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Craft breweries in the Tri-Cities are finding new ways to get their beer to thirsty customers.
With bars and tasting rooms closed, growler fills suspended and sales limited to walk-in customers buying canned and bottled beverages to take home, several are going online and doing deliveries.
In the past week, several breweries, including Bakery, Moody Ales, Twin Sales and Yellow Dog in Port Moody, Mariner Brewing in Coquitlam and Tinhouse in Port Coquitlam, have started offering their products online, delivered right to the front door of their customers.
It has been a scramble, said Andrea MacIntosh, one of the partners at Tinhouse, which opened last October.
The brewery that’s located just off the Traboulay PoCo Trail, made the decision last week to suspend growler fills for the safety of its staff and customers. But as the COVID-19 crisis escalated through the weekend and the threshold for group gatherings diminished, MacIntosh said it was clear the company had to step up its efforts.
“It’s not the right time to encourage people to come out and sell them a beer,” she said. “It’s a bit of a moral obligation to the community.”
But the giant kettles in the back of the warehouse are still brewing, the tanks are full and the beer already packaged in cans doesn’t have an indefinite shelf life.
So on Monday, MacIntosh got to work. Using her own knowledge of point-of-sale and accounting software, she plugged into the Square online payment system the brewery used in its earliest days before it was set up to handle cash transactions and built a digital storefront in about an hour.
MacIntosh said initially Tinhouse is only selling beer by the flat (24 cans), to make the delivery as efficient and cost-effective as possible. Other local breweries are offering as little as a four-packs but have implemented minimum orders for free delivery.
“It gives us an opportunity to sell product and have revenue come in,” MacIntosh said, adding response has been positive, with some customers teaming up with friends or neighbours to split an order for a flat.
She said the legal requirements to be able to deliver beer have been tricky at times, as the customer has to be home so ID can be checked to verify they’re of legal age. And in this time of social distancing, sometimes that means recording a driver’s licence number through a window.
Delivery schedules are rotated through available staff members on designated days, MacIntosh said, adding the company tries to fulfill orders within 24 hours.
“Once people have spent their money, it’s not unreasonable to expect the product quickly,” she said.
And who knows, once the pandemic crisis has passed, online sales and home delivery may present a permanent new business opportunity for local breweries, MacIntosh said.
“This could be a feasible way of doing business,” she said. “Maybe it becomes the Amazon model for selling beer.”
Read more of our COVID-19 coverage here.
