MuddyCreek
Well-Known Member
Well, tonight we have our soft opening.
I'll take photos of actual people IN the taproom tasting beer. I'll also provide some feedback about what folks said. (I'll even be honest about some of the negative feedback.) I'm hopeful that the unwashed masses will be very pleased with the products. I have purposefully invited several of the "beer snobs" from our local brewer's club. I fully expect (and I asked them to be honest and point out areas of improvement in their opinion) some critical commentary from that group about some of the beers. The plan tonight was to invite between 35 and 45 people who helped out with the brewery in one way or another. This is a "free event." Guests can have up to 2 pints and 1 'taster' of root beer or lemonade. (The lemonade is carbing right now. I'm hopeful that it will be fully carbed by tonight. Perhaps not quite. We'll see.)
I have a team of tasters who will regularly go through our product line and check for consistency and "servability". But I've mentioned that before. Just the nuts and bolts of maintaining product consistency. I can do everything on the brewery end to make the same product but ultimately you have to have people with educated palettes do some tasting and tell you "Yup. Tastes the same!"
As for marketing, we made a command decision to "flat-price" everything. One of the partners wanted to use "price-foo" where we were pricing things at $19.95 type prices because "psychologically people see that as below $20". However that requires us to keep change in the till where a $20 tee-shirt doesn't make us come up with nickels. The rest of us convinced the partner that we're all smart enough to figure out that $19.95 is really $20 minus a nickel.
We have put the finishing touches on our "Fishin' Hole" (Our mug club.) I think they're going to charge $75 for it. For that you get a growler + fill a pint glass + fill (pint stays on premises, of course,) and you get 1 free pint fill per week. The genius of it is that most folks won't simply come in for 1 pint. They'll likely stay and get a couple so we'll probably get at least another pint sale of out it. Better yet, those folks will also probably bring in a friend or two when they fill up their free pint so we'll ideally get some other sales as well. Of course you'll also get a free pint on your birthday.
So, the glassware is worth $18.50
The initial fills are worth anywhere from $12 to $13
and the subsequent yearly fills are worth as much as $212
So, for $75 you get a max value worth $243.50
We think it's a good deal. We expect the "Fishin' Hole" will sell out pretty quickly.
I'll take photos of actual people IN the taproom tasting beer. I'll also provide some feedback about what folks said. (I'll even be honest about some of the negative feedback.) I'm hopeful that the unwashed masses will be very pleased with the products. I have purposefully invited several of the "beer snobs" from our local brewer's club. I fully expect (and I asked them to be honest and point out areas of improvement in their opinion) some critical commentary from that group about some of the beers. The plan tonight was to invite between 35 and 45 people who helped out with the brewery in one way or another. This is a "free event." Guests can have up to 2 pints and 1 'taster' of root beer or lemonade. (The lemonade is carbing right now. I'm hopeful that it will be fully carbed by tonight. Perhaps not quite. We'll see.)
I have a team of tasters who will regularly go through our product line and check for consistency and "servability". But I've mentioned that before. Just the nuts and bolts of maintaining product consistency. I can do everything on the brewery end to make the same product but ultimately you have to have people with educated palettes do some tasting and tell you "Yup. Tastes the same!"
As for marketing, we made a command decision to "flat-price" everything. One of the partners wanted to use "price-foo" where we were pricing things at $19.95 type prices because "psychologically people see that as below $20". However that requires us to keep change in the till where a $20 tee-shirt doesn't make us come up with nickels. The rest of us convinced the partner that we're all smart enough to figure out that $19.95 is really $20 minus a nickel.
We have put the finishing touches on our "Fishin' Hole" (Our mug club.) I think they're going to charge $75 for it. For that you get a growler + fill a pint glass + fill (pint stays on premises, of course,) and you get 1 free pint fill per week. The genius of it is that most folks won't simply come in for 1 pint. They'll likely stay and get a couple so we'll probably get at least another pint sale of out it. Better yet, those folks will also probably bring in a friend or two when they fill up their free pint so we'll ideally get some other sales as well. Of course you'll also get a free pint on your birthday.
So, the glassware is worth $18.50
The initial fills are worth anywhere from $12 to $13
and the subsequent yearly fills are worth as much as $212
So, for $75 you get a max value worth $243.50
We think it's a good deal. We expect the "Fishin' Hole" will sell out pretty quickly.