry, what would it be?
JONES: If I had to pick just one I’d say to focus just as much on the business as the brewing. The business side of a brewery is not something that is talked about often — the beer is the center of attention and rightfully so — there is no business without a quality beer. However, investing in careers, management, leadership, communication, systems, etc. all have incredible payback especially as growth accelerates.