This is a part of a continuing series of Q&As with members of the brewing community from across the US. 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.
Wesley Keegan, founder, TailGate Brewery and Pizza Kitchen — Nashville
BREWER: Looking at the year ahead, what is one business-forward priority for your brewery, and why does it matter to your long-term success?
KEEGAN: The most important thing for us is to keep running a better business. We have to make great beer and great pizza, but we also have to keep improving how we operate. Our mission is simple: we want to be the best brewery in Tennessee, and every day we wake up believing we aren’t there yet. That means staying disciplined on the basics, balancing our P&L, managing our costs, and continuing to make great products and sell them well. It’s a straightforward business answer, but it’s the honest reality of running a small business.
BREWER: What’s one business decision you made in the past year that had a meaningful impact (either operationally or financially) and what did you learn from it?
KEEGAN: I love the story of Lager Projekt for this one, because it’s almost the anti-business decision. About a year ago, the whole industry was talking about protecting margins on core beers, cutting corners on ingredients to hit a price point. We looked at that trend and decided to do the opposite. We realized the best liquid we make is a Munich-style Helles called Lager Projekt. It takes a minimum of eight weeks in horizontal tanks with a slow lagering process, and on paper it doesn’t make financial sense as a standalone product. But since it’s the best beer we make, we decided it needed to be available everywhere, custom draft faucets and all. It’s been a slow rollout, but in three or four years I think it’s something we’ll be really proud of.
BREWER: Where are you currently seeing the most opportunities for growth? Your taproom, through distribution, new events, new products, or something else? How are you approaching it?
KEEGAN: For us, opportunity is everywhere. Distribution has always been a unique challenge for us. We switched distributors a few years ago, and it took nearly ten years to land the right partner, but we now have a great distributor relationship and real room to grow there. Beyond that, we’re constantly improving across food, our taprooms, programming, events, and marketing. In this industry today, everything matters, there are no shortcuts and nothing you can quietly skip. So we keep improving across the board and remind ourselves to keep hitting singles, because sometimes those singles turn into home runs.
BREWER: What operational or financial challenge is currently at your top of mind, and how are you working to address it?
KEEGAN: Training. One of my goals is to build a best-in-class training program. We have strong infrastructure and I think we’re a great organization, but not everyone gets the same level of training and development, especially compared to our more tenured team members or people who work closely with me day to day. That’s a tough gap to close, but we’re committed to making sure everyone who joins the team gets a best-in-class experience.
BREWER: How has your approach to running a brewery evolved over the past few years, and what changes have proven most beneficial?
KEEGAN: I’ve always tried to think long term and stay patient, because things take far longer than you expect. What’s shifted is that I used to want everyone to move at my pace, and I’ve had to accept that some things just take a long time. I don’t think that’s unique to breweries, it’s true of running any business. I have to give people, and the whole team, room to operate. We’re not a one-man show anymore.
READ MORE: BREWER Podcast with TailGate Brewery
BREWER: What industry shift are you paying closest attention to right now, and how might it influence your brewery’s decisions moving forward?
KEEGAN: The THC situation is one I’m watching closely. There’s enormous money and volume tied up in it, and on the supplier side we’ve taken a hit, not just from the pending ban but from distributors forcing it into the three-tier system once they realized how much money was being made under the non-alcohol rules. The truth is the beer and wine wholesalers are among the biggest lobbying forces in the country, and they continue to write the rules the rest of us operate under. Watching an entire category like THC get dismantled almost overnight because one tier didn’t like who was profiting is a real canary in the coal mine. It’s exactly why continued support for the Brewers Association is going to matter more, not less, as this evolves.
