|
Popular Threads
Number 1:
Looking for advice from fellow brewery owners who have reduced their taproom hours to improve profit margins.
Back story… we are a small farm brewery that has been open since 2013. We grew alongside the craft beer boom, made it through Covid, and have been fortunate to continue receiving incredible support from our community.
Over the past few years, however, we’ve felt the effects of an increasingly saturated market and growing competition from similar businesses in our area. We’re considering reducing our taproom hours to concentrate business into fewer, busier, and more profitable days.
Has anyone made a similar change? Did reducing your hours improve profitability without negatively affecting your overall sales or customer base? How did you determine which days or seasons to cut back—and what worked well or would you do differently?
We appreciate any insight or experience you’re willing to share!
Read the responses here.
Number 2:
This is a bit odd but i wanted to put it out there to get feedback.
I manage a brewery 90 minutes outside of a large metroplex. I have someone that oversees our immediate area but we are looking to continue our growth into the metroplex. We are not able to offer a great set salary but we are able to offer a higher commission rate.
Would it be offensive to post a sales gig that would directly be reflected on volume they move?
Ideally we'd like someone that can sell 30-50k a year and once their salary starts to get covered we could do almost like a 20% commission after that? for example, if their salary is 50k a year, anything after 50k in sales would go into a commission. So 150k in sales would add an additional 20k to their salary.
Idk if im crazy but i am new to this so i am looking to get feedback
Read the comments here.
Number 3:
Sorry for the length, but...I am doing a lot of research on draft quality right now. There are a bunch of things that have fallen away since the pandemic, and one thing I hadn’t thought of is how front-of-house turnover affects the quality of draft service.
I have seen estimates that annual turnover in both FOH staff and management is around 70% these days, and when I ask folks in the industry, they say that stat sounds about right. That level of turnover makes it pretty challenging to train both staff and managers about the benchmarks of good draft service.
There are a lot of other areas of hospitality and service training that probably take precedence, but good draft service has real financial benefits to bars and restaurants. Before the pandemic, it was pretty common to find Cicerone certified servers in places with good draft beer selections. Nowadays, I barely hear about Cicerone servers anymore, and I think that is reflected in a lot of the draft beer I have seen being served in the last couple of years. Increasingly, draft beer is suffering.
I feel we have under-appreciated what the Cicerone server program has meant for beer quality over the arc of craft beer. Not only did it help make sure staff were better trained to get the service right, beer enthusiast customers and homebrewers who took the basic Certified Server test knew the benchmarks of good service and supported places that served great draft. I frequently see dirty glassware, and the signs of line contamination are way too common.
Are we supporting the Cicerone server exams enough? Should we “get the chatter up” on Cicerone in our tasting rooms as well as to the places serving draft? The Certified Server exam is only $80, and I see that value of foam being lost by untrained servers in a day in some places. Maybe having FOH staff better trained and more enthusiastic about draft (and beer styles (will actually help us rebuild interest in beer in general.
Whaddaya think? Is this just naïve? Am I overstating the issue?
Image of brand new, just delivered full keg of beer attached for fun. From Chicago. Heading to the bar soon. Thanks, folks.
Read the group's feedback here.
| 
