Willingness to Travel?

Good on you for thinking of making the plunge and bringing fresh beer to your little hood. Now the hard truth. I don't think you are going to get too many people making a lengthy journey to get your beers with a "standard" lineup like that. I still haven't been to many of the new breweries that have opened up in Austin in the last 6 months, let alone driving 2.5 hours to grab a pale ale. Unless you develop a program like Jester King, Hill Farmstead or NE IPA breweries, you will likely not see much beer tourism headed your way.

 

That's a good question...

I grew up in Austin and my grandparents live in Snyder. We drove through Brownwood every time going there (and often stopped at Underwoods)... But that was only a couple of times a year.

I live in the DFW area now. I'm traveling most weekends but most of the time it is not that far west.

That would be a 5 hour round trip so I think I would have to pick up a lot of beer or it would need to be so outstanding that I couldn't stand missing out on a small collection.

I would try to stop in while driving to visit my grandparents but that sadly doesn't happen all that often.

The beer would have to be so good that it would be much better than anything available in either DFW or Austin to get people to make the drive from there. You may be able to get enough business driving in from Abilene or San Angelo but I'm not sure if there are enough IPA/Stout drinkers in west Texas to keep a brewery like that alive.

Even then I'm not going to be your target demographic. I like IPA's but I drink them so rarely.

 

Maybe the best plan of action would be to rely upon west central Texas drinkers for meeting your everyday costs then work on having limited release events for big special beers to draw people in from the big cities.

What do the people in rural central Texas want to drink? How do you encourage the people in the area to drink your beer instead of Bud, Miller, or Shiner?

I believe that Shiner succeeded especially during and after prohibition because they had close ties with the farmers and country people in their area. Bought corn and provided beer for locals.

Texans want to support Texas but do they have the spending money to buy something other than the macro beers?

 

I would echo the sentiment that you'd have to get to the quality level of Jester King to get people to travel. I'm in ATX and haven't hit all the new breweries that have opened the past year or so because not a lot is standing out as special.

 

I'll be the positive one here (although I am generally completely negative), and say that there's probably already a market in Brownwood. There are plenty of small breweries now that are able to survive just by selling their beer at their sampling room.

 

I think that if you look at the stats (abv, and ibus) NE IPA's look more like Pale Ales than IPA's. IBU's don't really tell you how much hops are used just how many alpha acids were isomerized or converted. 1 pound of hops during fermentation can provide fewer IBU's than a couple of ounces of hops at the beginning of the boil but the flavor will be completely different. But the style guidelines can't take that into account.

 

Agree. You should focus your business plan on setting up a nice taproom experience to get good beer and a gathering spot to your local community. If you develop a beer program that draws regional interest and beer tourism, that is just gravy.

 

If you make an exceptional German Pilsner or unfiltered zwickelbier then I will do my best to stop by the brewery when I can and buy a case of it.

I do note that Suarez does seem to be around 2 hours from most big city centers so maybe you're not to far off. But most of the other destination breweries in the Northeast are closer to big cities or they bottle and distribute their beers.

If I were you I would focus on your community first and foremost... Then anything else is just additional.

 

Current Houstonian and ex-New Yorker here obsessed with what's going on back in my home region in the northeast. As the guy who wrote this, I do think people would be willing to travel for exceptional beer, but you also put it very well with regards to the beer needing to be transcendently good for that to happen, and that's a standard that very few are able to live up to. As it stands, I've been wondering whether someone in Texas would take the plunge on a Hill Farmstead/Suarez-esque model of setting up shop in the countryside, just pumping out world-class beers and basically forcing people to come to them. Unfortunately for me Brownwood looks to be about a five-hour drive from Houston, so someone like myself would maybe be able to make the pilgrimage like once a year, but if you were absolutely committed to getting as close as possible to Tree House/Trillium-level quality -- and just as importantly, put the beer in cans -- it's certainly possible to develop a cult following. Though I would probably try to locate maybe a tad closer to one of the major metropolitan areas. Just my $0.02.

 

Make the best possible quality you can, take care of the locals, and have a communal place that is great to hang out at. The rest will take care of itself. I don't care if you make the newest trendy stuff or make fantastic classic styles, just have the quality to back it up. Personally, I am least likely to visit a place that caters specifically to lines/hype/image. I am more likely to want to visit a place like Live Oak, regardless of where it is located.

 

As most have pointed out here, your business model should be taking care of your town. Not sure the bar/restaurant situation, but if it was me, I would go the route of a brewpub, where you can get people in for the beer and the food. I think you will be surprised that even though you don't think there is craft appeal, they can be converted, most of us here were.

 

that's an interesting perspective. personally, i don't think it's rooted in any kind of reality.

 

Eh, I think I largely agree with the OP. Texas as a whole won't have the beer culture that other states have when you can't go to a bunch of the smaller cities or bigger towns and have a decent beer scene.

Texas is not just DFW, Austin, and Houston.

Granted even now there is:
Big Bend in Alpine (near big bend)
903 in Sherman
Real Ale in Blanco
Horny Toad Brewing Co in Rowena
Bar D Brew House in San Saba
a few breweries in San Angelo
Pedernales in Fredericksburg
a few out in the Hill Country west of Austin
Brazos Valley in Brenham
Stesti Brewing in Lovelady
Fredonia in Nacogdoches
Big Thicket in Lufkin
a few breweries between Tyler and Longview


Granted I have no idea how any of these are except for 903, Big Bend, Pedernales, and the ones outside of Austin...

But I REALLY want to go try Stesti.

 

Big Bend Brewing seems to be carving out a successful business way out on the frontier, so can be done with a keen eye towards local tastes.

To reply to this thread's intended topic, the brews would have to be, as previously noted, transcendent for this Houstonian to take that trip. #drinklocal

 

Under a brewpub license, you have been able to do this for 2-3 years now. I would guess there is going to be more activity this legislative session on that front as well

 

Oh that's why I said that I hadn't tried most of those breweries just the few that I mentioned.

I've tried 903 Brewing, Big Bend, Pedernales, and the ones outside of Austin (which I'm including Real Ale because that's often lumped into Austin area breweries).

I really like Pedernales and Real Ale.
I can't remember a beer from 903 that I've really been able to drink (I haven't tried Sasquatch because I've only ever seen it in bombers). Land of Milk and Honey I know is liked by a few of my friends but I can't finish a glass of it. I couldn't drink 6 oz of Trot Line or their coconut beer. And I really didn't like Mythical Creature even though again other people I know do.
I've never tasted anything bad from Big Bend but nothing that I'd want to drink twice recently. I thought I used to think the beers were good but the brewmaster left for a brewery in Arlington.

I didn't mention the breweries in Abilene or Lubbock because I was struggling to decide where to cut off the size of the city or beer scene.

There is also Triple J brewhouse in Lubbock.