With higher profit margins and total control over your brand—both in how it’s presented to and experienced by your customers—owned premise sales have become an extremely popular option for breweries that are looking to scale. However, the high initial capital expenditure and ongoing expenses of running an additional brick and mortar location can be prohibitive for many breweries. The solution could be events—the “10×10 taproom.”

Instead of investing in a new brick and mortar location, what if you made the same investments, minus the actual building, in a taproom that rotated locations around your area or state? In essence, treating your external events as another profit and loss line, with dedicated staff, programming, equipment, marketing, and its own budget. Beyond beer festivals and the big seasonal events in your state or town, create deep growth in communities with recurring weekly and monthly events, nonprofit festivals, sports leagues, small town concert nights, farmers markets, and more.

West Sixth Brewing, based in Lexington, Kentucky, with three additional locations throughout the Commonwealth, has done this, building its events program into a three-season profit-producing model, and is experiencing the benefits. Since 2016, West Sixth has made deep investments into its events program, now grossing over a half a million dollars yearly, and embedding their brand at more than 500 events in a calendar year.

In this seminar, West Sixth’s Kelly Hieronymus, creative and marketing director, and Tim Buckingham, events coordinator, discuss how events have positively impacted the brewery’s revenue and visibility throughout Kentucky, and ultimately become an additional profit-producing retail arm and marketing investment.

As they tell their team—cold beer in hand, a way to sell it, proper licensing, and a 10×10 tent—that’s really all you need to knock out the event!

Learning Objectives

• Get to know what constitutes “10×10 taproom” events for West Sixth
• Gain insight into the revenue and marketing benefits of the dedicated program
• Understand the logistical workflows and processes to efficiently run the program (sourcing equipment, pulling permits, obtaining licenses, weather contingencies) and best practices (hiring seasonal staff, tracking expenses, lessons learned)
• Discuss partnership marketing considerations, including nonprofit relationships, types of events and groups, and manifesting self-driven events in neutral spaces
• Walk away with checklists, ideas for events, and setup and marketing tips to take home