If you\u2019re one of the 24 million annual tourists flocking to Austin over the past six years, you\u2019ve probably heard of Austin Beerworks.<\/p>\n
In a sense, they\u2019re still the newbies on the scene; and yet, \u00a0Austin Beerworks \u2014 with its gold teardrop logo \u2014 has quickly become about as patriotic as Lone Star.<\/p>\n
Although Austin is still a relatively small city, the Live Music Capital of the World boasts over 500 bars, and a downtown zip code with the highest number of bars per capita in the entire country. Swing by for a visit, and you\u2019ll be hard pressed to find a place without at least one of Austin Beerworks \u201ccore four\u201d beers on rotation.<\/p>\n
Their sleek iconic teardrop, designed by Christian Helms, can be found on tap handles across the city, \u00a0and on 6-packs of cans, stacked high at the end caps of almost every grocery store. uShip<\/a> had a few questions for the Beer Giant.<\/p>\n For now, this precious unicorn is only available in the greater Austin area, with the exception of national beer events, where it consistently rakes in the awards. Most notably, they won the World Beer Cup for their Black Thunder \u2014 a German-style Schwarzbier beer that went up against several high profile German breweries.<\/p>\n Speaking of winning, Austin Beerworks<\/a> has also won the hearts of all of us here at uShip. \u00a0Their bold, yet crowd pleasing characteristics make them the perfect choice for company events. Their playful vibes and dedication to community fall right in line with what we\u2019re all about here. So we were really stoked when they came to us for help with shipping over two tons of beer to DC for the Craft Brewery Conference in April.<\/p>\n Within a week, Austin Beerworks was able to find the right less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier<\/a> at the right price to transport their three pallets of beer over 1,500 miles \u2014 and it went off without a hitch.<\/p>\n Austin Beerworks just underwent a $5 million expansion, making it appear more like one of those huge west coast breweries than their original manual operation with a 12 barstool tasting room. Six years ago, the beer was hand canned by the owners themselves – and their army of friends who\u2019d volunteer in shifts for the opportunity to take home six packs of low-fills.<\/p>\n Now, the brewery has expanded to include six fermentation vessels at 240 barrels each, four brewhouse vessels at 60 barrels each, a 2,000 sf space dedicated to mixed fermentation, a canning line handling 200 cans per minute, and a tasting room that comfortably fits at least 250 guests. It\u2019s really a sight to be seen, and a great place for us to take a mid-morning break from the office.<\/p>\n Upon walking in, we were greeted by Brewmaster Will Golden. After pouring us a sample of his new creation – using hops so new they literally don\u2019t have names \u2014 he was kind enough to sit down and talk with us about the beer business, as well as a bit about the transportation industry.<\/p>\n We dove right in with the million dollar question.<\/p>\n No unicorns were harmed in the taking of this photograph.<\/p>\n ABW: As of now\u2026 no. We\u2019re a wholly local brand. We like sticking to Austin and surrounding areas so we can self-distribute. In Texas, you\u2019re allowed to move up to 40,000 barrels per year without a distribution partnership. We\u2019re fine with that for now. Besides, beer is best consumed at the point of production. We currently have a fleet of 11 vans and four\u00a0box trucks dedicated to distribution.<\/p>\n ABW: One thing\u2019s for sure. The cost of shipping is wholly overlooked every time we\u2019re budgeting for new projects. You always forget about special permits and regulations on oversized shipments. We\u2019ve shipped used equipment from Odell\u2019s, Sweetwater, and Karl Strauss. Now, we pretty much stick to buying and shipping new stuff. It\u2019s funny when friends of the brewery see big pieces of equipment we\u2019re shipping as they\u2019re going down the highway.<\/p>\n Once, we shipped an order of 700 new kegs to the brewery. They were supposed to be palletized and wrapped, and yet, when they got here, it seemed like someone had just opened the shipping container and dumped the kegs into the truck like a box of root beer barrel candies. It was a mess.<\/p>\n ABW: This year, we\u2019ll be at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver the first week of October. We\u2019re also doing the CANvitational in Indianapolis, and Sierra Nevada\u2019s Beer Camp.<\/p>\n ABW: Man.. It\u2019s all so blurry. But definitely the Great American Beer Festival. It\u2019s just nice to get up there every year and see 5,000 of your closest buddies in the brewing industry.<\/p>\n ABW: Just like our sign above the tap room says, we wanted to expand on our goal of \u201cQuality of Beer. Quality of Life.\u201d We didn\u2019t just want to ramp up volume. We want to grow organically and be able to control our growth. The plan is to keep to 5,000 barrels of growth per year. Obviously, we can do a lot more than that, but it\u2019s not our intention. We believe it quality over quantity all the way.<\/p>\n ABW: The 99 pack was the best worst idea we ever had. It was a great marketing tactic, but it was super manual, and we had to modify the vans for delivery. It only lasted a month. Since then, we\u2019ve talked about producing some again for charity work.<\/p>\n ABW: We operate on the same principles, but just with nicer toys. We adhere to the same quality levels as we grow. We definitely had to become more professional. We\u2019re not just a couple of buddies hanging around making beer together anymore. There\u2019s been a steep learning curve on the HR and people management front, especially as we continue to add more employees. We\u2019re working on it though.<\/p>\n ABW: Yes. So when we started out, we had three business plans. We had a worst case \u201c ship is sinking\u201d plan, the \u201ceverything is fine\u201d plan, and a best case scenario plan. Our best case scenario plan had sales goals set for our first five years, which we broke in our first six months. We thought that selling 10,000 barrels a year in Austin was unachievable. Right now, we\u2019re doing 20,000 a year, and we still have unsatisfied accounts asking for more. Our sales guys have a unique job because it\u2019s more like account management\u2026 working to maintain relationships and stay relevant. We\u2019ve got a lot of new competition out there.<\/p>\n ABW: Adam Debower is the plant manager. He\u2019s in charge of maintenance, and he\u2019s also on the board of the Texas Craft Brewers Guild. Mike McGovern is head of distribution, finances, and HR. Mike Graham is in charge of marketing, sales, and compliance reporting.<\/p>\n ABW: The four of us all recognize each other’s strengths and weaknesses, so there\u2019s a clear definition of workload. Partnerships fail when everyone is trying to be \u201cthe face.\u201d<\/p>\n ABW: When talking about success, people usually discount luck. There\u2019s no magic bullet. It\u2019s just being cognizant of the feeling of the city and making something the city can be proud of. It\u2019s also being unrelenting in quality. The only thing we take seriously is our beer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Deep in the heart of Texas, there\u2019s a little brewery hell-bent on excellence. If you\u2019re one of the 24 million annual tourists flocking to Austin over the past six years, you\u2019ve probably heard of Austin Beerworks. In a sense, they\u2019re still the newbies on the scene; and yet, \u00a0Austin Beerworks \u2014 with its gold teardrop… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":7153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[293],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-case-studies"],"acf":{"blog_post_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"blog_post_entry_footer","blog_post_entry_footer_cta":[{"blog_post_entry_footer_cta_url":"https:\/\/www.uship.com\/ltl-freight\/?r=5666457","blog_post_entry_footer_cta_text":"Get LTL Rates Now","blog_post_entry_footer_onclick":""}]}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ushipblogsubd.wpengine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}With such widespread popularity among locals and travelers alike, the question on everyone\u2019s tongue is, \u00a0\u201cWhen will ABW expand distribution?\u201d<\/h2>\n
We were so excited to do business with the local legend, that we decided to pop by the brewery to chat and celebrate.<\/h2>\n
uShip: \u00a0Does ABW have plans on expanding distribution?<\/h2>\n
uShip: Does Austin Beerworks have any interesting shipping stories?<\/h2>\n
uShip: Y\u2019all just used uShip to ship a ton of beer to a conference in DC. What else is on the national or international agenda this year that our readers can look forward to?<\/h2>\n
uShip: Which craft beer events have been the most fun, and why?<\/h2>\n
uShip: The brewery just went through a major expansion! What were your goals from this project?<\/h2>\n
uShip: Will there be space for a 99 pack canning line? How did you transport and distribute the 99 pack?<\/h2>\n
uShip: You just celebrated your 6th anniversary. A lot has happened since then! How would you describe the brewery you were back in 2011 versus the brewery you are now in 2017?<\/h2>\n
uShip: Has ABW exceeded the expectations of the original business plan?<\/h2>\n
uShip: There are four founders. Who does what around here? Will, you\u2019re the brewmaster of course…<\/h2>\n
uShip: Clearly you all wear a lot of hats. How do you handle working with friends?<\/h2>\n
uShip: What\u2019s the secret to your success?<\/h2>\n