Closures have been plaguing Houston and Austin for some time now. Rising material costs, labor, supply shortages, the ghost of Covid. All of these can and are blamed as causes for breweries shutting down. Higher costs of rent are doing a lot of places in, as well. Add in oversaturation and consumer fatigue and you have a bad recipe for a failing market.
As far as social media, I'd offer this. Many of the social media accounts for breweries aren't the best at interacting with patrons. Seeing a brewery constantly advertise a run club or a food truck but not highlight their beer seems counter productive. Are these breweries in business to advertise a trivia night or to sell beer? I get that it is done to attract patrons into the brewery that might not otherwise show up, but I know A LOT of people that get seriously annoyed and turned off by the constant promotion on brewery social media pages of everything else but their beer. Having food onsite and enticements are nice, but I'm not showing up at your tap room because of a food truck.
Finally, the craft beer scene here and in many other places has become kind of stale and inbred, if you will. The breweries and older long term social media personalities suffer from a lack of outreach to those that want to become regulars, those getting into craft beer, and that want to become familiar faces. It's a small, tight knit group that doesn't look outside of itself enough to acknowledge people that want to be involved and included. These are people that have energy and want to help promote, but because they don't go way back with all the owners/ brewers/ employees, they often get ignored. The industry is doing itself a HUGE disservice by ignoring those who are just getting into craft beer.
So instead of yet another run club, seek out those that are curious about craft beer and find other ways to draw in new patrons. These are the people you need to be seeking out, and they will help keep breweries open and surviving.
Some great points. Too many breweries are and always have been terrible at social media. It’s bewildering to be honest. We’ve often considered trying out consulting work to try to help the ones that need it fix it.
The point about engaging with the next gen of craft beer lovers is something we hadn’t considered. Very good point.
Great article. You are not overreacting. Beer is down period. Glad to see the consolidation of breweries. Keep it out of the big beer guys. Cheers yall
Closures have been plaguing Houston and Austin for some time now. Rising material costs, labor, supply shortages, the ghost of Covid. All of these can and are blamed as causes for breweries shutting down. Higher costs of rent are doing a lot of places in, as well. Add in oversaturation and consumer fatigue and you have a bad recipe for a failing market.
As far as social media, I'd offer this. Many of the social media accounts for breweries aren't the best at interacting with patrons. Seeing a brewery constantly advertise a run club or a food truck but not highlight their beer seems counter productive. Are these breweries in business to advertise a trivia night or to sell beer? I get that it is done to attract patrons into the brewery that might not otherwise show up, but I know A LOT of people that get seriously annoyed and turned off by the constant promotion on brewery social media pages of everything else but their beer. Having food onsite and enticements are nice, but I'm not showing up at your tap room because of a food truck.
Finally, the craft beer scene here and in many other places has become kind of stale and inbred, if you will. The breweries and older long term social media personalities suffer from a lack of outreach to those that want to become regulars, those getting into craft beer, and that want to become familiar faces. It's a small, tight knit group that doesn't look outside of itself enough to acknowledge people that want to be involved and included. These are people that have energy and want to help promote, but because they don't go way back with all the owners/ brewers/ employees, they often get ignored. The industry is doing itself a HUGE disservice by ignoring those who are just getting into craft beer.
So instead of yet another run club, seek out those that are curious about craft beer and find other ways to draw in new patrons. These are the people you need to be seeking out, and they will help keep breweries open and surviving.
Just my worthless opinion. Great article, guys!
Some great points. Too many breweries are and always have been terrible at social media. It’s bewildering to be honest. We’ve often considered trying out consulting work to try to help the ones that need it fix it.
The point about engaging with the next gen of craft beer lovers is something we hadn’t considered. Very good point.
Great article. You are not overreacting. Beer is down period. Glad to see the consolidation of breweries. Keep it out of the big beer guys. Cheers yall
Thanks! Yea we definitely like that route