Friday, Nov. 4, 2022 NanoCon Online Schedule
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Day 1 • Friday, November 4, 2022
(All times are Eastern)
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
TAPROOM FINANCIALS-KEY METRICS TO FOLLOW – BUSINESS OPERATIONS & SALES
You have to understand the key metrics for sales, margins, and operating expenses for the unique business model of your brewery’s taproom. Kary Shumway not only is the CFO at a successful craft brewery, but he also shares his love of the financial side of craft brewing through his online articles and classes after realizing this critical aspect is a blindspot for many breweries. Learn what the key accounting and financial guidelines should be for your taproom so you can understand your numbers more accurately and make better business decisions and forecasts.
KARY SHUMWAY
PUBLISHER, CRAFT BREWERY FINANCE
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, WORMTOWN BREWERY
IMPROVING YOUR BREWERY SOPs – BREWERY OPERATIONS
Any craft brewery no matter the size needs to have Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in place to make sure best practices are followed for key tasks and operating equipment. SOPs need to be well documented and easy to follow so future mistakes can be avoided. But that doesn’t mean SOPs should be static and set in stone. They should evolve and get better with time. Learn how to write better SOPs and improve the ones you have in place with Steve Parkes of the American Brewers Guild.
STEVE PARKES
BREWMASTER & OWNER, DROP IN BREWING COMPANY
OWNER & LEAD INSTRUCTOR, AMERICAN BREWERS GUILD
ABCs OF BREWERY LAW – START-UPS
One of the biggest blind spots and areas of concern for new breweries starting up is getting a grasp on all the legal paperwork required for both a small business and especially a small business producing and selling alcohol. Federal, state, and local permits and licenses need to be completed as well as a host of other legal considerations as you get ready to open your doors. We’re lucky to have Matthew McLaughlin, an attorney with years of experience helping start-up craft breweries, lead this seminar so you can have a better overview on the legal side of your business well before you ever pour your first pint.
MATTHEW MCLAUGHLIN
FOUNDER, MCLAUGHLIN, PC
12:05 – 12:30 p.m.
Q&A WITH NANO VENDORS – You can check in live with your choice of top craft brewing vendors to get your questions answered about Nano-sized equipment, gear, ingredients, and supplies.
12:35 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
UNDERSTANDING & MANAGING HOP CREEP – BREWERY OPERATIONS
All those dry-hopped IPAs and Pilsners you brew also can come with a hidden challenge: hop creep. Hop creep from dry hopping can result in a surprise second fermentation lowering gravity while boosting diacetyl, alcohol, and carbonation. So how do you plan and manage the reality that hop creep can impact your dry-hopped beers? We’ve got hop expert Dr. Pattie Aron to walk you through not only understanding hop creep, but also strategies to manage it in your brewing dry-hopped beers.
DR. PATTIE ARON
DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT, KALSEC, INC.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM OTHER TAPROOMS – START-UPS
Andrew Coplon, the Founder of taproom customer experience service Secret Hopper, has run studies on hundreds of tasting rooms and has seen it all – both the good and the bad – from years of collecting customer feedback on brewery taprooms. He is in a very unique position to understand what customers really want from their taproom visits and the keys to creating a great taproom experience. He’ll share the lessons learned from others’ taproom mistakes as well as taproom triumphs so you can use this knowledge to avoid common pitfalls and adopt best practices from others to have a step up from the start to boost taproom sales and create even more memorable experiences for your customers.
ANDREW COPLON
FOUNDER, SECRET HOPPER
RAISING BEER PRICES PANEL – BUSINESS OPERATIONS & SALES
The price of your beer recipe ingredients including malt, hops, and yeast is on the rise. So is the cost of your beer cans, bottles, kegs, labels, CO2, and more. So how do you maintain your profit margins on the beer you sell without raising your beer prices? And faced with raising your prices, how do you avoid sticker shock with your customer base? This is a very real problem every brewery business is facing right now so we’ve pulled together Brittany and Jim Barrie from BarrieHaus Beer Co. in Tampa, FL and Vince Tursi from DSSOLVR craft brewery in Asheville, NC to see their strategies on how they are handling the need to raise their beer prices. The panel is moderated by brewery finance guru Audra Gaiziunas.
MODERATOR: AUDRA GAIZIUNAS
OWNER, BREWED FOR HER LEDGER, LLC
1:35 – 2:15 p.m.
NANO CRAFT BREWING TRENDS PANEL
Join moderator John Holl and listen to Laura Lodge, Erik Coleman and Maria Pearman, three craft beer industry veterans, discuss trends specific to the Nano segment from both the business as well as beer side.
JOHN HOLL
HOST, BYO NANO BREW PODCAST
2:20 – 3:15 p.m.
DESIGNING YOUR TAPROOM & BREWERY -START-UPS
Designing your new brewery or taproom is a huge step in the process of opening your business. The right or wrong design and layout can make or break a brewery. There are special engineering decisions to consider in addition to overall layout strategies to maximize both the efficiency of beer production as well as customer experience in the taproom. Architect Dustin Hauck specializes in craft breweries and he’ll share best practices from his years of experience to save you from making costly mistakes and create a brewery and tap room as inviting and profitable as possible.
DUSTIN HAUCK
PRESIDENT, HAUCK ARCHITECTURE
USING SALES DATA FOR BETTER TAPROOM & BREWERY DECISIONS – BUSINESS OPERATIONS & SALES
There is absolutely no reason to rely on hunches when making business decisions when you can use your sales data as your guide. Learn how other taprooms and breweries dig into their sales data to create new business opportunities from taproom events and scheduling to what beers should be brewed next to maximize profits. There is a wealth of information at your fingertips if you put the data to work. Learn some examples from Matthew Morrow who works for the POS company Arryved in addition to running his own craft beer taproom.
MATTHEW MORROW
SALES DEVELOPMENT REPRESENTATIVE, ARRYVED
CEO/OWNER, THE TIPSY BOOKWORM
INCREASING BREWERY SAFETY IN SMALL SPACES – BREWERY OPERATIONS
Commercial brewing, no matter the scale, is filled with potential hazards if you don’t have a solid safety plan in place. These possible problems can increase when the size of your brewery doesn’t allow much extra space around your equipment. But above all else you need to have your safety procedures identified, documented, and in place to protect yourself and anyone else in the brewery. Jess McElvain is a brewery safety consultant and she’ll help give an overview of what you need to establish for brewery safety – no matter the size of your system – and why it is so important.
JESS MCELVAIN
FOUNDER, STICKLERTOWN SAFETY & QUALITY CONSULTANTS
3:20 – 3:45 p.m.
Q&A WITH NANO VENDORS – You can check in live with your choice of top craft brewing vendors to get your questions answered about Nano-sized equipment, gear, ingredients, and supplies.
3:50 – 4:45 p.m.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM 12 YEARS RUNNING A NANO – BUSINESS OPERATIONS & SALES
When Tim Myers started up his one-barrel taproom brewery in May 2010 in Denver, Colorado the phrase “Nano Brewery” didn’t even exist. Strange Craft Beer Company was the first taproom brewery in the city and has since become a destination spot for Colorado beer drinkers taking home multiple awards, including four Great American Beer Festival medals and two World Beer Cups. Along the way Tim has also learned from missteps as a Nano pioneer with one of the first small-scale taproom breweries in the country. Find out these lessons earned through a dozen years of running a small-batch brewing business focused on taproom distribution.
TIM MYERS
OWNER, STRANGE CRAFT BEER CO.
YEAST COUNTING SIMPLIFIED – BREWERY OPERATIONS
Knowing the viability of your yeast is key to running strong beer fermentations especially when you are reusing yeast from a prior batch. Learn how to easily count yeast cells in your small brewery. BYO’s Technical Editor Ashton Lewis will show you two ways to get the job done including the traditional way with a microscope and some specialized equipment. He’ll also show you the packed cell count method. Learn step-by-step how to do cell counts quickly and easily with these two different methods so you know the yeast you are pitching will result in a healthy fermentation.
ASHTON LEWIS
MANAGER OF TRAINING AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT, BSG CRAFT BREWING
TECHNICAL EDITOR, BREW YOUR OWN MAGAZINE
FINANCING YOUR START-UP NANO – START-UPS
Congrats – you are getting closer to realizing your dream of opening a small brewery! But shiny new tanks or a new taproom space aren’t free and not everyone has enough cash flow or savings on hand to self-fund a brewery launch. Learn the keys to financing your plans for growth with Jason Sleeman who works with brewery clients on how to strategically pay for your start-up that won’t hurt you down the line with unattractive terms. Jason will go over what needs to be in your e business plans, financing sources and options, and more to help you make your dreams of a new craft brewery a reality.
JASON SLEEMAN
VICE PRESIDENT – CRAFT BEVERAGE LENDING, UNITED COMMUNITY BANK
4:50 – 5:15 p.m.
Q&A WITH NANO VENDORS – You can check in live with your choice of top craft brewing vendors to get your questions answered about Nano-sized equipment, gear, ingredients, and supplies.