Burial Beer expansions

Sweet! That’s an hour and a half closer to me - good start!

 

Looks like their revenue somehow went up during 2020. Hope they don't stretch too far, ala Hi-wire.

 

Not to Hi-Jack, but please expound...

 

I just casually saw their reported profits are way down during the covid era, their neighbor Burial was up, yet they are continuing to expand. They see potential, I'm a pessimist & see pullouts.

 

Does Hi Wire report there profits somewhere? I haven't seen that anywhere. Considering the number of new locations Hi-Wire has opened I could imagine that would impact profits in the short term, but tough to tell without looking at whatever that report says.

 

Sorry if it sounded like their was official info. I ran across a couple blurbs & then googled a no way official accrual data website. They could very well have some secret sauce.

 

Ah gotcha. I don't think there's secret sauce, but I do feel like they're cashing in on good will. That sounds like I disagree with it, but I really don't. I just don't understand it. Same with Catawba. They're expanding as well and apparently have done pretty well for themselves and people love it... I just don't see it. For these places that try to stay pretty local, its tough to expand their market without opening up a new taproom, which I think is what places like Burial, Fonta Flora, Catawba, Hi-Wire, etc are seeing. And as long as its just a taproom and not a new brewery, it doesn't have to be particularly expensive. I'm sure Forestry Camp was properly expensive for Burial, but not sure their place in Raleigh or the coming place in Charlotte will be all that expensive, but it allows them to sell a good chunk more beer and build their brand in those locations.

If they're leveraging themselves to the eyes to build out these new taprooms, I'd agree that's not a great idea right now, both from a craft beer perspective as well as a general economy perspective.

 

This. The average 4 pack IPA or stout there is what? $18? Selling through a distributor reduces profits by about 30%. Draft margins are high as well. The place in CLT will always be packed. This will allow them to sell a lot of packaged beer straight from the source as well as a crap-ton of draft. They bought a dumpy place in a great location. They are playing the long game. I am sure they will be able to recoup their money quite quickly, while exponentially increasing their property value.

 

Miles, being new to WNC, i have heard Burial is THE BEST Asheville based brewer. So if i wanted to take Da Boss our for a bite to eat and a pint or two say on a Saturday or Sunday around the opening bell which i understand is noon would one expect to have to wait for a table at that time?
Cheers,
Tom

 

When I make the day trip up, we always hit up burial first at noon to avoid crowds: You should be good, but you never know with warmer weather and the vaccine rollout.

 

Agreed with the others that if you're there on a Saturday or Sunday, noon will be your best bet. You almost want the weather to be decent but not great. It needs to be decent enough that all of the outside tables are options, but not great enough that everyone and their brother wants to be outside If the weather is nice enough to sit outside, they have a ton of seating as its a rather large outside area.

The issue they have at the moment with Covid is that most of their tables are large so 2 people can effectively take up an entire table that would normally fit 8 people. I generally try to sit on one end of the large tables so at least another group of 2 could sit at the other and be pretty decently safe.

 

Looks like you were spot on. Da Boss, my MIL, and i made it up to Burial today at around 12:30. Outside tables were probably 80% taken and half filled.
Enjoyed a really nice APA on tap and a smackable brisket sandwich. As we were pulling out of the Slope area you can see the peeps descending in at a good clip so i can see where it would be a challenge to get seated at places later in the afternoon and the evening. Looking forward to when Da Boss is fully retired so we can take advantage of the non-peak times to go to the Slope area!
Cheers,
Tom

 

Until then, plenty of places outside of South Slope that are making great beer. Zillicoah, Archetype, Zebulon (further afield), Pisgah (even further afield), Highland, are all making good beer and don't think I've ever had a problem finding a place to sit at any of them. Hell, last time I was at Zillicoah I stopped by Riverside Rhapsody for the first time and was pleasantly surprised.

 

Any updates on fully opening in Charlotte? I saw some articles said summer but haven't seen any real updates.

 

I picked up an order there last week. Inside is bare. Fridges line the one wall. You can't go in, so its a little hard to gauge progress but I would assume they well are mostly done with demo and onto phase 2. However I can't find any permits issued for electrical or plumbing so it's either how they need it (not likely) or phase 2 won't start for a few months.

 

I took a closer look at the inside for Burial CLT yesterday. There has been no construction (or demo) done. The changing rooms are still up. So it's just some fridges along the wall. Looks like it will be a while before we see a finished taproom. They just broke ground on the new Asheville location so maybe this will take a backseat for a while and just be a two day, grab and go shop.