Throughout the pandemic, Great North Aleworks in Manchester has weathered the storm fairly well, compared to smaller brewers who rely heavily on taproom sales, because the business model has leaned largely on wholesale, according to the owners. But the taproom has continued to keep patrons connected through virtual events, and with a few recent upgrades, is better positioned for reopening.
When the taproom had to close, owners Rob and Lisa North were anxious but stayed generally optimistic.
“A few sleepless nights, but generally, we’ve been doing okay and I’m pleased with how we’re gonna come out of it,” Rob North said.
Lisa North said five part-time workers haven’t had any shifts during the closures, but 16 full-timers including the Norths have remained on staff. They did not wish to say if they applied for any Small Business Administration relief programs.
While North said they don’t disclose financial information about the business, he said about 98 percent of their revenues come from wholesale can and keg sales. Before the shutdowns, he said about 2/3 of those were cans, and the remaining 1/3 were kegs.
Like other breweries, they shifted to package more of their beer in cans, and the demand has been there to meet them so far.
“Our can sales have actually increased, which has been great,” Rob said.
While can sales were already the majority, the loss of draft sales still hurt, since they generally had about 400 kegs on draft lines throughout the region at any given time.
“I think because our package sales were so strong, while it was something we worked very hard to secure a lot of tap lines… knowing everyone was in the same boat, I didn’t sweat it too-too badly,” Rob said.
Increasing canning has been a learning curve as the heightened pace has required them to get used to a new rhythm for ordering supplies, since they’re using them up faster, according to sales and marketing manager Brian Parda.
The loss of taproom sales wasn’t a significant dent in the company’s bottom line, North said, because they get maybe two or three percent of their revenues from it and mostly see it as a way to build their brand.
But they still offered curbside pickup and deliveries during the closures.
Lisa North said one of the things they did to maintain the brand-building aspect of the taproom was to start offering weekly virtual trivia nights every Thursday. Their usual trivia hosts from Dolph Hoyt Presents come into the taproom and broadcast live with the Great North logo behind them.
And she said they have been doing more work to help the local community, such as donating a portion of their proceeds during the first four weeks of the shutdowns to the NH Food Bank, located just up the road.
They also participated in a virtual beer collaboration with Woodstock Inn Brewery, Moat Mountain Brewing Company, Smuttynose Brewing Company and Great Rhythm Brewing Company to make a pale ale called Gratuity (4.5 percent).
All of the proceeds from those sales went to support the New Hampshire Hospitality Employee Relief Fund.
In total, Great North was able to donate $10,023.95 to the relief fund, the company announced June 5.
Parda said brewers, supplies, distributors and the liquor commission all worked at unprecedented speeds to whip together the collaboration beer in just a couple of weeks.
“We were able to execute that pretty quick,” Parda said.
Gratuity was brewed with Galaxy, Amarillo and Lemon Drop hops. The brewers put their heads together to plan the beer, some contributed ingredients. Great North brewed and distributed it.
Meanwhile, Rob said they noticed canned beer sales have been trending towards more of their core labels, such as Great North IPA (7 percent), Robust Vanilla Porter (RVP) (6.5 percent), Tie Dyed pale ale (5.4 percent) and Moose Juice IPA (6.2 percent).
They’re still coming out with unique labels, like their barrel-aged barleywine BFD 25 (Brew Free or Die) but they’re producing a little less of each batch, and producing more of the flagship labels.
For example, Rob said they made 40 to 60 barrels of Northbound American Pilsner (4.6 percent) last year. This year, they limited production to a single 20-barrel batch.
Last year, the company installed a lot of new equipment, increasing from 10 tanks to 28 in two installation phases in February and July. Rob said that increased their fermentation capacity from about 460 barrels to 1,200.
That included an investment in a 2.5 barrel (75 gallon) brew system that they plan on using to make very small batches of beer variants that will be sold exclusively out of the taproom.
So far, overall beer production is up over last year, but Rob said it is difficult to make an apples-to-apples comparison since they could not meet every demand opportunity last year due to the lost production time during the equipment upgrades.
Rob said they explored the possibility of constructing an outside deck while closed, but they ran into some permitting and parking issues with that plan. So, instead they are looking into better integrating the interior and exterior flow with new sliding outside doors.
Upcoming Event: Great North plans to open its tasting room and patio on June 18 (with reduced seating) and will have its usual Dolph Hoyt Thursday Virtual Great North Trivia live stream (and live) starting at 7 p.m. Great North Aleworks is located at 1050 Hoyt Ave., Unit 14, in Manchester. Contact them at 603-858-5789.
Got brew news? Ryan Lessard can’t wait to hear it. Reach him at [email protected].