Episode 003: Multiple Tasting Rooms

Episode 003 - Multiple Tasting Rooms

Part 1 of 2

Our guest is Trent Yackzan of Sudwerk Brewing Company in the Davis, CA.

I first met Trent in January of 2016 at a San Francisco Beer Week event called SourFest. Of the 38 sours, my favorite beer was Trent’s barrel aged sour doppelbock called Uncle Fester.

Sudwerk was founded in 1989 by Trent’s grandfather Dean and a partner.

After graduating from Cal Poly in 2008, Trent and his friend Ryan Fry returned to Davis and started working at the brewery. They treated it like a start-up and since taking over ownership, Trent and Ryan have infused Sudwerk with energy and innovation.

University of California – Davis
Master Brewers Program

Sudwerk [pronunciation]:

“Southern factory is the translation but it also a slang term for local brewery. Every town in Germany…had it’s own local sudwerk.”

Marketing Strategy

Multiple tasting rooms in key areas

“Opening their tasting room – The Dock Store – has been a huge marketing arm of our company. You come to the bar and our staff is really educated on beer. We’re always going to have something experimental on in the brewery, we have 5 taps that are always rotating, based on the customer’s response are further developed into wide scale releases.”

“The goal is, what you create at The Dock, our tasting room, we can translate that out in the marketplace. Bring that experience to people.”

“One of our long term strategies is to open up more of these in key areas throughout the state, be it San Diego or the San Francisco area, so we can bring that experience on a greater level to different locations and create almost a hub for our brand.”

Marketing The Brew Case History

The Ambassador Program

“We’ll get a group of people, we’ll take them through a training at the brewery, we take them through a tour, take them through a tasting…at events the Ambassador has to represent the brand, gain contacts, tell people where they can buy our beer…”

Marketing the Brew Lesson Learned

“It’s our job to build the brand. It’s our job to sell the beer. It’s our job to make sure the quality of the beer is always spot on.”

Always control your brand experience

Make sure you’re consistent

Make sure you trademark everything
Don’t assume distributors are going to sell your beer

On the importance of an in-house sales team

“There was a time, I’d say late 90’s, Tony Magee, owner of Lauganitas, which is really only an hour or so away from Davis in Petaluma, was nearing his own capacity and was looking for some contract space to fulfill demand so he could have some time to expand and he came and talked to my Grandpa’s business partner. They were sharing stories about how tough it is to run a brewery, how they never have enough money to do what they want to do, and my Grandpa’s business partner was saying ‘I can’t afford sales guys so I only have one sales guy. That’s all I have – that’s all I can afford.’ And Tony Magee said “Yeah, you know I can’t afford sales guys either. I can only afford four, but I have eight.’”