The whole industry is suddenly talking about AI, and everyone has an opinion. The brands using it well are getting hours back every week and making smarter decisions with less effort. The brands using it badly are generating embarrassing POS materials, asking ChatGPT to write distribution contracts, and feeding sensitive business data into free LLMs that are using it to train their next model. There's a third group — the ones ignoring AI entirely. All three groups are going to be in a very different place a year and a half from now.

In this episode, Julie reframes AI as a smart-but-untrained intern that needs context, guardrails, and supervision to actually be useful — and walks through where AI belongs in a small craft beverage brand, where it absolutely does not, and the privacy and data conversation almost no one is having out loud. Plus an honest take on the heated AI imagery debate from someone who runs a two-person brand of her own.

Best For:

Craft beverage brand owners, operators, and team members who want to use AI strategically — not generically — to free up time, level the data analytics playing field, and make smarter decisions.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• The two choices every craft beverage brand faces with AI right now
• A real-world example of using AI to build a weekly business dashboard from multiple data sources — for clients and for Julie's own brand
• Why thinking of AI as an intern changes how you use it
• Six places AI genuinely earns its keep for a small beverage brand
• Five categories of work where AI absolutely does not belong
• Julie's honest take on the AI imagery debate and how she handles it for her own two-person brand
• The five guardrails every brand needs in place before using AI consistently
• Why "using AI badly is worse than not using it at all"
• What's coming next: the full tech stack conversation in Episode 20

Catch Julie on the road:

June 29 — Pint-Sized Seminar at Tumbleweed Brewing, Albuquerque, NM

Texas Craft Brewery Roundup — Boerne, TX

August — New Jersey Brewers Conference

September — Virginia Brewers Conference

Mentioned in this episode:

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Julie just got back from the Craft Brewers Conference in Philadelphia, and she's got a lot to say. The vibe was different this year — less hand-wringing, more let's-actually-do-something energy — and the programming reflected a real shift in what the industry is prioritizing. In this episode, Julie breaks down the keynote from Will Guidara, the sessions worth knowing about even if you weren't there, and the hallway conversations that told the real story of where craft beverage's collective head is at right now. If you couldn't make it to Philly, this is your download. If you were there, this is your debrief.

Best For:

Craft beverage brand owners and operators who want to know what came out of CBC 2026 and how to apply it to their business — whether they were in the room or not.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• What the vibe at CBC 2026 actually felt like — and why it was different from recent years
• Julie's honest take on Will Guidara's keynote and what the hospitality message means for small taproom operators specifically
• Which session topics dominated the programming and what that signals about where the industry's focus is heading
• What people were actually talking about in the hallways — the real conversations behind the official schedule
• Why looking outside the beverage alcohol industry for inspiration kept coming up over and over
• Five takeaways from CBC that apply to your business whether you were there or not
• What's coming up next on the show: a deep dive into AI for craft beverage brands

Mentioned in this episode:

Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

This Is Not Your Hobby Episodes 16 & 17 — The Hospitality Series

Chris Farmand / Small Batch Standard

Craft Brewers Conference 2026

Free Resources for Beverage Brands

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Good vibes don't scale. If your guest experience depends entirely on who's working that day, you don't have a hospitality culture — you have a lottery. In this episode, Julie gets into the actual mechanics: how to write service standards for your taproom, what effective hospitality training looks like for a small team, how to turn guest inquiries into revenue opportunities, which staff KPIs to track on a simple scorecard, and where to find continuing education resources your team can actually use. This is the playbook episode. Episode 16 was the foundation.

Best For:

Taproom and tasting room operators who want to turn good hospitality intentions into a repeatable, revenue-generating guest experience.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• How to write service standards that actually guide staff behavior (greeting, menu guidance, upselling, lead generation, farewell, and more)
• How to train staff to guide guests through menu selections — not just take orders
• Why your taproom floor is a lead generation opportunity and how to use it
• How to handle private event inquiries and product availability questions like a pro
• How to use your loyalty program as an upsell
• What a staff KPI scorecard looks like for taproom operations (and why repeat visit rate isn't on it)
• Continuing education resources: Cicerone, WSET, USBG, ACA, Brewers Association, and more
• The simple math that shows what a $3 increase in check average is worth annually

Mentioned in this episode:

Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara (Also the CBC 2026 Keynote Speaker!)

The New Gold Standard by Joseph Michelli

Setting the Table by Danny Meyer

Cicerone Certification Program

WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust)

United States Bartenders Guild

American Cider Association

Brewers Association (Taproom Resources)

Cornell School of Hotel Administration (Free Research)

FAB Conference (Charleston, SC — June 2026)

Hemp Beverage Expo (Austin, TX — June 17-18, 2026)

Kick Fizz Hemp Beverage (New 5mg Line!)

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Everyone says they have great hospitality. Most taprooms have friendly staff. However, those are not the same thing. In this episode, Julie breaks down what hospitality actually means, why it's not the same as customer service, and how industries like fine dining, theme parks, and luxury hotels have been engineering it into profit for decades— and, what craft beverage brands can steal from all of them. This is the foundation episode. Episode 17 is the playbook.

Best For:

Taproom and tasting room operators in beer, cider, spirits, NA, and hemp categories who want to drive more revenue from the guests already walking through their door.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• The real difference between customer service and hospitality, and why it matters for your bottom line
• What intentional hospitality looks like in a taproom context, with concrete examples
• Why hospitality directly drives check averages, visit frequency, and referrals
• What Disney, fine dining, and The Bear can teach craft beverage about guest experience
• Why your guests need experiences and core memories— not just another place to drink
• How to map your taproom guest journey and find the gaps

Mentioned in this episode:

Setting the Table by Danny Meyer

Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara (also the CBC 2026 keynote speaker!)

The Bear (FX/Hulu)

Inside Out (Pixar)

Craft Brewers Conference 2026 — Philadelphia

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The last two episodes covered chain sales and scan data: what they are, how they work, and why they matter for brands trying to compete on shelf. This episode brings in the person who makes sense of what the numbers are actually saying. Kate Bernot is a journalist and analyst covering the craft beverage industry for FeelGoods Insights, and she has a rare ability to translate complex data trends into plain-English strategy for brands that don't have a full analytics team on staff. In this conversation, Julie and Kate dig into what the macro numbers are telling us right now about consumer behavior, how small brands can actually use trend data without getting buried in it, and how to bring the satellite view all the way down to your specific market, your taproom, and your shelf.

Best For:

Craft beverage brands— beer, cider, spirits, hemp, and NA— who want to make smarter decisions using the data they already have access to, and who want to understand what the bigger industry trends actually mean for their specific operation.

Brands of all sizes who want to leverage their sales data to sell even more.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• The macro trends in craft beverage right now that small brands should actually pay attention to
• Who should be buying syndicated data— and who probably doesn't need it yet
• How long you can realistically lean on a data report before it becomes more misleading than useful
• The most common mistakes brands make when trying to act on trend data
• Where a small brand with zero data experience should actually start— this week, not someday
• How to find the story inside the numbers and connect it to a real decision
• What separates the brands that figure out data from the ones that get left behind

Mentioned in this episode:

FeelGoods Insights

NIQ (NielsenIQ)

Circana

SPINS

Chris Farmand's free all-day financial workshop at CBC — Monday April 20th, 9am–5pm (Philadelphia)

Craft Brewers Conference 2026 — Philadelphia

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Scan data gets thrown around in beverage like everyone’s supposed to already know what it is. In this episode, Julie breaks it down in plain English for beginners: what scan data actually measures, why it matters for chain business (and beyond), and how to use big-picture consumer trends without blindly copying what the “national data” says. The point isn’t to become a data analyst— it’s to make smarter decisions locally using the clearest signal we have of what people are actually buying.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• What scan data is (and what it isn’t): the difference between what you shipped, what depleted, and what consumers actually bought
• Why scan data matters for chain retail — and why it also matters even if you’re not in chain
• How scan data helps you track macro consumer trends and translate them into hyper-local decisions
• The core scan concepts beginners need to understand (velocity, baseline vs promo, distribution, in-stocks context)
• How to use data as a tool for better decisions — not just a bunch of numbers you stare at
• Why data should support a bigger brand story, not replace it

Best For:

Beverage brands who sell their liquid wholesale, or who eventually plan to.

Mentioned in this episode:

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Brewers Association

Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America

Craft Brewers Conference

Neilsen IQ

Circana

SPINS

3 Tier Beverages

American Cider Association

Chain sales can be huge volume for craft beverage brands— but, it’s not a knee-jerk decision and it’s definitely not a band-aid for lagging sales. In this episode, Julie breaks down why early March is the start of “submission season” for Fall Refresh requests, what chains actually care about right now, and how to approach big box retail like the system it is. This one works as a primer for brands new to chain and an optimizer for brands already in it that want to execute better and expand intentionally.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why early March matters and what “Fall Refresh / reset” season actually means for chain planning
• The mindset shift: you’re not just “landing an account” — you’re stepping into a system with rules, timelines, and performance expectations
• What chains care about right now: in-stocks, velocity, clean item setup, and whether your brand is a fit for their customer base
• The practical chain readiness check: supply continuity, item setup fundamentals, pricing integrity, velocity planning, and speaking buyer language
• The “old rule book” on distributors — why you don’t always need one anymore, but you do need serious logistics and brand support if you go without
• Why brands new to big box should start local first to prove fit and build real proof before trying to scale
• Why chain reset timing makes a brand release calendar non-negotiable — and why national Spring reset submissions can require planning nearly a year in advance
• Why New Item Forms (NIFs) are the gatekeeper — and why following instructions matters more than perfect data
• The modern SKU reality: portfolio pitches are basically dead; one hero SKU authorization is a win, and expansion is earned
• Why structured programming helps you secure placements and support sell-through (even if it’s not always required)

Mentioned in this episode:

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Barrel 2 Business Collective

MidAtlantic CraftCon (Baltimore): (registration open — snag tickets online)

RadCraft Group Coaching/Event

NY State Craft Brewers Conference (Albany): (registration open — snag tickets online)

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This week on This Is Not Your Hobby, stop winging it on sales, margins, and expenses— and focus on profits. Chris Farmand, Founder and CEO of Small Batch Standard, joins Julie for this interview episode to share his no-fluff approach to increasing product sales.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• How to grow profitability not just chase vanity metrics
• Advice for estimating your (marketing) budget with non-negotiables
• Tips for scrutinizing P&L statements
• Why and how to prioritize labor and training thereof
• Chris' "margin mindset" approach to wholesale and taproom sales

Best for:

Independent beverage brands (beer, cider, spirits, kombucha, THC/hemp, NA) who want to increase sales... so every. single. one. of. you!

Mentioned in this episode:

The Brewery Profit Workshop at CBC

Barrel 2 Business Group Coaching Program

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In part two of this two-part profitability series, Julie flips the script from cutting costs to growing sales— and, breaks down the real, sustainable ways to bring in more revenue without burning out your team, wrecking your margins, or handing out constant discounts like Halloween candy.

This episode is a tactical dive into how to drive more dollars from your taproom and your wholesale accounts using what you already have, just way more strategically.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• How to boost check averages and revenue-per-visit without adding new customers
• Simple tweaks that turn your taproom into a hangout people actually want to come back to
• Weekly events that don’t feel stale, overdone, or phoned in
• The single best metric to track in wholesale (hint: it’s not just volume)
• Why SKU creep is quietly killing your margins—and how to fix it
• How to apply the “Moneyball” method to wholesale without a huge budget

Mentioned in this episode:

Barrel 2 Business Group Coaching Program

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Margins are tight, shelves are crowded, and being “busy” isn’t the same thing as being profitable. In this episode of This Is Not Your Hobby, Julie kicks off a two‑part series on profitability by tackling the first — and often most uncomfortable — lever: cutting expenses.

This isn’t about panic cuts or slashing things that actually drive revenue. It’s about identifying the expensive habits that have quietly become “normal” in taprooms and distribution businesses — and stopping them on purpose.

Julie breaks down where beverage brands tend to overspend, how those decisions show up differently in taprooms vs. wholesale, and what not to cut if you want your business to survive (and grow) into 2026. The episode wraps with a practical 90‑day framework, The Q1 Stop Doing Expensive Shit System, to help you clean up your cost structure before pushing harder on sales growth.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why profitability only has two levers — and why cost-cutting usually needs to come first
• The most common taproom cost traps, including labor scheduled on vibes, untracked comps, menu bloat, and events that don’t pay
• The most common distribution cost traps, including SKU overload, packaging creep, rush freight, unmeasured trade spend, and sampling without a plan
• When long‑term vendor contracts can lower costs — and when they turn into a financial ankle monitor
• Why cutting quality, maintenance, sales support, brand clarity, or education often backfires
• How to apply the Q1 Stop Doing Expensive Shit System to clean up expenses without breaking the business

Mentioned in this episode:

Contact Form - Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions

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