What does it take to scale from a bold idea to a beverage category leader? 

We sit down with Athletic Brewing’s CFO Evan Zawatsky and communications leader Chris Furnari to dig into the decisions that powered Athletic’s rise: owning production, investing in quality, and building a marketing engine that turns awareness into velocity.

Evan opens the playbook on why Athletic poured serious CapEx into state-of-the-art breweries in Connecticut and San Diego. 

That move secured quality control, unlocked flavor innovation, improved margins, and gave the team agility to grow without supply constraints. 

Chris explains how the brand story evolved from convincing people to try non-alcoholic beer to showing who it’s for: active, balance-minded drinkers who want great beer flavors throughout the week. 

Together, they share how “cans in hands” at race finish lines and community events are key to brand building, how partnerships and earned media create the surround sound needed to convert trial into repeat purchase.

If you care about brewery finance, brand strategy, or the surge in non-alcoholic beer, this podcast is packed with practical and clear frameworks you can apply at any scale. 

Ready to transform financial results in your beer business? Learn more about the Beer Business Finance Association, a network of owners and managers working together to build more profitable companies.

In today's podcast we show how breweries can turn recipe development and process innovation into real cash using the federal R&D tax credit, plus a clear path to claim refunds retroactively. 

Maggie Crowley and Devin Medrick from Leyton explain the IRS tests, missed opportunities, state add-ons, and energy efficiency deductions.

• What the IRS four-part test means for brewing work
• Real examples: first-batch runs, recipe changes, process tweaks
• Eligible costs: wages at three levels, contractors, supplies
• Simple documentation that passes audit standards
• Typical credit ranges and three-year lookbacks
• State credits that stack with federal benefits
• Startup payroll tax offset for young breweries
• Recent law changes reversing R&D cost capitalization
• 179D and cost segregation for building upgrades
• Quick steps: check Form 6765 and ask your head brewer

Want to learn how your brewery can unlock R&D tax credits?  Reach out to Maggie Crowley, [email protected] or visit Leyton for more details.

Don't forget to sign up for the free brewery financial training newsletter.

Ready to transform financial results in your beer business? Learn more about the Beer Business Finance Association, a network of owners and managers working together to build more profitable companies.

In today's podcast we lay out a simple path for Massachusetts breweries to use the Workforce Training Fund Express program for up to 100% reimbursement on financial training. 

From eligibility to application steps, we reveal each step in the process to turn free training dollars into better profits and steadier cash flow.

• who qualifies and what reimbursement you can expect
• how to find and choose pre-approved courses in the catalog
• what documents you need for the application
• typical approval timing and how long approvals last
• why year end is the best time to apply
• next steps to book a call and get guided support

For Massachusetts breweries, book a call with me and I’ll walk you through the entire application. 

For breweries in other states, email me about grant programs in your area - [email protected] - let's work together to get you grant funds to cover the cost of financial training in the new year.

Ready to transform financial results in your beer business? Learn more about the Beer Business Finance Association, a network of owners and managers working together to build more profitable companies.

What does it really take to scale a brewery without losing your soul or your margins? 

We sit down with Nicole Smith, co-owner of South Lake Brewing Company, to trace a path from high school sweethearts in Tahoe to a two-location operation balancing community, cash flow, and culture. 

Nicole shares the unvarnished story of opening a second taproom and kitchen, why owner presence matters, and how to avoid cannibalizing your original location while still growing revenue.

We cover the small set of numbers that matter most—revenue versus forecast by channel, prime cost for food and beer, and labor as a percentage of net revenue—and how those guardrails drive daily scheduling, purchasing, and promotions. 

From handling brutal seasonality in the shoulder months to embracing a kitchen to meet guest expectations, Nicole offers a field manual for independent breweries navigating a slower market. 

If you want concrete tactics for expansion, community funding, and profitability without compromising what makes your brand special, this conversation delivers. 

Connect with Nicole, [email protected] 

Subscribe to the free beer industry financial training newsletter

Ready to transform financial results in your beer business? Learn more about the Beer Business Finance Association, a network of owners and managers working together to build more profitable companies.

In today's podcast, Ross Stensrud from Tapwyse shares how craft breweries turn memberships, flash rewards, and push messages into recurring revenue and reliable taproom traffic. 

Real data from 100+ brewery apps shows why monthly loyalty programs outperform annuals and how simple offers can drive measurable visits.

Key Takeaways
 
 • Monthly memberships outperform annuals for recurring revenue
 • The $1 weekly beer case study
 • How to use flash rewards to move slow inventory fast
 • $5 locals program for weekday demand shaping - loyalty programs go beyond beer
 • How to leverage push messages: High read and engagement rates

Don't forget to sign up for the Craft Brewery Financial Training weekly newsletter. Financial intel delivered straight to your inbox!

Ready to transform financial results in your beer business? Learn more about the Beer Business Finance Association, a network of owners and managers working together to build more profitable companies.

Today on the podcast Andrew Coplon opens the playbook on Secret Hopper’s 10,000-visit dataset and shows how mystery shopping metrics translate into increased sales for your taproom. 

We talk through the staff behaviors that lead to high engagement—prompt greetings, informed recommendations, and closing gratitude—and the numbers that follow: bigger tabs, higher tips, and dramatically faster return visits. 

You’ll hear why a simple flight suggestion makes guests 350% more likely to order one and adds roughly thirteen dollars to the tab, how a to-go prompt can 4x purchases, and why tip percentage is a powerful proxy for engagement and training needs. 

Today's conversation gives you scripts, benchmarks, and a practical framework to coach your team. 

Learn more about Secret Hopper -  helping taprooms grow with data-driven insights gathered through real mystery shopper visits.

Don't forget to sign up for the free, and financially powerful weekly beer industry finance newsletter - your income statement will thank you!

Ready to transform financial results in your beer business? Learn more about the Beer Business Finance Association, a network of owners and managers working together to build more profitable companies.

Beer volumes are down, dollars are soft, and the usual playbook isn’t working.

We brought back Lester Jones, chief economist at the National Beer Wholesalers Association, to cut through the noise with data, plain talk, and a clear plan for getting back to growth. 

Lester breaks down what’s structural—demographics, consumption occasions, and channel mix—and what’s cyclical—slower hiring, fewer hours worked, and sticky inflation—and shows how those forces collide to shape beer demand in 2025.

We unpack the Beer Purchasers’ Index and why distributor sentiment remains cautious, then dig into category dynamics where cider and FMBs stabilize, below-premium holds steady, and draft shows surprising resilience as on-premise accounts multiply. 

Lester argues the rubber band of pricing elasticity finally snapped: years of CPI-tracking increases met a year with little price and falling volume. 

The fix isn’t blind discounting; it’s surgical price investment, smarter pack-price architecture, and a return to safety and velocity on shelves. 

We also reframe on-premise: consumers want to socialize away from home, but aggressive pricing suppresses rounds. 

The antidote is occasion-first programming—happy hour value, low- and no-alcohol that extends the visit, and draft that delivers ritual, freshness, and better margins.

Demographics get a rethink too. Instead of shouting at Gen Z, empower the 60-plus cohort—the wealthiest, most social audience—and design life-stage occasions that everyone wants to join. 

On competition, we sort through RTDs, seltzers, and hemp beverages, noting where shelves will rationalize and where beer’s strengths—lagers with place cues, approachable ABV, and draft experiences—can win. 

We also address policy turbulence around tariffs and taxes, urging unified advocacy while businesses adapt sourcing and operations to protect margins.

If you care about winning the next quarter without losing the next year, this conversation delivers a grounded strategy: price with purpose, simplify to velocity, program the on-premise, and market to moments that bring people together. 

Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a review with one action you’re taking this week to move the needle.

And don't forget to sign up for the beer business finance newsletter - financial intel delivered weekly straight to your inbox.

Ready to transform financial results in your beer business? Learn more about the Beer Business Finance Association, a network of owners and managers working together to build more profitable companies.

A CFO who became a head of marketing, eliminated millions in debt, and then built a company to fix distribution blind spots—Doug Veliky’s journey is a masterclass in making beer businesses sturdier and smarter. 

We dig into the decisions that actually move the needle: building an internal audit team at Reyes that focused on real compliance risk, redesigning systems at Revolution to produce market-level P&Ls, and consolidating a spaghetti bowl of loans into a revolving line that turned heavy debt into daily cash efficiency. 

That financial clarity paved the way for a bold move—buying the production facility—and gave the brewery control over the investments that shape its future.

We also get honest about how teams work. 

Doug shows how finance, sales, and marketing can stop talking past each other by aligning on the data each team needs: shipments, depletions, pull-through. 

The result? 

Better forecasts, fewer surprises, and programs that actually show up on the shelf and in the tap list. 

Doug's Beer Crunchers platform ties it all together, translating the mechanics of distributors, portfolios, and pricing into stories and tactics people at every level can use. 

And when the world flipped, Doug brought a finance brain to digital marketing—prioritizing audience, cadence, and measurable impact.

Looking forward, Doug sees moderation evolving beyond non-alcoholic beer into “small beers” and right-sized formats that meet the moment—2.8–3.8% ABV cores and 8.4-ounce packs that fit weekday occasions without losing the ritual. 

The catch is prioritization: make it a pillar or skip it. 

We close with BrightBev, where Doug helps emerging brands choose the right distributors, set expectations, and invest alongside partners to win velocity, not just placements. 

If you care about brewery finance, route-to-market strategy, and building brands that last, this conversation will sharpen your plan for the next four quarters. 

Subscribe, share with a brewery friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway—what will you prioritize next?

And don't forget to sign up for the Brewery Financial Newsletter - tips, tactics, and strategies to help you build a more profitable brewery business. 

Ready to transform financial results in your beer business? Learn more about the Beer Business Finance Association, a network of owners and managers working together to build more profitable companies.

What if your taproom’s biggest growth lever isn’t price or new styles—but the first 15 seconds after someone walks in? 

Today on the podcast we welcome back consumer insights expert Michael Varda of Craft Beer Advisory Services to unpack the data behind modern taproom behavior and why food, events, and hospitality now sit shoulder to shoulder with great beer. 

The headline: beer gets guests in the door; the experience keeps them in their seats and brings them back.

We trace the post-pandemic shift from liquid-first to social-first to hospitality-first, showing how entertainment sparked the rebound and how food has become the decisive extender of “time in seat,” especially for women and families. 

Michael explains why discounting erodes perceived value and how rewards-based loyalty (think “earn,” not “mark down”) protects brand equity while encouraging repeat visits. 

He also breaks down the crucial differences between retail and taproom motivations—why a standout six-pack doesn’t automatically translate to a packed taproom—and how to design for the whole evening, not just the pour.

Expect practical tactics you can deploy immediately: optimize the first 15 seconds with warm greetings and clear wayfinding, train staff to scan, acknowledge, and mirror guest energy, and adopt one measurable focus at a time—like to-go prompts—to build momentum. 

We highlight “time in seat” as the single most telling metric of taproom health, a simple read on satisfaction, engagement, and spend. And beyond dashboards, we make the case for pulling up a chair with a mix of regulars and new faces, asking better questions, and giving customers a voice in small decisions that build authentic loyalty.

If you’re ready to evolve from great beer to a great experience—without racing to the bottom on price—this conversation maps the path. 

Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a review with the one change you’ll try this week.

And don't forget to sign up for the Brewery Financial Newsletter - tips, tactics, and strategies to build a more profitable beer business, delivered weekly.

Ready to transform financial results in your beer business? Learn more about the Beer Business Finance Association, a network of owners and managers working together to build more profitable companies.

New tax law just handed breweries a playbook to keep more cash in the business—if you know how to use it. 

Today we’re joined by Brent Williams, CPA and brewery tax manager at Small Batch Standard, to translate the One Big Brewery Bill (OB3) into clear, practical moves owners can make right now. 

From tips and overtime changes your team will feel on payday to the return of 100% bonus depreciation and immediate expensing for domestic R&D, we connect the dots between policy and day‑to‑day brewery operations.

We dig into the details that matter: how to label tips vs service charges in payroll so employees get the refund they expect and you keep the FICA tip credit; which assets truly qualify for full expensing and how to time purchases for the best tax outcome; why 199A remains a powerful 20% deduction for pass‑through owners; and how R&D applies to more than new recipes—it includes process improvements that reduce waste, speed up turns, or enhance quality. Brent also walks through retro choices for previously capitalized R&D costs, plus often‑missed credits like paid family and medical leave and small employer retirement plan incentives.

If you’re a small or mid‑size brewery planning equipment, considering a production build‑out, or just trying to make payroll and taxes play nicely, this conversation turns complexity into a checklist. 

Bring clean books, schedule a projection meeting, and map out 2025 vs 2026 moves so depreciation, credits, and cash flow align. OB3 isn’t just policy—it’s a strategy to fund growth without squeezing margins.

If this was helpful, follow the show, share it with a brewery friend, and leave a quick review so more owners can find it. 

Got a question about your brewery finances? Send it our way and we may tackle it in a future episode.  [email protected]

And of course, don't forget to sign up for the free brewery financial newsletter - filled with tips, tactics and strategies to help you run a more profitable brewery.

Ready to transform financial results in your beer business? Learn more about the Beer Business Finance Association, a network of owners and managers working together to build more profitable companies.