The Coronavirus Diaries: March 22, 2020
As the world deals with the unfolding crisis of the COVID-19 coronavirus, we are all working through our own experiences. Over the coming weeks and months, I will post the reflections of different brewers as they try to save their businesses while balancing the safety and financial well-being of their employees.
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Today I have the update from one brewery that has had a slightly different experience. Zoiglhaus Brewing is part of a group of three breweries, including Ascendant (formerly Pints) in Old Town and Ponderosa in Albuquerque. Alan Taylor, whom I spoke to, is the founder of Zoiglhaus and oversees brewing at the three breweries, but they were backed financially by Chad Rennaker, a Portland-based real estate developer. Ponderosa and Ascendant have breweries, but sell only out of the pub. Zoiglhaus has a brewpub but also cans their beer and sold about 2,500 barrels last year.
Alan started out by describing how things began to unfold for him. (He was too busy to write a missive, so I called him.) He mentioned that when the NBA shut down, that was a “flashing red light” for him.
Alan with an ultra-hazy. (Actually the pour from a fermenter)
"At that point I just started thinking of Ascendant shutting down completely--which we've done. I was expecting draft to shut down. We'd gotten some emails back and forth from Maletis, our Portland-Metro area distributor, saying we're not going to need as much draft, so keep an eye on your draft numbers. Then came the order to shut down restaurants and bars, and then obviously draft was dead. We're just caretaking [existing] beers at Ascendant until they're done. We'll have the brite tanks full, beers carbonated, and then whatever's in the fermenter we'll just use those as unitanks and keep them cold.
“Yesterday I laid off three brewers from the Zoiglhaus/Ascendant projects. There were five of us in Portland, and now we're down to two. We were actually interviewing to hire before all this started up; two weeks ago we had a bunch of interviews and then this hit. Then right before I talked to you I called down and talked to my Albuquerque brewer, and they're also in the same situation with the restaurants and pubs. He will go from a salaried full-time position to part-time hourly until this is over and also just caretake the beers that are in fermentation. It's complicated because each state has different regulations on that. New Mexico's website crashed because of all the people trying to figure out unemployment."
Package Sales Actually Up
This company is unusual in that it has three breweries with different configurations. The Albuquerque outpost is a brewpub, Ascendant is a brewpub but has one product (Awesome Sauce, a hazy) that just went into cans at the end of February, while Zoiglhaus is a bigger brewery that sells a significant amount of its product on grocery shelves. Alan picks it up.
"So packaged product is actually going ahead faster than it was before. Based on conversations with multiple distributors, packaged sales are up about 20% across the board right now. That makes total sense because people can still go to supermarkets. We just rolled out the Awesome Sauce and we have 183 placements for that beer, and that's even before the chain stores start pulling it in. The chain stores pushed back their spring sets--they're supposed to be April 1--and they pushed them back a bit. So Awesome Sauce is selling really well, Pilsner is also moving well--it's up quite a bit. So Maletis is optimistic about keeping packaged sales going. At least we diversified enough that we're not just a pub-only brewery, which is just brutal for everyone involved in those. And I am experiencing that first hand myself.”
The Gravity of Things
Alan told a story like others I’ve been hearing. He runs a business, but this pandemic has caused him to see it in a different, more important, light.
“I remember back to one time when we were having a Christmas party at Widmer. I was standing and looking at hundreds of people at this party. I was standing there and talking to Rob and it just hit me: 'Man, you guys are supporting every one of these families. What you're doing is supporting all these people.' I wasn't trying to freak him out, but I asked, 'Do you ever get freaked out about that?' I recall Rob's reply, which was basically, ‘Yeah. I do.' Rob is just such a sweetheart. 'Yeah, it kind of freaks me out sometimes,' was the gist of his reply, but I could tell he was also very proud of what he and his family had built. There was a lot of snow when I was working there, and whenever there was snow, Rob would be the one out there shoveling so the truckers could come in and load up beer. He was full-on invested. I think back to that and what would I do? What is my responsibility to people?”
"We communicated internally multiple times a day as the situation was evolving and have come up with the best solution we have available, which is still seriously awful. We didn't have the business to support our staff. It wasn't our fault, but it still was a major letdown. I did not enjoy letting these people go. It felt like shit. They said, 'We get it. Just let us know when we can come in--we're here. We can come in for a half a day, a day, whatever you need. You're lucky when you can find staff like that. I'll probably be getting back up to 12-hour days. It wouldn't surprise me if that's the case. We've got flexibility; if I get sick we have two other trained brewers we can bring in. We're only going to be brewing at Zoiglhaus, and we'll be brewing sixty to eighty barrels a week. Which is great. But that was so hard.”
COVER PHOTO: BREWPUBLIC (edited)