Brewbound 2022 Large Brewery of the Year: Georgetown Brewery

Speaker 1 [00:06] Let's meet our next Brewbound Award winner, Georgetown Brewing Company in Seattle, Brewbound's 2022 Large brewery of the Year. Joining me now is co-founder Manny Chow. Manny, congratulations.

Speaker 2 [00:18] Thank you very much. We're honored.

Speaker 1 [00:20] Well, we are so stoked to uh honor you guys, and Georgetown is a brewery that, save for the pandemic, has regularly posted double-digit growth. This past year, you all crossed the 100,000 barrel mark for the first time. What is driving that growth for you guys?

Speaker 2 [00:37] You know, I think just staying really focused. I mean, we're, you know, trying to make really good beer, trying to be really in touch with our community. Um, we got a great staff, you know, we've got a lot of history here in the Northwest and in Seattle in particular. And, um, I don't know, I, we, I, we just have a a loyal following of beer drinkers that really appreciate what we do. So, it's, uh, it's nice to get over that 100,000 barrels.

Speaker 1 [01:02] When you and Roger founded the brewery, is this exactly how you envisioned it would go?

Speaker 2 [01:08] No, no. Yeah, I mean, we, you know, you, you, you start making a business plan and then you just make up numbers, right? So, when we look back on it sometimes and the, the numbers just kind of go up to 50,000 barrels, and we kind of joke about it and laughed about it, like, yeah, we're we're never gonna get there. Um, but now seeing what it is, it's kind of crazy to think that You know, we've doubled our original goal of 50,000 barrels.

Speaker 1 [01:32] I have a very superficial view right now of Georgetown, and my two takeaways are, you guys run a lot on vibe, and you guys are really into Point Break. You've got beers named Bodhisattta IPA and Johnny Utah Pale Ale. Uh, am I wrong?

Speaker 2 [01:50] It's kind of a strange obsession. I mean, it started off kind of as a, a, a bit of a joke, you know, I think we just like to have fun with things. And then it just kind of took over, you know, originally, our brewery, uh, our two main beers were Manny's and Rogers, and now it's Bode and Johnny Utah, so we're, we're, we're definitely the Point Break Brewery now, which is fine. I mean, it's great. We love it. I think our customers love it. We get a lot of people telling us they named their dog Body or their kid Body, so that's kind of fun. Where did that come from? You know, we were um trying to make a session IPA and uh I had just watched Point Break for like the 20th time sitting on my couch vegging out, right? Cause it's on cable, you can't turn it off. And so the next day I was thinking about something that we could sell, like, you know, oh, it's gotta be like, you know, 3.5%, we can sell it in the state of Utah, and it just popped in my head for some reason. I was thinking that we should name this Johnny Utah, so.

Speaker 1 [02:45] That's it. It was meant to be. It's meant to be,

Speaker 2 [02:49] right. Yeah. Yeah, our original tap panel, we stuck Keanu's face on it and then we're like, yeah, we probably shouldn't do that.

Speaker 1 [02:55] Yeah, and you don't want that cease and desist.

Speaker 2 [02:57] No, definitely not. We love you.

Speaker 1 [03:00] Up until about 2017, Georgetown was the largest draft only, uh, among the only, uh, draft-only craft breweries out there in the US, um, draft only, that is, uh, what led to the investment in the canning line and the sort of shift in strategy?

Speaker 2 [03:17] Yeah, you know, we, yeah, definitely set out just to be a draft-only brewery. I think Roger and I just, we really appreciate bars and restaurants and just hanging out at those places, and it's, it's fun for us. Um, but we wanted to continue to grow the company, and we got to about 50,000 barrels, and we thought that the only way to grow would be to either go into cans or expand geographically. And we, you know, at the time, really thought that it's really tough to try to sell your beer outside your, you know, your, your home base. Um, and that it really made sense for us to then go into packaging as well, or into cans. Luckily we did, because of the pandemic. That was, that was tough.

Speaker 1 [03:57] Yeah, I was gonna say that that's a very fortuitous move, because, you know, 3 years later, you know, you guys were sort of forced into package as well. So, how did you guys quickly make that transition to even more beer in package?

Speaker 2 [04:12] Yeah, I mean, it was challenging it to, you know, All our friends owned bars and restaurants, and that's what we spent all our time and to see a lot of them shut down. Um, you know, we lost, we were about 50% draft at that point still, and we lost half our business, you know, uh, it was heartbreaking. We, I think at one point, we destroyed 7500 kegs from beer just going out of the date, you know, spent a whole month dumping beer and it was definitely sad. Um, but yeah, I mean, even with cans, it was challenging getting cans at the time, and supply chains were challenging. It was a challenging time, really, you know, we made it through it just fine, um, but it was certainly tough.

Speaker 1 [04:51] Are you feeling, I mean, we talked about it at the top, and, and, you know, you guys have had some incredible growth. You bounced right back after, uh, the pandemic shutdowns and all of that, and crossed that 100,000 barrel mark. Are you feeling like you're in a better place now than you were pre-pandemic?

Speaker 2 [05:09] Yeah, for sure. I mean, we, our draft numbers aren't quite to what it was pre-pandemic, um, and we, we'd like to get back to that. We still really believe that we are a draft first brewery. Um, we still think that in order to build cool brands, we need to, you know, have tap panels out in our local market. We think that drives, um, a lot of our success in cans. So, I mean, for us, still innovating on the draft side first, and we talk about that all the time. So, that's still really important for us to get back to that. Um, but it's also, I think there's still people that are, you know, nervous about going out. COVID's not gone, so, I think people still get anxious about being in bars and restaurants, and, you know, at some point, hopefully, everybody's gonna feel comfortable going back out, and all the bars and restaurants will be full again. They're getting there.

Speaker 1 [05:58] I hope so too. I, you mentioned, uh, your commitment to bars and restaurants, and part of that commitment is Manny's Pale Ale, that's one of your flagship offerings, and it's, with the one-time exception of a fundraising event, uh, in which you canned it, that's been a, a draft-only offering, um, and not many companies your size have gone that route with one of their primary beers. Why is that the right strategy for Manny's?

Speaker 2 [06:24] You know, it's just a part of our Connection, you know, with, to, to the bars and restaurants. It was like the first beer that we made, um, you know, it's a pale ale, so everybody got crazy about IPAs and, you know, Manny stopped growing as much and we thought, you know, let's just leave it alone. I mean, it's, you know, you don't wanna, every, every marketing company will say, well, now you gotta put it in a different packaging, and you go to 6 packs and 12 packs and variety packs, and we've always just felt like, you know, you don't wanna keep trying to change something, you know, leave it alone, maybe you'll develop a Maybe it'll be iconic at some point, you know, just like Rainier here in, in Seattle, and um bars and restaurants will appreciate that, you know, their customers have to go to see them, to pour it. Um, so maybe they'll keep it on tap, and, and, and people will seek it out. So, making it a little different.

Speaker 1 [07:13] That's a great selling point. I, I mean, that's gonna be hard to turn down for bars and restaurants when you're like, it's draft only.

Speaker 2 [07:20] Yeah, exactly. And, and we want people to go out and see our friends at bars and restaurants, you know, we want people to go out there and support them. We want people to be, be social, you know, sit at the bar, have a beer. That's what we should do.

Speaker 1 [07:31] Well, in your taprooms, you do a pretty impressive thing as well, which is, you've got really healthy growler cells. Uh, yeah, you sell thousands of growlers a month. Uh, I think the website said up to 1800 growlers of mannies alone, about 2000 growlers a week. Um, and, and I'm curious, you know, the, we don't hear about growlers as much as we used to, uh, out there, you know, how have you maintained that business?

Speaker 2 [08:00] Well, you know, it started because we weren't in cans, right? So the only way that you could get a, you know, Manny's at home would be to, to come by the brewery and get a growler, um. And then for the longest time, we actually kept Manny's at 5 bucks a growler. And uh it was. I mean, when we raised to 6, it was like kind of heartbreaking that we had to do that because, you know, like the cost of ingredients were going up, so we had to do it. But we've always felt that beer should be affordable, right? It shouldn't be necessarily a, a luxury. Like, people should get off work and they should go, go, go to the bar and have a couple of pints of work of, of beer. It doesn't have to be. Uh, you know, and, and I think it's even important in these times when people are talking about recessions, we don't want people to stop drinking beer. It shouldn't be a luxury. It should be something every, everybody can afford.

Speaker 1 [08:45] Absolutely. So when, when you look ahead to 2023 for Georgetown, where do you see the opportunities?

Speaker 2 [08:53] You know, for us, it's just, you know, we, we, we wanna focus still on beer in our community, you know, I mean, we're hyperfocused. We just opened up Montana, actually, so that was like a new state that we went into, uh, and that was driven primarily, uh, because of our good relationship with our distributor in Idaho, Hayden, uh, and they were going into Montana and really wanted us to, to help support them, so we did. But Montana does feel very much like the Northwest, and I think that for us it's, it's maintaining that Northwest feel and staying at home and making good beer. So for us, those are the opportunities, and we're not looking to light the world on fire with the hottest new product. I think it's just trying to, you know, make good beer, be good citizens.

Speaker 1 [09:36] That's awesome. So, 11 of the things, you know, I brought up at the beginning was your volume number, and you had that 100,000 barrel milestone, and I think that's awesome, and this industry, it, it's metrics, you know, are largely on volume, but, you know, when you look at the business, uh, and what, what you guys have built there, how do you gauge success for Georgetown?

Speaker 2 [09:59] You know, I think for for us too, it's its employee retention and happiness and You know, and, and I tell them, if you make my life easier, then, you know, I'm never gonna want to sell the company. I'm gonna be happy, you know, so, we, we try to take care of each other. I think that's You know, you don't want to get burned out. So, having good staff, uh, means everything, you know, we don't have to constantly retrain people, you know, we've got so many of our staff members that are past 10 years now, that's super cool. Um. You know, those are the things I, I think that that's how I measure success, you know, when I get to take more and more of a step back from day to day operations and watch managers thrive, and, you know, train and watch these young brewers come in and make awesome beer, I mean, that's fun for me.

Speaker 1 [10:42] And you got more time to watch Point Break at home.

Speaker 2 [10:45] Absolutely, I gotta learn how to surf. Yeah.

Speaker 1 [10:48] Well, last question for you, uh, what's one thing you learned over the last year that you'd share with the other brewers out there? One piece of advice or tip that you have?

Speaker 2 [10:58] Just stay true, stay, stay in your lane. I'm gonna. I think everybody wants to do new things like seltzers, and I'm not saying seltzers are bad by any means, but Uh, I think for, for me personally, I've always wanted to make what I like to drink or consume and treat myself as a consumer. Um, so, I've just stuck with beer. Um, and that's, I think keeping it simple, keeping the fundamentals simple, I think are important. Um, there's so much noise out there, you know, we wanna chase every shiny new object out there constantly, but Um, I think for us it's really just making sure that we're staying focused. And so, that's the advice I would give brewers.

Speaker 1 [11:39] Awesome. Well, congratulations, Manny. We are so happy to give Georgetown this award.

Speaker 2 [11:45] Thank you. I appreciate it, Justin.

Speaker 1 [11:46] Yeah, we appreciate your time, so thanks, man, and to everybody out there, stay tuned for more Brewbound Live.