Flagships shmagships: Why WeldWerks Brewing brewed over 100 different beers this year

Earlier today we posted insights gleaned from DSM’s survey of beer drinkers across the globe. A standout stat to us is the high percentage of U.S. consumers stating they are more into variety with craft beer as a whole than concentrating on any one brand. This parallels with the “rotation nation” market moniker and the trend of flagships being less important in 2018 than they were just a few years ago.

This market trend might not be a passing fad, and it’s causing many a craft brewer to take a serious look at their approach to the market. You don’t have to overextend yourself like Tallgrass Brewing to run into problems. Just being stagnant in your approach or misreading the customer’s mind will leave you behind in a 6,600+ brewery world.

Which is why this news item about Colo.-based WeldWerks Brewing caught our eye. The owner of the brewery called his team into a room to have one of those conversations, and what emerged was an entirely new plan of attack for the market that would also boost creativity — brew more than 100 different beers in this calendar year.

From the Greeley Tribune:

“So I asked them, if we were going to be a new brewery in 2018, what would we do?” [Neil] Fisher said. “If we didn’t have those constraints, what kind of beer would we make?”

The answer was not only innovative and creative, but also ambitious: Brew 100 new beers in 2018. At the end of July, WeldWerks had added 76 recipes to its portfolio and is on pace to brew closer to 120 new beers before year’s end.

“It wasn’t even about thinking outside of the box; it was more think as if there is no box,” Fisher said. “We imploded our whole system. It was about innovation through creative destruction.”

Fisher notes that this ambitious brewing calendar was a one-year deal, and brought its own new challenges, but the boundary pushing exercise certainly infused a new excitement and demanded a commitment to innovation that wasn’t there under the old mindset. They get a CBB cheers for trying something bold to stay relevant, interesting and in business in this competitive market. Check out the full story for more details.