
Never technically a true brewpub chain, BJ’s Brewhouse typically gets seen as a brewpub model by many. But a more local-ish approach has worked for the company over its now 30-year history and with the level of craft beer fans growing the brewery has been able to streamline its brewing even more while continuing to find places for innovation to satisfy all kinds of guests.
BJ’s first brewpub in Brea, California, explained Alex Puchner — the Senior VP of Brewing Operations — was sized to supply the surrounding restaurants with beer.
“So by chance, we fell into a ‘hub & spoke’ brewing model that has been a key strategy for growth over the years,” he told Brewer. “Centralizing our brewing operations is cost-effective, and the biggest advantage from my perspective is quality control.
As the company has grown they have maintained that centralized brewing model by building larger breweries to supply all its restaurants with fresh beer while also serving breweries in each local area. Today, most of BJ’s beer is brewed from two production brewpubs in Central Texas and Reno, Nevada while also running three smaller brewpub breweries, primarily for R&D purposes.
Puchner said they used to have to pay more attention to regional beer preferences — such as only having its Tatonka Stout available in Colorado while IPAs were only tapped in states like Oregon, Washington, and California— but as the general populace has become more accustomed to craft beer, the brewery can have similar lineups across the country without much difficulty.
“We had restaurants in Texas and Florida but IPAs were too hoppy for those markets at the time. Instead, we brewed a German-style Pilsner and a Bock exclusively for those states,” he said. About 15 years ago, thanks to craft beer’s growth across the country, we phased out regional beers and started offering the same wide variety of year-round and seasonal beers in all our restaurants.
“Of course, we still see regional differences in how our beers sell. For example, our top-selling beer depends on the market. Our Kolsch-style Brewhouse Blonde is generally the top seller in warmer southern states, while our strong malty Jeremiah Red is the top seller in cooler northern states.”
Currently, the BJ’s R&D team is focused on three categories as they look at trends in the craft beer market. One is sessionable beer styles like Pilsner. A second area of focus is NA beer.
“We’ve been working on perfecting an NA IPA for three years, along with a few other styles,” Puchner said. “The other focus is to expand our beyond beer offerings, following the Prickly Pear Hard Lemonade we introduced a year ago has been a big hit. Our goal is to have a variety of beyond-beer offerings and a few NA beers on tap.
“We can lead the way with such a variety of draft products and make it another point of difference for BJ’s.”
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A hard root beer — birthed from the company’s Killer Ideas program where employees are encouraged to give input for ways to better the company — will be on tap in mid-April.
Traditional styles, though, are always on the list and Puchner thrives in that realm.
“We strive to brew Old World beers that are true enough to style to potentially medal at GABF or the World Beer Cup,” he said. “At the same time, we’re always experimenting with innovative beers that offer new beer experiences for our guests, which is what younger generations or ‘social taste explorers’ are looking for.”
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