For many breweries now, boosting sales outside your taproom — whether it’s through distribution, retail placement or collaborative releases — can spark wider brand recognition and community reach. Yet, keeping popular brands in-house can offer an equally important advantage: higher profit margins.
As you look to strengthen your bottom line, building beer brands that drive taproom traffic and maintain strong margins is always a smart strategy to prioritize. Profitability and customer satisfaction don’t have to be opposing forces. By listening carefully, refining popular brands and empowering staff to sell intentionally, a brewery can keep their taprooms thriving.
Sam Chirichiello, taproom manager at Goat Patch Brewing’s Northgate location in Colorado Spring, said balancing high-demand beers with smaller-batch, higher-margin offerings comes down to consistency and customer connection.
“Seasonal specials that are made well, repeated yearly and consistently flavored work really well for us, as does following customer suggestions that turn into demand,” Chirichiello said. “We began making our hard seltzer, which became a big seller for those wanting a lighter feel and a variety of flavors.
“Listening to what your consumer wants and enjoys is a good way to guarantee they return.”
While breweries often debate how much beer to package and distribute compared to serving on draft, Chirichiello emphasized that Goat Patch sees its biggest profit from taproom draft sales. “We make sure to keep kegs well stocked,” he said. “We offer our flagship beers in six-packs as of last October, and crowler and growler fills for anything off tap.
“People like options, and this is a simple and effective way to provide them while maintaining profit margins.”
Beyond product mix, involving the entire brewery team in promoting profitable offerings helps align business and customer needs. Chirichiello noted that both the taproom and sales teams stay engaged and adaptable to promote the right products at the right time.
“We utilize the season as well as the day-to-day weather to make appropriate suggestions, which also sparks that ‘30-second conversation’ for those in our taproom,” he said. “Our sales team reaches out when new SKUs drop and offers them to accounts promoting classic styles or seasonal flavors.”
It means creating flyers, banners, Facebook and Instagram posts, and train the Goat Patch staff to properly describe and promote the products, he added.
READ MORE: How to Create Sales Even with Your Taproom Closed
For breweries trying to find the right mix of customer demand and profitability in their product lineup, Chirichiello recommended treating consumer preferences as a guide — but with an eye on business fundamentals.
“Using customer demand as a guideline is a good idea, and then basing a recipe off of that, adding signature taste profiles while finding reliable sources and charging appropriately is a great way to ensure return business,” he said. “Another way to focus on profitability in general is internal analytics of daily operations to see if too much is going out disproportionately from what is coming in.”
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