When it comes to beer awards, you don’t always get to experience the actual beer since it may be only served in another part of the country (or for something like the World Beer Cup, an ocean away). But when it comes to other awards, like the Craft Beer Marketing Awards, Tom Paynter says it’s exciting because it’s all things that can be tangibly seen.
“That’s a great label. That’s a great sales sheet. Wow, they really attack this in an interesting way,” he said during a recent Brewer Mag Podcast with No Label Brewing. “There are all these other elements of craft beer (outside of the beer) that we all know, like the taproom, a label, merchandise, POS.
“This is a very marketing-focused industry. It’s one most creative industries I think you’ll find on planet Earth. And so it’s nice to finally have something that kind of recognizes that.”
The Katy, Texas brewery won a Platinum Crushie this year for Coolest Taproom & Beer Garden, and Paynter — who is the brewery’s Vice President & Marketing Director — admitted that his brewery has the “award/gambling gene” in terms of entering yearly awards and enjoys helping the brewery gain prestige since joining the 14-year-old company nine years ago and is now a part-owner. And yes, it does take time, effort, and money to enter a lot of contests.
The brewery, which also won its second World Beer Cup this year for Perpetual Peace in the Barrel-Aged Strong Ale category, schedules brew days around competition entries. It also reserves money for what they plan to enter each year.
For something like the CBMAs, Payner said you have to market yourself to win a marketing award.
“The Crushies have 800 industry judges, and then the application process is you have to drop a 240-word essay, and then you have to throw in a bunch of images, and a video,” he explained. “Really, at this point, it’s about who’s gonna make the best sell.
“We entered it last year, and we didn’t place at all.”
So Paynter learned from that and found a new way to sell the taproom and beer garden to win the award this year.
“A lot of it’s in the application and just conveying your love for a space and what exactly this thing has that makes it so magical,” he said. “Because a lot of people will talk about how No Label is a great vibe, then why is it a great vibe? We really had to analyze what we’ve done here in the past few years.”
To win for a label or an event you run is nice, he said. But of the 10 things Paynter sent in for, he wanted the Crushie for the taproom the most.
“That’s the thing that’s going to bring people to the brewery,” he said. “You think about taprooms being the point of tourism. The competition that says you have one of the best tap rooms on the planet? It’s probably the one to go after. We all love this place, we believe in it.”
Located as an open-air facility, No Label’s brew house is under one historic rice silo, and there’s another rice silo at the other end with a large beer garden area in the middle.
“We have a playground out here, we have a live stage. The whole thing has been very Frankenstein retrofitted, and there’s nothing quite like it,” Paynter said. “We’re along a rail line, so every once in a while we’ll get that train coming through and stuff like that.”
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A conversation with a friend sparked the need to make No Label even more special, he recalled. “At the time, the brewery only had one sign that said No Label Brewing Company,” Paynter said. “My friend said: How do you take the picture that says that you’re at the brewery?
“Oh, yeah, that’s a good idea.”
Paynter took that to heart and added many “photo attractions” along with the rice silos.
“Yeah, we have these historic rice silos … there’s nothing like them, but there’s all these points of interest that are throughout the brewery,” he said. “Whether it be a large merch space or a huge award wall that we’ve built over the last few years. There’s a press wall, there’s a memorial wall, or the entire rail line with banners of our beer labels or murals on the grounds, wherever you go around No Label you know exactly where you are.
“You are at a brewery, and it’s constantly reflecting beer art back at you.”
Paynter is a self-admitted fan-boy of taprooms.
“I walk into a taproom space, you’re just like, oh, that’s a great idea … that’s a great idea,” he said. “So this taproom kind of reflects that. It’s like a monument to beer and beer art. And we’re constantly trying to improve the space.
“We don’t have AC, there’s all these other breweries that are, like, huge Death Stars. They have lots of money, with three-story facilities with balconies and private spaces and all this. We’re not like that, but we are incredibly unique. We aren’t just a warehouse. There’s only one No Label so far.”
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