The 2020s heaped havoc on San Antonio-area brewers and their compatriots nationwide.
Those craft brewers who survived the changes in drinking trends and other economic challenges found diversification was key to keeping the doors open. With at least half a dozen brewery closures in the San Antonio area so far this decade, getting new customers in the door takes more than making a great beer.
“From the start, we always looked at it as a third space of sorts,” said Dustin Baker, who runs Roadmap Brewing Co. on the edge of downtown with his wife Hannah.
The brewery doesn’t distribute but made the most of COVID-19 shutdowns by selling canned beer online for drive-by pickup. When the people returned, Roadmap doubled down on giving customers reasons to come back more often and stay longer.
Hannah Baker had a background in coffee before the brewery opened and worked with San Antonio roaster Merit Coffee to develop a product that could be sold at Roadmap starting at 7 a.m.
“Adding coffee wasn’t so much a pivot as it was an add-on,” Baker said.
Besides an additional revenue stream, the coffee shop had another effect: people who came for the java would often try the beer and become regulars on both fronts.
The Bakers now have some customers who bring their laptops in the morning and turn the coffee shop into a workspace. By late afternoon, they switch to beer.
A new point-of-sale system also allows Roadmap to track customer frequency, and the Bakers found that their September clientele was an even split between repeat customers and those who were first-timers or hadn’t frequented the brewery in at least six months.
Part of that was attributable to being one of the closest breweries to the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center and convention hotels. However, a good portion of the customers are locals drawn by the brewery’s varied offerings.
“We have been operating the last couple of years on the saying ‘Good business is focused on getting people in the door. Great businesses focus on keeping them there,’” Baker said.
Hallmark of survival
While the tumultuous operating conditions of the past few years have made diversification a necessity, it’s actually been a hallmark of survival going back to craft beer’s 1990s infancy in Texas.
The state’s oldest surviving brewpub, Fredericksburg Brewing Co., not only has a restaurant in the heart of that Hill Country town’s tourist district, it also operates guest rooms above the brewpub to serve up a beer-and-bed experience.
San Antonio’s Blue Star Brewing Co., the state’s second-oldest brewpub, initially didn’t pull as much tourist traffic as it does now. So it relied heavily on a bike-rental business, hanging the cycles from the balcony above its serving tanks.
The 30-year-old brewery has since moved the thriving bike shop next door, opened the Blue Star Provisions next to the brewery for groceries, to-go beverages and sundries, and operates an outpost serving its brews at North Star Mall. The operation also distributes to the owner’s other two bars, across-the-parking-lot drinkery Joe Blues and Joey’s on the North St. Mary’s Strip.
Flix Brewhouse on West Loop 1604 blends viewing with brewing. Although part of a chain, the brewing is done in-house at the location so moviegoers can get the freshest beer and in-theater dining to pair with the latest blockbuster.
In New Braunfels, 5 Stones Artisan Brewery operates the Elah Wine Bar in the back room and has an onsite pizzeria called Slinger Kitchen. The brewery also has an affiliation with downtown New Braunfels coffee shop and cocktail bar Kinnor, which serves an assortment of 5 Stones brews.
Near the coffee shop, the brewery has an adjunct biergarten in the works at the site of the shuttered Faust Brewing Co.
Longtab Brewing Co. in Leon Valley doubles as a gastropub and has added a coffee bar. Meanwhile, Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery in The Pearl has a sister restaurant at The Rim, Southerleigh Haute South, that features the beers. And Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling balances its beer operations with the spirits side of the business.
Cards and pints
Black Laboratory Brewing Co. on San Antonio’s near East Side has reinvented itself twice in the past three years, going from brewing only beer and doing some distribution to producing hard seltzers sold exclusively in its taproom.
“They were at a point where they might have to sell the [brewing] equipment,” said current head brewer Rey Duque. “It was like grim times for them, but that pivot helped get them out of the hole.”
But, earlier this year, after an ownership change, Black Lab returned to its beer roots while still creating seltzers for fans of the beverage.
Duque, formerly of the Mad Pecker and Kunstler breweries, now has 10 house beers on tap and is building up the inventory since he joined full time in July. He said that the beer drinkers are coming back in greater numbers than when the business was just tapping seltzers and guest brews.
Even though the brewery is finding success in making its own beer again, former general manager and now-owner Diego Garcia is keen on keeping the seltzer fans it made during the earlier transition.
“We’re keeping some of the seltzers alive,” Duque said. “We still get requests for the Grape Kool Aid, Rodeo Tea and the Left on Red.”
The last is a hard soda seltzer for lovers of the Big Red soft drink beloved in South Texas.
Other businesses renting space in the building also draw customers to the brewery, including 2-1-Dough, a complementary pizza kitchen. A separate sports card shop, co-owned by Garcia, also keeps people coming in and frequenting the brewery after dropping cash on collectible cards.
“There are days when the card shop does more business than the brewery,” Duque said. “The whole card industry is red hot right now.”
Mature market
Matt Gacioch, staff economist for the Brewers Association, the largest trade group for U.S. independent brewers, said the volume of beer produced is no longer the chief determinant of success.
One reason many breweries went under was that their business plans relied on annual double-digit percentage growth. When debt loads became too much and overhead increased, it was a death knell for many. A combination of pandemic-related strain and an overall decline in beer consumption led to another round of closures.
Success for the survivors and those now entering the market looks different now, Gacioch said in a recent entry to his “Insights & Analysis” posts on the Brewers Association’s website.
“A brewery in steady-state production is rarely a brewery in steady state overall,” he wrote. “Consumer preferences continue to change, both in the products and in the hospitality experiences they seek. Breweries that remain open over the long term will evolve along with them.”
Even if the amount of beer produced is flat year over year, the locations, products, service models and brewery operations may continue to change, he added.
“That is not necessarily stagnation. In a mature and competitive market, it may be one of the clearest signs that success just looks different than it used to,” Gacioch said.
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